This chapter is dedicated to specifying why it is worth trying to address the elusive and neglected topic of civil society’s everyday associational life. It begins by referring back to the rich intellectual traditions of sociological studies that accompanied the development of the Italian third sector, to show the centrality they assigned to everyday associational life (without ever naming it as such). It then briefly retraces the recent history of the Italian third sector, focusing especially on one specific point: the shift in the perspectives adopted when looking at third-sector groups, in particular the incremental neglect of everyday associational life that has accompanied these groups’ growing economic relevance and institutionalisation. It also discusses the distance between the ‘new third sector’ of the 1980s and today’s groups, looking in particular at changes in the political and institutional context, which is moving towards increased subsidiarity. In a nutshell, the chapter highlights the transformations that have taken place over the last forty years both in the categories and narratives used to conceive the Italian third sector and in the regulatory frames to which it is subjected.