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The papers presented at the conference cut across five thematic areas, including Democracy and Dialogue Engagements in Africa, Historical Perspectives of Democracy and Dialogue in Africa, Biblical Hermeneutics of Dialogue in Africa, Youth Participation in Dialogue and Democracy in Africa, and Indigenous Perspectives on Dialogue and Peace in Africa. The nexus between religion and democracy has hardly been adequately explored. This conference was one of the high points of Dr. Effiong Udo's sabbatical research initiative with the Dialogue Institute (D.I.). [Extracted from the article]

This article explores historians' role in shaping public policy amid crises through the programs of the Idaho State Historical Society (ISHS). ISHS navigated the post-2008 recession, aligning with the History Relevance Campaign to redefine history's societal value and develop a legislative outreach program. This article encapsulates the ISHS's journey and history's power--through the agency's new briefing paper program--to inform, unite, guide policy, and promote informed governance. The article describes the author's workflow, which features traditional research methodology and adaptable projectmanagement philosophies and stresses the value of searchable research libraries as a framework for historians to manage multiple projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTIMATE GEOPOLITICS: Love, Territory, and the Future on India's Northern Threshold: By SARA SMITH. In a vivid ethnographic study of the Ladakh region in northern India, Smith provides an intricate examination of how community tensions are shaped by ethnic identities, family planning, and majoritarian politics - and one incendiary moment on a public street. Though I Intimate Geopolitics i is overtly a study of Ladakhi territorial politics as related to family dynamics, the commentary on sectarianism is relevant beyond the confines of the distant province. [Extracted from the article]

The book "British India, White Australia: Overseas Indians, Intercolonial Relations and the Empire" by Kama Maclean explores the historical relationship between Australia, India, and Britain in the post-Federation era. The author examines how the White Australia Policy influenced and was influenced by racial constructs, Australian self-interest, and British pragmatism. Drawing on archival resources from India, Australia, and the UK, the book provides a pre-history of the current bilateral relationship between Australia and India. It also highlights alternative viewpoints and counter-narratives of agency and equality, shedding light on the experiences of the Indian diaspora in Australia. [Extracted from the article]

After a 14-year gap, Australia's 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper advanced a 'comprehensive framework to advance Australia's security and prosperity in a contested and competitive world' (Australian Government 2017a, "2017 Foreign Policy White Paper." ., v). Focused on regional stability, partnerships and global cooperation, it identifies 'risks and opportunities' in an altered external environment. In this article, we argue that the neglect of gender and conflict prevention in the White Paper has implications for its stated aspirations with regard to peace and security. This is striking considering the attention that gender—particularly in the context of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda—has received in other policy areas and documents. Building on feminist security scholarship, conflict prevention approaches, and bringing in civil society voices, we argue that the White Paper contains a gendered, masculinist logic, separating domestic and international issues and paying insufficient attention to the structural and systemic causes of conflict. This article pursues a gender analysis in order to illuminate the gaps present in the White Paper and its limited vision of security and makes the case that conflict prevention from a gender perspective is key to sustainable peace, security and national interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five years ago, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed the ventures of Mossack Fonseca and their partners in different jurisdictions through the Panama Papers. This scandal unveiled the suspicious, unlawful, and unethical activities of multiple members of civil society and the political sphere. The Panama Papers intensified the debate about the use of offshore companies as facades to disguise financial and other crimes, and raised questions about the effectiveness of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations. The scandal proved that illegalities were still being committed despite these international standards. After the leak, several nations tightened their Anti Money Laundering laws to curb the misuse of corporations by requiring the disclosure of the ultimate owner and by incentivizing the transnational collaboration.. This essay questions the adequacy of policies adopted by different jurisdictions after the media disclosure that are aimed at creating a more transparent corporate business model and toward preventing corporations from concealing illegalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the evolution of the European Union's development policy in relation to civil society. Based on a review of overall policy trends, strategies and practices in Central Asia, it demonstrates how the EU's development policy has gradually moved from a focus on European NGOs towards civil society organisations, broadly defined and increasingly associated with the private sector and local authorities. While the EU's policy recognises the intrinsic value of civil society in all its diversity and promotes partnership, its operational practices show a pragmatic preference for working with professionalised organisations in service delivery roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines debates relating to international aid, civil society, and natural resource conflicts, through a case study of conflict sensitivity programming in Cambodia. The paper highlights the value of confrontational activism, yet the practice of conflict sensitivity can dissuade such activism. Embedded in the country's history and politics, the paper analyses the conflict sensitivity work of an international non-government organisation, revealing significant community-level success, including women's empowerment, but limitations in addressing systemic drivers of conflict. The case study also reveals how the application of conflict sensitivity contributed towards conflict and risk avoidance. In a global context of prevalent natural resource conflicts and related violence, this paper calls for critical reflection on the practice of conflict sensitivity, which continues to gain popularity globally. For development institutions and practitioners, conflict sensitivity has extensive value, but it must be implemented in ways that do not inadvertently dissuade more emancipatory civil society activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been increasing attention to legal and political contention concerning refugees and asylum seekers in cities. However, there are further opportunities to analyze the relationship between civil society litigation and state institutions in Global South cities. In this paper, I analyze civil society litigation to re-open Refugee Reception Offices (RROs) in South Africa. Primarily based on legal research, I argue that civil society litigation to re-open RROs in specific cities represents an advocacy strategy to contextualize national rights and policies within urban spaces. The paper contributes to broader discussions on civil society advocacy and rights and governance in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the long-term trajectory and the recent acceleration of the conflict over the rule of law in the EU. It focusses on the motivation of the two governments in Hungary and Poland to challenge European core values increasingly aggressively even directly at EU level despite the threat of significant material costs to both countries. Putting forward a Gramscian understanding, we argue that this radicalization is the result of a counter-hegemonic strategy that aims at replacing the liberal order with a new, nationalist, ultraconservative, Christian order on domestic and European levels. The paper traces core elements of this strategy which are either disputed or underestimated in existing literature, most importantly the pursuit of a core ideology and the massive and long-term investment into winning moral and cultural leadership through the penetration of civil society which precedes and complements electoral strategies and autocratic institution building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue examines environmental governance, conceptualized as environmental protections, support for sustainable development, and the regulation of large-scale development projects. Through analysis of dynamics during the commodities super-cycle of the 2000s–2010s, contributors explore the multifaceted ways that societal actors interact with the state to support, oppose, or modify environmental governance, with a focus on communities impacted by export activities and economic elites who favor their expansion. Several papers seek to understand the governance of sectors—mining, oil, and soy. Others begin with natural areas threatened by development—urban wetlands and forests. As a collection, the papers reveal three commonalities that affect the extent to which environmental governance institutions address demands of impacted communities: (1) the question of whether a policymaking process takes place in reaction to mobilizing, or whether it proactively engages environmental questions as they pertain to local populations; (2) strategies by civil society, and above all impacted residents, to ensure the implementation of environmental policies; and (3) debates over knowledge, including community efforts to harness expertise and information to counter paradigms advanced by business actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper examines the conceptual and legal aspects of project-oriented public administration, focusing on the Russian experience and comparing it with practices from the USA, UK, and Malaysia from 2011 to 2020. The study aims to identify specific features of project-oriented public administration, provide a comparative analysis of methodologies for managing national projects, and formulate recommendations for improving legal mechanisms based on national experiences from both developed and developing states. The research highlights the formation and implementation of public administration aimed at realizing national projects, emphasizing the establishment of public and legal foundations for their implementation. Using a comparative case study approach, the study employs document analysis, secondary sources, and expert interviews to examine the legal frameworks, organizational structures, implementation challenges, and performance metrics of project management in the selected countries. The findings reveal significant differences in the legal frameworks and implementation practices across the four countries, with Russia showing a fragmented legal framework primarily governed by federal laws and presidential decrees. In contrast, the UK and USA have more comprehensive legal frameworks with detailed regulations, and Malaysia's framework focuses on government-led initiatives with clear procedural regulations. The paper concludes by proposing recommendations for improving the legal and institutional frameworks for projectoriented public administration in Russia, including systematizing and consolidating its legal framework, improving coordination among government levels, investing in capacity building, and enhancing engagement with the private sector and civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the years following the 2011 overthrow of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the international democracy promotion community enthusiastically embraced Tunisia’s burgeoning civil society. Ten years later, however, when the democratically-elected president Kais Saied began to dismantle the country’s democratic institutions, civil society largely stood on the side-lines. This paper examines what happened during the intervening decade that left civil society’s international funders so disappointed. The paper finds that three key changes over time help explain the gap between donor expectations and what civil society ultimately delivered: the development of an antagonistic and uncooperative relationship between civil society and the state; differences between Tunisian civil society activists and international donors on the types of issues they prioritized and other matters; and an overall lack of trust and lack of cohesion among civil society activists in working towards common goals – despite some successful coalition work around particular legislation – which came on full display after July 2021. This paper contributes to studies of Tunisian civil society’s development process in the context of its transition experience between 2011 and 2021, and of how and why donors continue to ‘miss the mark’ in their efforts to support civil society as a means of promoting democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detrimental effects of tax havens on civil society first came to light in 2000 when the British organization OXFAM published a report suggesting that these jurisdictions cost developing countries at least fifty billion dollars a year in lost revenue. The aim of this study is to investigate, analyze and provide evidence for the link between tax havens and international tax evasion, corruption and money laundering, and their implications for ‘tax justice’. The methodology used is empirical and theoretical, based on case studies and analysis of documents presented and published by various sources. The conclusions highlight the effectiveness of reports and leaks that have occurred between 2007 and 2021, which have exposed the functioning of international tax corruption schemes of large fortunes or companies related to tax havens and have made it possible to open files and institute precise investigations by national public administrations. The 2016 Panama Papers and the 2021 Pandora Papers stand out as the most relevant leaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly treatments of the human rights agenda tend to posit civil society organisations (CSOs) as its defender and the state and mainstream political actors as its violators. Even when raising the problem of an 'uncivil society', the literature labels these CSOs as reactive and hostile to the human rights agenda they perceive as 'Western' and 'foreign'. I argue that these treatments of the issue overlook another phenomenon: the emergence of CSOs that adopted the language of human rights and participated in its formal processes yet subtly redefined, subverted, and undermined the core commitments of the human rights agenda. This paper discusses such developments by referencing right-wing non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Malaysia that redefined the parameters of the human rights agenda to undercut state commitments to protect religious freedom, sexuality rights, and gender minorities. Through actor and discourse tracing, this paper illustrates how right-wing Islamist NGOs employed a novel two-pronged strategy that no longer openly repudiated the human rights agenda but continued to erode, eviscerate, and reformulate its contents and principles. The first prong involved institutional measures of 'getting in' to gain legitimacy by participating as a stakeholder within local and international human rights processes. The second prong encompassed social strategies of 'pushing out', whereby actors and their networks mobilised populist pressure to expose, ostracise, and subvert established human rights norms, institutions, and actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption represents one of the most widespread phenomena worldwide, which has devastating effects on state institutions and society. As such, this phenomenon represents a real challenge to deal with it. This paper explores the importance of anti-corruption efforts of Republic of North Macedonia as a prerequisite for EU integration and the challenges this country faces in this process. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the recent events in the judicial and the political scene which greatly affect the country's efforts in the fight against corruption. In this study, a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods are used. In the quantitative phase, data will be collected from various sources, including official reports and surveys Additionally, a legal analysis is conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of anticorruption measures enacted by the legislator. The findings reveal a concerning interference of politics in the functioning of the judiciary, which negatively affects the country's path towards EU membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the construction and maintenance of Chinese Han Buddhist temples in modern China against the backdrop of societal transformation. Initially, it analyzes the profound impact of social changes since the mid-19th century on Buddhist monasteries, including political turmoil, economic development, and urbanization. Furthermore, the paper explores how temples were reconstructed and revitalized within this historical context, highlighting the monastic community's unwavering commitment to protecting the Dharma and ensuring its enduring presence. Additionally, this paper also explores the role of charismatic monks in enhancing the sanctity of temples and the influence of Buddhist institutional frameworks on the dynamics of state and society. The study employs a multifaceted analysis to understand the complex interplay between temple construction, economic development, and the cultural heritage of Buddhism in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between modernization and religion is contested, with the literature differing in how and in what ways religion helps or hinders countries' social, economic, and political development. This paper draws upon the history of Christianity in South Korea to critically explore the links between religion and modernization. It makes two arguments. First, discussions of the link between religion and modernization frequently employ static definitions of religion, but Christianity is characterized by oscillations between worldly (institutionalizing) and unworldly (countercultural) impulses that theoretically make very different contributions to social, economic, and political development. Second, in the case of South Korea, it is shown that both impulses have made vital contributions to the country's modernization at different times. This suggests that the dynamic tug-of-war between the institutional and countercultural facets of Korean Christianity, although problematic for individual believers and religious leaders, helped it become an important contributor to the country's success story. However, this paper concludes on a cautionary note by warning that extreme instances of these impulses have caused cleavages between Christianity and the Korean state and society and could undermine its future contributions. This suggests that diversity and toleration—a hallmark of Korean Christianity—will continue to be the best pathway forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can NGOs implement rights-based gender equality programs when donor focus on the area is shrinking? This paper explores how one development program has made strategic choices incorporating the interests of multiple stakeholders, addressing donor interests while simultaneously addressing the needs of local communities. It examines the evolution of BRAC's Polli Shomaj, a rural women's civil society organisation designed to challenge power structures through collective action in rural Bangladesh. It draws on interviews with program staff and existing program literature to find that over time, BRAC leadership has narrowed its program focus to shed its broad transformative agenda to focus solely on gender equality through a combination of service delivery and rights-based approaches. The paper suggests that while it is possible for NGOs to promote gender equality through a combination of rights-based and service-delivery approaches, greater focus is needed on challenging power structures to bring about lasting structural change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of standards to complement legislation is a prevalent regulatory technique in the EU, including in the telecommunications, information technology and broadcasting sectors, where the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standard Institute) plays a key role. In light of the recent reform of ETSI’s governance model in terms of its inclusiveness, this paper examines the role of societal stakeholders in ETSI’s standard-setting process through the lens of throughput legitimacy. In particular, by relying on desk research and semi-structured interviews conducted in 2020 and 2023, we analyse specific membership and voting rules of ETSI in order to discuss in detail the possibilities of effective participation for the so-called ‘Annex III organisations’. The paper shows that ‘Annex III organisations' have had limited participative possibilities in ETSI’s standard-setting process, entailing both institutional throughput and constructive throughput legitimacy issues. Although not fully, the recent reform of ETSI’s decision-making appears to tackle them to a certain extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the case for progressive unionism in Northern Ireland today. The paper locates the progressive currents within unionism and explains the forces that have frustrated their development. It contends that analysis of the leadership provided by unionists in civil society and the attitudinal profile of the pro-union electorate nonetheless signals the existence of space to cultivate more progressive forms of unionism. This challenges the largely negative appraisals of unionism in popular discourse. Unionism is shown to possess a diversity and potential that is often unrecognised. The paper therefore promotes a more sophisticated understanding of unionism and its possible political futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-conflict landscape of Bosnia and Herzegovina remains deeply fragmented, characterized by the interplay of international and domestic responses to atrocity crimes committed during the 1992–1995 war. The Dayton Peace Agreement established frameworks to address these atrocities but also entrenched ethnic divisions. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s judicial measures, led by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and domestic courts, aimed to establish accountability but faced significant challenges, including political polarization. Civil society organizations and cultural initiatives have played important roles, yet their efforts are often hindered with, for example, the continuity of ethnic grievances. Drawing on the EU cost Action ca18228 Scoping Survey on states’ interactions with international criminal justice, this paper explores how different actors in BiH navigated the responses to atrocity crimes and assesses what has been fulfilled or left unfulfilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines South Korean conglomerates’ strategies used to convey their interests as the interests of all. Their hegemonic strategy was one factor in overcoming the authority crisis triggered by bribery scandals in 2016–2017. They adopted strategies such as social contribution activities and implemented hegemonic strategies, involving (1) social movements and non-governmental organizations, (2) the media and publishing sectors, and (3) academia and the educational community. They funded pro-chaebol social movements and controlled the media through advertising and journalists. Conglomerates also used publishing companies to spread their ideas and developed think tanks. They advocated for owner management rights, tax cuts, deregulation, labour flexibility, and managed academics. They engaged in educating teachers, creating economics textbooks, and building university student networks. Although the strategies have yielded results, the resistance has not vanished. Through this study we can consider the significance of the authority crisis, hegemonic strategies, and capital-civil society relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractWhile it is obvious that the space for protests in Hong Kong has declined significantly, it is far less apparent how the political culture has been transformed. Based on an analytical framework using the Lefebvrian concept of space, the paper draws on the July 1st protest march to trace how the political space of the population has been reduced. Relatively quickly, Hong Kong has transformed from a vibrant civil society to one marked by fear and self-censorship similar to other authoritarian regimes. Following an expansion of protest space during the 2019 anti-extradition bill movement, the Chinese government has enacted a National Security Law to eliminate most political activism. The study shows the success of the government’s repression although the long-term impact is not yet clear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiji's multi-ethnic society is historically characterised by low levels of inter-ethnic trust and a segregated civil society, typified by low participation of youth, the poor, ethnic minorities, and less literate members of society. How does this actually existing civil society shape the social transactions, value subjectivities, norms and habits of citizenship bred through volunteering and other forms of civic engagement in these contexts? Drawing on data from a mixed method study on youth volunteering in Fiji, this paper interrogates prevailing normative assumptions on volunteerism's role in retooling civic renewal and citizenship. Being socially situated, the outcomes of youth volunteering vary. Specifically, youth volunteering in organisations that value inclusion has midwifed progressive citizenship values; while, participation in bonding type civil society reproduces exclusionary citizenship, social disparities and patterns of discrimination and privilege. The implication is that for volunteerism to produce desired progressive citizenship values and attitudes, civic organisations transmitting such values need to be specifically focussed on progressive goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on post-socialist civil society has focused on analysing the characteristics that explain (the lack of) civic strength. Although recent research has highlighted the rise of urban activism, it has failed to look more closely at the agency of actors. By focusing on informal groups and their engagement in public affairs in the aftermath of the 2019 local elections in Hungary, this paper seeks to unravel the civic strategies and narratives that underpin informal civic resistance to political and institutional pressures at a time when both local municipalities and civil society are experiencing a gradual loss of autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an original protest event dataset covering 30 European countries and the period 2000–2021, this paper studies the nature and drivers of protest mobilisation across three major crises that have hit European Member States (the Eurozone, refugee, and Covid crises). Contributing a crisis-comparative perspective to social movement research, we explore crisis mobilisation in three steps. First, looking at general protest trends throughout the past decade, we find that the overall level of protest declined significantly, and especially so after the Eurozone crisis. Second, we characterise crisis-specific protest in terms of the action forms and the actors involved. We find a high involvement of institutional actors in the Eurozone crisis, a high share of radical events in the refugee crisis, and a generally non-confrontational protest organised by civil society actors in the Covid crisis. Finally, we explain crisis-specific protest levels by examining the mobilising effect of grievances. More specifically, we study the impact of problem pressure (how hard countries were affected using economic, migration, and public health indicators) and political pressure from public opinion (the salience of crisis-specific issues) and show that both were important drivers in the three crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines Tianqiao, the largest commercial and entertainment centre, which underwent a significant transformation into the most popular public space in Republican Beijing. Spatial informality has often been overlooked in planning history, due to its deviation from traditional disciplinary norms, tools, and materials, yet it can offer valuable insights into Chinese urban public spaces and their social values. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including government documents, newspapers, social surveys, and personal records, this paper elucidates how everyday life and popular culture emerged as effective strategies for the poor population to exert their political power and passively resist the state's incomplete urban regularization efforts. This exemplifies a distinct type of Chinese public space that acts as a mediator between the state and society, particularly from a bottom-up perspective of urban modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The Posterior Fossa Society, an international multidisciplinary group, hosted its first global meeting designed to share the current state of the evidence across the multidisciplinary elements of pediatric post-operative cerebellar mutism syndrome (pCMS). The agenda included keynote talks from world-leading speakers, compelling abstract presentations and engaging discussions led by members of the PFS special interest groups. Methods: This paper is a synopsis of the first global meeting, a 3-day program held in Liverpool, England, UK, in September 2022. Results: Topics included nosology, patient and family experience, cerebellar modulation of cognition, and cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome. In addition, updates from large-scale studies were shared as well as abstracts across neuroradiology, neurosurgery, diagnosis/scoring, ataxia, and rehabilitation. Conclusions: Based on data-driven evidence and discussions, each special interest group created research priorities to target before the second global meeting, in the spring of 2024. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are international organisations' inclusive practices better than top-down ones? This article analyses an attempt to dismantle formal hierarchies to integrate civil society actors in development policymaking at the World Bank. It argues that inclusive practices have not fully challenged the coloniality of epistemic power in North/South relationships because they did not democratise the capacity to influence meaning negotiation. Not only did the Bank not fully democratize its formal policymaking processes, but when it includes NGOs, the coloniality of power mediates their capacity to influence meaning-making. Therefore, despite "better" (liberal) practices of inclusion, interactions between the organisation's employees and NGOS workers are still mediated through remnants of colonial and racial devaluation. By adopting an international practice-based approach, this article analyses colonial epistemic violence through informal rules and practices. The case studied is the inclusion of NGOs at the World Bank under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (1999–2014), with data from 31 publicly available interviews from the Bank's Oral History Project, 41 first-hand interviews (realised between 2017 and 2019), and archival material (speeches, memoirs, memos, and internal reports). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democratic theory asserts that the legitimacy of contemporary international and regional organisations rests on a degree of consensus expressed by various actors. The quest for diffuse support now extends beyond member states and explains the opening up of IOs/ROs to transnational civil society's participation. Despite both notions being familiar to IR scholars, a more precise understanding is needed concerning the relationship between each concept, particularly with regard to the inclusion/exclusion nexus and in the still neglected study of organisations in the global South. Using a practice perspective, the paper offers a contribution to that understanding by proposing a micro-level analysis of the behavioural practices of both ROs and TCS using MERCOSUR and the OAS as case studies. A nalysis of the opening up of these organisations, and the concurrent engagement of civil society reveals how inclusion is still both incomplete and unequal. Political liberalisation of ROs thus remains an unfulfilled mandate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Southern European societies such as the Portuguese, family and civil society play a relevant role in welfare policies, acting as complementary or supplementary 'safety-nets' to the state. In times of crises, migrants' access to healthcare is not only questioned but put at risk. This paper unveils the specific roles played by Civil Society Organisations' (CSOs) in providing healthcare to migrants in the aftermath of TROIKA in Portugal. By categorising different types of CSOs based on their articulation with the State, and the health service delivery model adopted, we show how CSOs configure themselves differently ranging from 'service delivers' to migrants' 'advocates', adopting responses that vary between aid to co-production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the correlation between patriarchal attitudes, women's asset ownership, participation in household decision-making and women's educational attainment across 27 post-communist countries. It hypothesizes that patriarchal attitudes hinder women's educational achievements while women's asset ownership and participation in household decision-making facilitate them. Utilizing regression analysis, marginal effects, post-regression simulation, the study tests and confirms these hypotheses. Results show that for every unit increase in women's asset ownership and participation in decision-making, the odds of achieving higher educational attainment increase by approximately 35.7% and 16.5%, respectively. Conversely, a unit increase in patriarchal attitudes decreases these odds by 15.8%. The findings underscore the importance of state and civil society commitment to addressing gender disparities in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, agribusiness expansion in Argentina involved the exponential growth of pesticide use throughout the country. Pesticide exposure has become a widespread problem in rural areas and farming towns, but protests and conflicts about this issue are the exception rather than the norm. Why? Based on archival work, interviews, and ethnographic observations, in this paper, we scrutinize pesticide governance at the subnational scale to elucidate this puzzle, focusing on a) informal arrangements (face-to-face negotiations between pesticide users and people affected by them), b) juridical conflicts (lawsuits against farmers over exposure of people and crops to herbicides), and c) regulatory challenges (when rural populations and environmentalists push for local ordinances to curb pesticide exposure). We find that local cultural codes encourage informal agreements and that social inequalities prevent conflicts from arising in the public sphere. The interventions of social movements and civil society organizations (or lack thereof) and the mobilization of expertise also shape pesticide governance. Our analysis highlights that pesticide governance is context-dependent or situated, and informed by subtle but significant power asymmetries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Happiness as a complex combination of individual, collective, affective, rational, and circumstantial constituents is either integrated or should be integrated in the policy-making of modern states and societies, in line with the global endeavor towards achieving sustainable development goals. Given the social relevance of happiness, the most broadly accepted relevant indicators for its attainment, and the great gap that exists due to insufficient empirical treatment of the matter in North Macedonia, this exploratory paper aims to determine the impact of age, gender, health, unemployment, religion, ethnicity (by spoken language), and language-based discrimination on individual happiness in the Republic of North Macedonia. The research was based on descriptive statistical operations and regression analysis of the ESS 10 data regarding the Republic of North Macedonia, obtained for the first time for this country; as well as on secondary analysis of studies considering wide-range surveys, statistical data and reports. Health, employment, ethnicity, and ethnic and linguistic discrimination represent strong determinants of happiness in this country. Indications are high that age and happiness are linearly correlated. The gender is less important in defining happiness in North Macedonia; however, women are slightly happier than men. The majority population, speaking the Macedonian language and practicing Orthodox Christianity, experience higher levels of happiness than the linguistic and religious native minorities in North Macedonia. Further in-depth research based on consistent and compatible data is needed, to the end of advancing researchbased policies in the social, economic and healthcare systems of this county. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between neighbourhood level density of civil society organisations (CSOs), diversity, and deprivation. We compare the UK and Sweden, two countries with different civil society traditions and welfare state regimes. We use data on formal civil society organisations to examine whether diverse neighbourhoods have lower levels of civil society infrastructure. In the UK, contrary to what could be expected from Putnam's assertion that diversity has a negative effect on trust, thus limiting civil society activities at the neighbourhood level, we observe a positive relationship between the density of CSOs and diversity. In Sweden, we find different patterns. First, we observe a negative correlation between CSO density and diversity. Second, we find lower density of formal CSOs in areas with high diversity and high economic disadvantage and higher density in areas characterised by low diversity and high disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The politics of climate change in Australia remains highly fraught, this is despite the country experiencing acute impacts of a changing climate including mega-fires, floods, and severe and prolonged drought. Government inaction has led to limited market signals encouraging producers or consumers to move away from carbon intensive energy production to clean energy. In the absence of regulation, Australian shareholder activists are engaging directly with company boards and executives to reform corporate behaviour. This engagement, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) shareholder activism, has proliferated since 2017, much later than in comparable jurisdictions. Activists have targeted the mining, oil and gas, and finance sectors, due to their contribution to the Australian economy and their direct impact on global emissions. This paper explores the reasons for, and the implications of, the growth in ESG shareholder activism in Australia. It argues that the emergence of this activism in Australia was delayed due to complexities in the country's corporations' law. Regulatory attempts at stymying ESG shareholder activism resulted in the emergence of a duopoly of actors, at the cost of broader investor and civil society engagement. It is concluded that the rise of ESG shareholder activism in Australia is linked to growing tension between societal expectations, regulation, and the behaviour of firms. And, that ESG activists have been successful in leveraging this tension. There is evidence that large corporates have responded to activist claims, rendering this form of activism a potentially effective method for addressing some of the most pressing issues facing society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will first review the debate over the definition and recognition of Indigenous peoples with regard to the people of Ryukyu/ Okinawa, focusing on the colonial history, specifically regarding the case of the lawsuit calling for the return of the Ryukyuan ancestral remains. Then, after an overview of the history of the lawsuit calling for the return of the Ryukyuan ancestors, which was instigated in 2018, I will present what has been achieved so far, the challenges that remain, and the prospects for the future. There, the 'colonialism by academic knowledge' nurtured since the colonial period will be exposed, and the recognition by the state of the people of Ryukyu and Okinawa as Indigenous peoples, and the possibility of solidarity among civil society and domestic and international Indigenous and minority peoples will be analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of indicators measuring attacks on education through a case study of the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA). As GCPEA and its partners have brought the problem of attacks on education to the attention of global civil society, they have engaged in contestation to define attacks on education and construct indicators to track the relevant violations. These debates are significant in that indicators are a tool of global governance that shape policymaking and resource allocation. The discussion draws on the author's decade of experience working among groups focused on the protection of education, including direct involvement developing indicators on attacks on education, and on three sets of qualitative interviews. It analyses how resource limitations, organisational agendas, challenges of measurement and verification, and global power dynamics exert pressure towards a more narrow understanding of attacks on education. This limits the transformative potential of the protecting education agenda. The discussion illustrates that EiE actors must consider the ways that they measure their work in ongoing conversations about creating a decolonial and more equitable field of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1950, sociologist David Riesman published a best-selling book entitled The lonely crowd: A study of the changing American character. Famously, he described the ascendant "other directed" person as being haunted by an inner loneliness. This paper seeks to explain the current phenomenon of the cyber mob, an online crowd of peers gathered together to intimidate and "cancel" others, as a form of group behavior founded in profound aloneness and alienation brought about by neoliberal society. While the existence of online groups or mobs is overdetermined, the desire to belong, to feel a part of something larger than oneself, and to escape a haunting inner loneliness may be the twenty-first-century corollary of what Reisman described 73 years ago. With the rise of authoritarianism throughout the world, climate change, massive inequality, pandemic, and the breakdown of moral authority, people on both the Left and the Right cling to cyber mobs to escape aloneness, discharge fear and rage, and acquire affirmation and acceptance through "likes" and "retweets." While they seem to provide bonding and empowerment, what cyber mobs offer in truth is greater ferocious tribalism and the further undoing of social bonds, fellow feeling, and the remnants of civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why was the route to democracy in Scandinavia extraordinarily stable? This paper answers this question by studying Scandinavia's eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century peaceful agrarian reforms, which contributed to auspicious state–society relations that made democracy progress relatively smoothly. Based on comparisons with contemporary France and Prussia and process-tracing evidence, the paper shows that Scandinavia achieved relatively extensive and peaceful agrarian reforms because of relatively high levels of meritocratic recruitment to the central administration and state control over local administration, which ensured impartial policymaking and implementation. These findings challenge prevailing theories of democratization, demonstrating that the Scandinavian countries represent an alternative, amicable path to democracy led by civil servants who attempt to transform their country socioeconomically. Thus, strong state-cum-weak society countries likely have better odds of achieving stable democracy than weak state-cum-weak society countries. However, building bureaucratic state administrations alongside autonomous political societies is probably a safer road to democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores motivations behind voluntary activities of youth in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, during an increasingly common period of 'waithood,' characterized by prolonged status as youth and delay in adulthood due to challenges with unemployment. Drawing on ethnographic anthropological fieldwork conducted in 2019, this paper uses stories of two youths from two youth-led organizations located in Dar es Salaam to explore differing motivations for engaging in volunteering. These examples illustrate how volunteering either acts as a stepping-stone to future employment or as a replacement for formal employment, dependent on class identity. It is argued that for Tanzanian youths, volunteering is a creative response to the challenges of waithood. This paper suggests that policymakers and civil society organizations addressing youth issues in Tanzania should recognize the diverse motivations and creative and strategic dimensions of volunteering to better support young people in navigating waithood and their futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective Impact, a framework for improving social service provision first articulated in 2011, promises to improve efficiency while creating win–win cross-sector collaborations to solve the root causes of pressing community needs. This paper argues that in its current articulation, Collective Impact might deliver efficiencies but not transformative change. Positioning Collective Impact within the tradition of US democratic traditions, starting with Alexis de Tocqueville's observations about the importance of US civil society for building an engaged citizenry, highlights specific ways to augment the framework's transformative potential. In contrast to the neoliberal insistence that marketized social service providers are best suited for delivering efficient social service provision, this paper argues that Collective Impact leaders can take responsibility for strengthening civil society for real transformative change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine the neoliberal transformation of civil society through Mitchel Foucault's insights concerning knowledge, power, and governmentality. The objective of this paper is to trace the evolving understandings of civil society and how they relate to governmental rationalities and technologies of power. The traditional notion of civil society as a distinct and autonomous sphere has shifted toward an intermediary associations approach under neoliberalism. I posit that the mobilization of non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations by states, international organizations, and donor agencies since the 1990s constitutes a form of governmental technology, influenced by neoliberal rationalities. This technology serves the neoliberal agenda of undermining the social state, promoting market creation, and encouraging non-partisanship. This argument suggests that the rise of civil society as intermediary associations coincides with the decline of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to study recent approaches to peacemaking, particularly by Turkey and Russia, in a changing world and their implications for UN-led peace processes. The authors analyze the factors that allow parallel processes to UN mediation to emerge and discuss their influence. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents two in-depth case studies of mediation in Syria and Libya, where the UN, as well as Russia and Turkey, were actively involved in peacemaking. Findings: The authors find that parallel processes to UN mediation emerge if the UN process does not show progress toward a negotiated settlement and other third parties have leverage over the conflict parties. However, whether these parallel processes pose a fundamental challenge to the UN-led process depends on how sustained the third parties' leverage over the conflict parties is. If it lasts, it puts the UN in a difficult position to either participate in the parallel process and contain it but thereby also legitimizing it, or to abstain from participating but thereby risking to lose control over the mediation process. Research limitations/implications: Analyzing different approaches to mediation helps to better understand current dynamics of multiparty mediation, including an increased questioning of the effectiveness of UN mediation, and provides insights on how the UN may adapt to keep its relevance in a changing world. Originality/value: The paper is based on original first-hand data gathered between 2018 and 2022 through more than 50 interviews with UN officials, negotiation team members, political and civil society actors from Syria and Libya, (former) state officials and experts from Russia and Turkey, as well as external observers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On civil society, there are different opinions from different authors regarding the years of the beginning of the use of the notion of civil society, but also regarding the definition of this same notion. The civil society as a rare mentioned concept until its re-discovery is becoming a reality, basic category and keyword phrase in political and social life. Also, the civil society is a contested and controversy concept, because different authors have different opinions for it, where some of them have the opinion that the civil society is a strong opponent of governmental politics, while some others doesn't have this meaning, but they say that the civil society is just one corrector of the government's policies. We can mark that the civil society includes various non-governmental organizations, nonprofit organizations, humanitarian organizations, religious (fractions) organizations, organizations that deal with culture and cultural heritage, trade unions and other. The role of civil society is on the increase. The number of nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, trade unions, mass media and associations of different kinds grows changing the nature of state's functions. So does the influence the institutions exert on domestic and international policy. Nowadays the state merely controls some fields rather than governs them. Though some spheres, with the military one as the most obvious example, are still monopolized by state, others, for instance, economy, social sphere, ecology and even politics witness the expansion of civil society's power over them. The civil society's involvement in the above-mentioned areas has been quite well studied so far, yet there is still a lot to research. However, it is the cultural sphere that lacks deep study, not least due to being often considered as additional and not as important. Democratization advances development of civil society. Culture is another sphere in which civil society nowadays enjoys rightful influence. However, this issue has been understudied. The theme of civil society's participation in preserving cultural heritage, in particular, has not caused much interest among the scientific community. The present article will focus on describing the role civil society plays in this process and highlighting some specific features of its participation. Civil society accumulates information and filters it, forming requirements that represent people's concerns. It helps governments and international organizations stay informed about some vital cultural issues. The NGOs, which are the eyes and ears of the community, but also of the citizens at local level and they are in a more favorable position for realization and implementation of governmental and European policies, but also of respecting the human rights and freedoms. In this paper our aim is to give an overview of the role the civil society plays in the sphere of culture, considering its participation in preserving cultural heritage in particular. Also, the aim of this paper is to study the matter of civil society, its positive impacts, the relationship with politics. Within this paper, we will also present facts about the number of civil societies created in North Macedonia in the last 10 (ten) years, and we will focus on presenting how many of them deal with the field of cultural heritage. The paper is of particular importance since during its drafting all efforts were made to address its history, definitions and the beginnings of its appearance in North Macedonia, the last ten years of them through research using different methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to assess the validity of the contention that, over the past few decades, the public sphere has undergone a new structural transformation. To this end, the analysis focuses on Habermas's recent inquiry into the causes and consequences of an allegedly 'new' or 'further' [erneuten] structural transformation of the political public sphere. The paper is divided into two parts. The first part considers the central arguments in support of the 'new structural transformation of the public sphere' thesis, shedding light on its historical, political, economic, technological, and sociological aspects. The second part offers some reflections on the most important limitations and shortcomings of Habermas's account, especially with regard to key social developments in the early twenty-first century. The paper concludes by positing that, although the constitution of the contemporary public sphere is marked by major—and, in several respects, unprecedented—structural transformations, their significance should not be overstated, not least due to the enduring role of critical capacity in highly differentiated societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decades, several grassroots movement organisations across the world have tackled the issue of corruption with the aim of mobilising knowledge on this widespread problem. In our paper, we look at three bottom-up civil society organisations and collective actors fighting for greater transparency and curbing of corruption in Indian society, highlighting how they employ visuals to debate on these issues and to communicate their mission to their audiences. The focus is on how the initiatives employed visuals to discuss a particular anti-corruption policy of the central government. In particular, our paper sheds light on the dynamics between the three initiatives and the government especially at a time when democratic credentials of the country are in decline. Inspired by Rodriguez and Dimitrova's four levels of visual framing, we propose a revised schema for visual framing analysis, taking into account contextual dimensions, in our study of visuals as tools enhancing public debates on corruption and anti-corruption practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks how lawmakers and other stakeholders envision the potential benefits and challenges arising from Artificial Intelligence (AI). A close reading of the European Union's draft AI Act, a bill proposed by the European Commission in April 2021, and of 302 response papers submitted by NGOs, businesses and business associations, trade unions, academics, public authorities, and citizens, shows that pluralistic sociotechnical imaginaries contest: (1) the essential characteristics of technology as they relate to society, politics, and law; (2) whether, how and how much law can enable, direct or constrain scientific & technological developments; and (3) the degree to which law does and should intervene into scientific & technological controversies. The feedback from stakeholders reveals major disagreements with the lawmakers in terms of how the relevant characteristics of AI should influence legal regulation, what the desired law should look like, and whether and how the law should intervene into expert debates in AI. What is more, different types of stakeholders diverge considerably in what they problematise and how they do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an increasingly global society, public administration and public policy students must be equipped to respond to policy issues in culturally and contextually appropriate ways. It is also essential that MPA and PhD programs produce engaged global citizens with an understanding of public administration systems across boundaries. This paper presents an experiential learning method for achieving these goals. The special topics course Public Administration, Civil Society, & Democracy has been adopted by the Master of Public Administration (MPA) and the PhD in Public Administration and Public Policy (PAPP) programs at Auburn University. The course embraces a comparative perspective by physically positioning the students in global contexts, enhancing their awareness of cultural and administrative similarities and differences. Student learning objectives include research (international fieldwork), teaching (short courses and workshops for local partner organizations), and service/outreach (international service-learning projects). Although the course has been facilitated in several African countries, this paper focuses on Liberia during summer 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]