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The aim of this paper is to analyze Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture project as a neoliberal enterprise to highlight the ways in which neoliberalism can be understood different ly in an authoritarian regime. Although Istanbul seems to be a city in line with features of a typical neoliberal urban regime, the expected local partnership between state, market, and civil society did not occur in the 2010 ECoC project. While the literature recognizes the multiplicity of neoliberalisms, this paper attempts to define the status of civil society as a variable without further emphasizing the complexity of the subject. The claim is that Istanbul 2010 ECoC project failed firstly because Turkey displayed an anomaly during its neoliberal transformation and built local coalitions without granting autonomy to local actors and secondly the civil society was disorganized to the extent that it could not successfully collaborate with other actors in those coalitions. The paper will inquire the correspondence of the objectives of ECoC Action and of Istanbul 2010 ECoC Agency, and then, question the effectivity and sustainability of the results of the 2010 projects by comparatively surveying the processes of organization and implementation in Istanbul, Essen, and Pécs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the debate on whether culture can sufficiently explain crossregional variation in civic engagement, particularly in the domain of environmental philanthropy. By environmental philanthropy, we refer to participation in civil society through monetary donation and volunteering in environmental nonprofit organizations, as well as demonstrations for environmental causes. The paper uses a comparative lens to assess environmental philanthropy by focusing on four predominantly Chinese societies - mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore - to minimalize their cultural differences. Using the data from the World Value Survey, we found that residents in mainland China shared similar environmental concerns and beliefs with people from the other regions, but they are least likely to volunteer, donate, and demonstrate for these causes. After accounting for personal characteristics, the sizeable interregional gaps on pro-environmental behaviors remain. These findings are consistent with the argument that structural differences, particularly the developing nature of civil society in mainland China (e.g., limited associational life), hinders environmental civic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper intends to explore the social structural causes and conditions of ethnic party formation in the Nepali context. The paper argues that the ethnic political parties (EPs), like other kinds of political parties, are one of the manifest products of the social, political and economic structure of the society and their social foundation of formation is different than non-ethnic parties. In Nepal, despite having a number of national political parties, the formation of ethnic parties in Nepal have been growing in number with democratic practices after 1990 and intensifying after the political transition of 2006. Therefore, the paper deals with a key question: why ethnic parties form? To answer the question, the paper argues that there are multiple factors like multiethnic society and non-inclusive state and party structure; democracy and indigenous social movement; failure of existing political parties to address the ethnic concern; rise of new issues such as identity, federalism and proportional representation; and legal-structural changes with international factors are responsible for the ethnic party formation. The paper concludes that the EPs, as a manifest product of democracy, are contributing to the process of democratization in Nepal. In that sense, the rise of ethnic parties is essentially a social phenomenon rooted in the multicultural society of Nepal. The analysis is based on qualitative and quantitative data collected through keen observations, in-depth interview with purposefully selected key informants and required secondary information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many analyses of neoliberalism in Latin America assume that it was the debt crises of the 1980s which convinced domestic capitalists of the need for market reform and signaled the exhaustion of the developmental state. Using a combination of primary and secondary sources, this paper argues that in Brazil capitalist support for neoliberalism only emerged roughly five years after the debt crisis, in the aftermath of the Cruzado Plan (Plano Cruzado), a failed government attempt to control rampant inflation. I argue that in the context of increased mobilization and crisis following the plan, newly fortified business organizations spread a vision of neoliberalism which resonated with many industrialists in São Paulo, Brazil's economic capital, and turned them firmly against the developmental state. This period of mobilization stands in contrast to São Paulo industrialists' reaction to the debt crisis of 1981 when they remained both passive and divided over the issue of economic liberalization. Following the Cruzado Plan, however, Brazilian industrialists remained politically fragmented relative to other national bourgeoisie in the region. This continued fragmentation explains the conflict among industrialists over what "economic opening" would look like in the years following the Plano Cruzado. Thus, this paper emphasizes the relative increase in organization and mobilization which turned industrialists against the developmental state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the relationship between associational development, public sphere development and hegemony? How does this relationship affect the management of territories and populations in divided societies along national lines? Theoretically, this paper builds on the concepts of hegemony, civil society, and public sphere to argue that hegemony requires both a thick civil society (in Gramsci's terms) and a de-politicized public sphere (in Schmitt's terms). Further, the de-politicization of the public sphere has to be established before the development of civil society. By contrast, when associational development takes place within a politicized public sphere, it leads to the bifurcation of civil society. Empirically, this paper investigates the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation process (Oslo, 1993-2000). On the one hand, Oslo set off a process of associational construction among "Palestinian Israelis," which, by occurring within the politicized Israeli public sphere, led to the political counter-mobilization among the Jewish Israeli public. On the other hand, it also set in motion a process of associational development in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. By taking place within a public sphere, which, like the Israeli one, is highly politicized, it increased the pressure on Oslo's political and territorial concessions. Through the Israeli-Palestinian case, this paper suggests that the timing of the de-politicization of the public sphere and of associational development is a key analytical axis for the study of democracy, nationalism, and conflict management in divided societies along national lines. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the numbe of deaths of immigrants by the structure of civil society in five countries -- France, UK, US, Netherlands and Germany. It focuses on the density of non-profit organizations in civil society, and their connections to important legislative and executive sections of the state. The basic thesis is dense networks of immigrant and community groups connected to the state will prevent ethnic violence, while weak connections between ethnic grouups and the state will cause violence. The paper could be called 'why riots broke out throughout France in the last few years, and not in similarlly situated countries.' Part of the reason for weak civil society has to do with a very strong state that can operate on its own without groups, and the constitutional structure that allows it to do so. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines recent transformations in the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the field of health-related social services in Montevideo, Uruguay and Santiago, Chile. The discussion relates the relationship among NGOs, State agencies, and other Civil Society institutions to political and institutional developments associated with decentralization, democratization, economic liberalization, and the evolution of the health care sector itself. The analysis identifies specific organizational characteristics of NGOs that determine their potential effectiveness in specific problem domains, as well as State's conditions that favor and deter NGO effective participation. In this context the paper scrutinizes the changing role of NGOs from that of advocates for client populations that often places them in an adversarial position of State policies toward the role of allies of the State in the delivery of health and social services. Based on institutional ethnographies and in depth techniques, the authors undertake a systematic analysis of different sub-fields in health care where NGOs are found with greater presence and density. For each domain, the analysis of collected data allows the identification of the principal patterns of NGO-State relationships and the possible implications they may have for the future of health policy. The discussion ends with the argument that the potential complementarities of State and NGO functions have potential and should be investigated in the domains of health and social service delivery. Unfortunately, in neither country has the more extensive and coordinated use of civil society organizations been seriously considered as key aspects of formal health care sector reform. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to address the contemporary theoretical debates on the relationship between civil society and democracy which does not constitute only one aspect of contemporary civil society argument but is the central one. The core argument developed in this paper from a feminist perspective revolves around the caveat that civil society is itself a realm of fragmentation and inequality and for that reason we need to exercise prudence with regard to what civil society can do as an agent of democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the attitude towards immigration in various European countries and the research paper which includes several theories. Xenophobia and the expressions of institutional racism is a concern in several European nations where laborers were imported from several underdeveloped countries. The paper indicates that Southern European countries are appropriate units of analysis to study the different inter-group relationships. Several theoretical approaches related to immigration are presented including individual level theories of anti-immigrant sentiment.

Based upon primary research in Poland, this paper investigates the situation of private-life violence as it is both experienced and publicly confronted in a post-communist society. The paper analyzes the issue as a site of ethical contestation in the complexity of a radically new political, economic, religious, and cultural environment, and within the larger task of reconstructing "civil" society in an emerging democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the changing role of health NGOs and their relation with the governmental structures in a context of health reforms in the Southern Cone countries of Chile and Uruguay. Transformations in the role of civil society are seen as the result of major global forces of decentralization, state reform, economic liberalization and re-democratization in the region. In this context the paper analyzes the mixed impacts that administrative and political decentralization have for the enhancement of opportunities of NGOs. Drawing upon the evidence collected in two summer fieldwork trips, the paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of NGOs in the provision of health care, bringing to the fore the commonalities and differences observed across countries. Finally, the paper acknowledges the advantages of different NGO approaches to the State, identifying some possible risks associated with them for the future of policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the notion that expansion of a pluralist system of community based interest groups that foster cross-community relationships is a basic component of peace building in conflict-beset societies. The paper explores this idea through a case study of Northern Ireland and the role of community based organizations in governance in that country. Theorists relate a strong community sector to effective civil society and a form of democratic governance called pluralism where multiple groups based in the voluntary involvement of citizens are a fundamental part of the governance process. This sector is often missing in societies that in the past experienced authoritarian government or, as in Northern Ireland, governance by one, dominant ethnic group (the Protestants or Unionists). This paper traces specific historical and policy developments that helped to build a powerful community sector in Northern Ireland. However, while there remains a strong rhetorical commitment in government to partnerships with voluntary and community organizations, recent changes in some policies reflect opposition to incorporating a strong participatory element in governance. Instead these show preference for elected, representative governance that emphasizes economic development and separation of elected political officials from the informal social life of local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks how organizations for girls construct the relationship between girls and the public sphere. Drawing upon document research and two intensive case studies, one at a Girl Scout camp and the other at a community based organization, I argue that there are two primary types of girls? organization: normative and transformative. Normative organizations, such as the Girl Scouts, rely upon a psychological understanding of the problems facing girls and avoid issues of race and class differences amongst girls. They imagine the public as a space of threat that girls must be protected from and full of barriers that girls must learn to overcome. When they do involve girls in their communities, it is only in the form of service. Transformative organizations engage girls in a more sociological analysis of the conditions of their lives, including analyses of the intersections of race, class and gender. They also believe that girls can and should have public authority and voice and encourage girls? involvement in a wide range of social change projects and political activities. Given growing social concern with youth civic engagement, this paper highlights these two models divergent implications for girls? public and political identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents preliminary findings from the dissertation, in which I analyze U.S. public and private funding in support of civil society and the nongovernmental sector in post-Soviet Russia and Central Asia. U.S. democracy and civil society promotion is usually examined from the standpoint of evaluating the effectiveness of Western efforts to democratize other societies. In contrast, this study ? guided by neoinstitutional organizational theory, cultural sociology, and the anthropology of development ? focuses on the organizational and cultural processes set in motion by the infusion of U.S. civil society funding into the region. U.S. donor organizations are powerful agents of globalization that have come to embrace the professional nongovernmental organization (NGO) as the preeminent vehicle of civil society and actively diffuse this organizational form and new conceptions of state-society relations on non-Western terrain. The paper also analyzes the role of the local recipient organizations in indigenizing the professional NGO form, content, and practices. It concludes by discussing the insular and mutually-dependent relationship between Western donors and local NGOs and questions the latter?s ability to countervail the still powerful post-Soviet state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on acts of civil courage as expressions of values of civil society and actors? disinterested and innovative behaviour. It argues that sociology should investigate acts of standing up in defence of civic values and convictions because by studying such actions, sociological research contributes to a better understanding of the concept of civil society and the conditions leading to its enrichment. Despite the evident importance of the topic for the understanding of contemporary politics and society, no single major study of civil courage exists. The paper, recognizing the relevance of civil courage in enriching democracy, spells out the reasons for this enrichment and the ways it is achieved and develops a sociological account of such acts. It reconstructs the classical and modern sociology?s impilict ideas about this notion and defines action displaying civil courage as disinterested, motivated by the ideals of civil society, nonconformist and involving risk behaviour. The paper concludes that the enhancement of civic sensitivity, which is the principal requirement for cohesive, just and pluralistic contemporary democracy, demands the deliberate cultivation of opportunities for civil courage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do government and nonprofit organizations adapt as emergent network organizations? Drawing on the author's dissertation, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for an emergent network organization based on recombinant archetypal attributes of market, state, and civil society. Research is grounded in case studies of three hybrid government/nonprofit Boston One-Stop Career Centers that function as network organizations linking firms, government, nonprofit organizations within a changing local workforce development system. Economic restructuring, federal policy shifts, and evolving government/nonprofit relations, and "new social movements" are transforming labor market institutions. Emergent responses include new labor market intermediaries that help connect job-seekers with employers. Low-skill job-seekers are particularly dependent on mediating organizational networks in navigating the low-wage labor market. Despite growing research and policy interest about this topic, little is known about the role of publicly-funded new labor market intermediaries. Despite burgeoning research on networks in public management and among nonprofits, there has been limited study of network-specific strategies related to the planning, practices, and performance of hybrid public/nonprofit network organizations. This paper helps address these gaps current scholarship by investigating how emergent governmental/nonprofit institutions are being transformed by changing federal welfare, labor, and housing policies and the new economy. The paper combines qualitative analysis of interviews with representative organizational actors and quantitative analysis of job-matching results derived from administrative data. The paper provides a framework for examining the planning, practices, and performance of One-Stop Career Centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries ushered in a new stage in Cuba, stage which Fidel Castro himself called "a special period." In this period, we have witnessed the emergence of a civil society in Cuba -- independent institutions of professionals, attempts at restructuring the labor unions, independent media, several calls for a plebiscite to usher in elections, and a religious revival of all the churches. This new civil society is fragile, but nonetheless real. An important part of that newly emergent civil society is the role that a much stronger and vigorous Catholic church plays today in Cuba, role that was strengthened by the Pope's recent visit. At the same time, the '90s and the present have also been a period of massive emigration out of Cuba. The question that frames this paper, then, is what role the church plays today in this new, massive Cuban exodus -- whether it is a hindrance or a help to Cubans making the difficult decision to leave or stay in Cuba; and what role the church plays among those who never left Cuba as well as among those in exile. The data for this research come from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Cubans who left Cuba recently, as well as participant observation and field work in both Miami and Cuba. The paper shows that the church in Cuba has played multiple roles: providing spiritual sustenance, especially after the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; helping Cubans in the island solve the myriad problems of every day living amidst a profound economic crisis; giving refuge to those who have become profoundly politically disaffected; challenging the communist state by insisting on the necessity for democracy in all societies; sustaining identity as Cubans return to the devotions of the past, though in the new context of crisis at present; promoting human rights and helping to build a democratic future by training young people to become the leaders of... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil society, as a political concept, has been used to discuss the recent democratic transformation in Taiwan. However, most studies do not analytically address the origins and the development of civil society. Two issues are important in employing civil society as an analytical concept to understand the political transformation in the contexts of late industrializing countries. One concerns the historicity of civil society, the uniqueness of European historical context; the other is its interdependence with the modern nation-state. Civil society is most commonly defined in terms of its interdependence and autonomy from the state, but it is also important to understand that civil society is defined and shaped by the modern political state. This paper investigates the development of civil society in the non-western context in two distinctive areas: the introduction of ¡§civic¡¨ political culture and the development of social institutions and networks. The first section discusses the idea of civil society and summarizes the studies of civil society in the context of Asian countries. Second, this paper provides a short description of state-corporatism, opposition movements and the democratic transition in the post-WWII Taiwan. Third, this paper examines different dimensions of civil society in Taiwan and their interrelationships. This analysis demonstrates that the development of civil society in Taiwan occurred though the interactions between state-corporatism and rising social forces. Finally, this paper explores some unique characteristics of civil society in Taiwan in a comparative perspective and points out some remaining problems in the era of democratic consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donor and other international policy organizations have substantial influence on national and local priorities around health and development in developing contexts. Donors are increasingly using this leverage to target controversial issues in their aid and policy packages, including criminalization of same-sex sex and discrimination of gays and lesbians. While their emphasis is often on policy change, contact with donors directly or via intermediaries in civil society may affect local attitudes toward homosexuality. This paper examines whether and how exposure to donors, measured using geocoded aid data, has shaped individual attitudes toward homosexuality in Malawi, a heavily aid-dependent country in Central Africa. The paper draws on an original, nationally-representative household survey of Malawians and finds that exposure to donors has had an effect on Malawian attitudes toward homosexuality, but not always in the expected direction of liberalization. The paper also addresses concerns around the measurement of attitudes toward homosexuality generally and in African contexts specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

California's direct-voting ballot proposition system represents an increasingly utilized opportunity for criminal reform. In the past five years, propositions have attempted to change felony and misdemeanor sentencing, soften regulations applying to juvenile offenders, and overturn the death penalty. Yet the proposition process also works in the opposite direction: it can limit existing civil rights, enhance sentencing, or provide frameworks for the future criminalization of behaviors. While literature explores some types of discrimination in ballot propositions, it has yet to examine discrimination in propositions that regulate sexual identity and behavior. This paper examines, 1) How the regulation of sexual deviance via the ballot proposition system has changed over time, and 2) the implications of these changes for the criminalization/decriminalization of various types of sexual behavior and identity. My preliminary results indicate that California propositions regarding sex and the body have shifted from overt discrimination against sexual orientation and lifestyle to the regulation of behavior considered sexually criminal. Yet, definitions of the sexually criminal still encompass embedded homophobia and racism, exposing already vulnerable groups of individuals to additional marginalization, policing, and regulation. The results demonstrate how the state and society continue to use sex, sexuality, and sexual behavior to marginalize and police those considered "undesirable" or "deviant" at various points in time, as well as how intersecting inequalities perpetuate vulnerabilities to state policing and regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The democratization strategy that has dominated international peacebuilding efforts in the post-Cold War involves creating and supporting "civil society" organizations in war-torn societies. This paper examines this strategy to ask three important questions: 1) How do strategies of building civil society affect the ways in which civil society can support peacebuilding? 2) What forms of civil society are best suited for peacebuilding? 3) Can civil society be created or supported from the outside in sustainable forms? Using ethnographic data from 18 months of fieldwork in postwar Croatia, I examine the forms civil society support there took, the practical implications of these forms for peacebuilding, and the sustainability of these structures in a post-donor era. I find that Croatian civil society was supported both through non-governmental organizations and communitybased organizations, but that community-based organizations, in spite of their grassroots nature, had worse outcomes for peacebuilding due to the exclusive and boundary-reproducing nature of these organizations. NGOs, while they supported a wide range of peacebuilding activities, ultimately depended on external aid, making their long-term survival challenging in an era of donor withdrawal. This paper concludes by exploring strategies for creating a stable, inclusive civil society that is sustainable after international donors depart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explain the origins of government-sponsored, national human rights institutions (NHRIs) and focuses on Korean Human Rights Commission as the case. Recognizing the limitations of the past global analysis of the rise of NHRIs, the paper pays more attention to endogenous factors, including the accumulated strength of civil society and its long-time mobilization for human rights causes as well as policy makers' instrumental calculations underlying the adoption of a NHRI. Yet, the new framework, tailored to explain a particular case, also emphasizes exogenous/global influence. The exogenous/global conditions involve both direct influence from world human rights movement and the degree to which a country is linked to or participates in this world scale mobilization through its memberships in international human rights organizations and its endorsement of international human rights instruments. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to outline the influence of natural resource rents on the state and civil society in resource-rich nations. It discusses the virtues and deficiencies of the two main theoretical approaches to the problem, the "state capacity approach" and the "resource curse approach," and argues that both frameworks are useful and complementary, but insufficient to fully understand the phenomenon. They are useful and complementary because they focus on the central role of state capacity while identifying a connection with the presence of relatively-abundant natural resource rents. They are insufficient, however, because they fail to explore the nature, causes and consequences of such connection, particularly those around the relationship between state capacity and developmental outcomes. Although only preliminary elements are provided, the paper concludes, focusing on the case of the oil economy, that non-developmental configurations of the state and civil society are contingent on the reproduction of elites in power and decisively shaped by the recurrent fiscal crises of the state. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2008 Democratic presidential primary illustrated the continued relevance of the following theoretical question: to what extent do non-civil societal discourses, such as those concerning gender, family, and race, affect the establishment of an actor's legitimacy in the civil sphere? In this paper I will argue that civil and non-civil spheres continually overlap and influence each other to an extent that has not been adequately emphasized in previous work on civil society. To illustrate this theoretical point, my paper examines the empirical case of Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the cultural framing of her historic ascension in January 2007. Through examination of her major speeches and interviews, I find that Pelosi constantly negotiated between her efforts to re-signify "feminine" traits previously marked as anti-civil, notably motherhood, and her efforts to appear as an "authentic" woman, as defined by American gender ideology. This paper, then, provides a picture of the contemporary state of gendered intrusions into American civil discourse, in addition to making the theoretical argument that the influence of discourses of non-civil spheres must be accounted for in any discussion of the civil sphere proper. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the need to consider deliberative discussions as cultural phenomena and to discern participants' understandings of deliberation. It features an ethnographic account of a deliberative discussion on the topic of humanity's impact on environment that was organized by a group called New York Table Society. It finds that most participants did not engage in the dialectic questioning of each other's premises. Rather, the majority listed points that expanded the predominant lines of the discussion, characterized the opponent, or asked for clarification. The paper conceptualizes these reactions as an orientation to abstract opponents, rather than to the opponents immediately present in the room. It hypothesizes that this may be due to a contemporary domination of print argumentation as opposed to actual deliberations. Cross-cultural and historical comparisons of conventions of public talk are suggested in order to explain observed deliberative behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of public memory is relatively recent and has been analysed from very different angles and perspectives by different scholars. However, the most relevant contribution to the analysis of the relation between memory and public discourse is due to the cultural trauma theories (Alexander et al., 2005). This paper, by starting from the cultural trauma theories, considers the "we regret" politics not only as new form of the international relations among nations, but also as specific narrative politics of the past, which contributes to shape the public discourse of a nation. The reconciliation corresponds on the institutional level to the act of forgiving on the personal level: whereas the social actors forgive, the civil societies and the nations reconcile with contested and controversial memories. Which are the political consequences of the we regret politics? And to what extent the definitions of time and past implied by the politics of reconciliation can be generalized? Are there any cases where they might work less effective? This paper tries to bring into dialogue cultural trauma theories with part of the post-colonial debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generally, arguments on civil society and public sphere have been conceptualized within the framework of existing nation-states. This paper argues that the framework of nation-states is no longer adequate for the definition of the public sphere or addressing "real" civil societies. Specifically, I argue that diaspora communities have positive implications for understanding global culture and society, and global public spheres. Diaspora communities illustrate forms of identity and solidarity that transcend physical boundaries. Hence, they manifest important features favorable for the organization of a global sphere of interaction, or a "global public sphere." The paper engages with debates on multiple publics and focuses on two specific issues within existing debates. First, I argue for the need to conceive a global public sphere in which participants move beyond national boundaries and alliances. Second, I emphasize the need to conceive of the public sphere not as an arena where individuals voice their concerns and attempt to affect public policy, but as an arena where identities are constructed and experiences discerned. My argument draws on the specific experience of immigration. In my analysis, I rely on narratives of Lebanese immigrants in New York, Montreal, and Paris. Based on 55 in-depth interviews with Lebanese immigrants who are active in civil society associations, professionals, academics, or cultural workers, I explore the ways individuals forge their identities within the complexities of globalization and immigration and provide valuable contributions to the rise of a universalistic solidarity and cosmopolitan citizenship that play an important part in shaping the globalized world we live in. Through these forms of universalistic solidarity and cosmopolitan citizenship, immigrants create a global public sphere. Additionally, the specific experiences illustrate ways in which public participation becomes the vehicle through which individuals make sense of their identities and experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a critique of the tripartite division of civil society, the state, and the economy, arguing instead for a more relational way of connecting them. Using the example of peculiar utopian conception of civil society activism in Hungary and Eastern Europe, which accounts in part for the failure of the alternative globalization movements to gain a mass base, I discuss the broader theoretical and conceptual implications of such segregationist models. I argue that Gramsci's often misinterpreted and simplified theorization of civil society can still provide an alternative framework to look at the resurgence of counterhegemonic mobilization against neoliberal capitalism in recent years. The paper concludes with suggesting the replacement of civil society with Chatterjee's notion of political society in order to have a better grasp of the alternative globalization movements in the global South. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a question that has so far been under-explored in the study of civil society organizations: Which factors determine whether or not the interaction between "experts" working at NGOs and grassroots activists produces practices of knowledge construction that truly promote the moral, political and economic agency of popular groups with restricted access to "expert" knowledge? Such exploration is based on a literature review, complemented by an analysis of ethnographic data collected during the summer of 2006. The fieldwork data included in this paper is the result of a voluntary work experience at PACS - Instituto Politicas Alternativas para o Cone Sul, an NGO based in Rio de Janeiro. PACS is one of the most influential NGOs in the emergence and institutionalization of the Brazilian movement of Solidarity Socio-Economy. It had a fundamental role as the coordinator of the mobilization process that led to the creation, in 1996, of FCP-RJ - the Forum of Worker's Cooperatives of Rio de Janeiro. This forum was the first organized structure created by the movement in Brazil to debate policy issues affecting cooperatives, networks of microenterprises, microcredit and the informal economy. For reasons of practicality and focus, this paper will only use field data on "Casa da Confiança" ("The House of Trust"), a microcredit and training project that PACS developed with members of neighborhood-based associations, in the framework of FCP-RJ. This project is a typical example of production of practices of knowledge construction that empower popular groups with restricted access to "expert" knowledge. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asserts that censorship is both restricts and produces political culture. Sociological theories of civil society have often overlooked the existence of practices and discourse in closed societies that constitute a political culture which has implications for the rise of civil society and transition to a more democratic, open society. Drawing on Foucault's conception of discipline, this paper examines the productive and restrictive aspects of censorship through qualitative investigation of the relationship between the Cuban party-state and the Cuban film industry between 1988 and 1998. Specifically, this study follows the reviews, debates, praise and controversies surrounding several satirical, politically challenging films during the decade surrounding the collapse of socialism in Europe: Plaff or Too Much Fear of Life/Plaff o demasiado miedo de la vida (Juan Carlos Tabio, 1988), and Strawberry and Chocolate/Fresa y chocolate (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio, 1993); Alice in Wondertown/Alicia en el pueblo de las maravillas (Daniel Díaz Torres, 1991), Guantanamera (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio, 1995); and, Turn Your Thoughts to Me/Pon tu pensamiento en mi (Arturo Sotto, 1997), and By providing a detailed mapping of the techniques officials used to censor and permit these films, this study shows how the goal of censorship is management rather than elimination of critique. The findings suggest that theories of civil society need to begin with more nuanced understandings of the political culture that exists in closed societies, with special attention to the qualities of action and discourse associated with the public-private debate. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet has been hailed as a promising tool for fostering transnational interactive communication, the creation of a global civil society, and the empowerment of local grassroots actors. This paper aims to provide a nuanced account and assessment of the role of the Internet and other media interfaces in a conflict in which transnational public opinion was widely seen as having generated decisive impact: the case of the Zapatista movement. Rejecting exaggerations and underestimation of the Internet's role, the paper investigates how the relations between heterogeneous components of the movement were established, maintained, mobilized, and modified, dissolved or replaced over time. The dynamic network linked struggles for the public good at local, national, and global levels and fosteredâ?”within specific limitsâ?”the cooperation between otherwise unlikely allies. The multi-method project examines a data set of over 42,000 electronic mails and web-pages, as well as national international newspaper articles, television footage and transcripts, and ethnographic notes from interviews and fieldwork in multiple sites in Mexico, the United States, and Europe over the period 1994-2007. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous sociological research on structural adjustment has largely focused on its effects on economic wealth and inequality, economic governance and democracy, and transnational social networks. This paper addresses a similar but understudied question: what has been the relationship between structural adjustment and civil society, especially in periods prior to the recent discursive and programmatic shift toward civil society in the global development regime? This paper systematically addresses this question by examining the effects of World Bank structural adjustment loans on voluntary associations in a large number of countries since the 1970s. I draw upon numerous theories of globalization, development, and the state to parse out the complex relationship between civil society and structural adjustment programs (SAPs). More specifically, I argue that SAPs mostly weaken associational life due to increased pressure to roll back the state, and that these pressures can prevail despite the positive effects of democracy and a pro-participatory world polity. The negative effect of structural adjustment on associational life raises important implications for the social, political, and economic underpinnings of the current civil society agendas in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed paper is based on two major questions within the social movement literature in sociology: first, the role that cultural processes of meaning construction play behind the development of collective identities in the mobilization toward collective action; and second, the ways that social movements affect over the larger space of civil society. Following the current trends of social theory toward the importance of both social movements and culture, the project looks at the past events occurred in Vieques, Puerto Rico -the rise of an anti-military movement- within these frames. Two arguments are sought here: On the one hand, that the rise of a sustained mobilization in Vieques from 1999 to 2003 was the result of a frame shifting from a politics-centered argument toward a collective identity based argument, using a local community narrative as a vehicle of boundary demarcation. It's my hypothesis that a shift in strategy took place within the movement, and that such shift was toward less politically oriented arguments and more identity based ones. The previous argument suggests that Puerto Rico's political public sphere has experienced a dramatic change, and it's my argument that such change is a resulting effect of the latest mobilization in Vieques. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many countries, networks of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have supported fledgling democracies by building solidarity, facilitating communication, and mobilizing political action. These networks have been particularly effective in pressuring governments to increase political transparency and to reduce corruption. For almost two decades, networks of Mexican NGOs have contributed to a political transition toward democracy. Evidence suggests that this transition has occurred sporadically, leaving Mexico a democracy with authoritarian enclaves. Thus, the presence of this political diversity offers a unique context in which to examine NGO-state relations.Using data from 173 non-profit NGOs in Oaxaca, Mexico, this paper explores interactions among NGOs and the Mexican government. Analyses of the NGO network suggest heavy involvement by government authorities in civil society operations. In fact, the majority of ties reported by NGOs were to various levels of the Mexican government. There are dual implications of this research: first, parameters of civil societies and states may not be as rigid as they are usually assumed to be. Second, while the results suggest that this overlap may present an obstacle to democratization, the presence of NGO-state networks may also offer a unique opportunity for those seeking to support democratization in historically authoritarian settings. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a theoretical explanation for a social expectation's impact on civil society in Japan. Social expectation drives the development of volunteerism and operates for new local associations to behave more coherently within Japanese society, suggesting a dynamic culture-structure interface in Japan between 1990 and to date. The pop-up, state-centered and functional theories explain only possibly contributing conditions for the growth of volunteerism. We argue that the dramatic growth of associational activities in Japan during the 1990s is due to the successful implementation of "social expectation" as a vision into the social world. Contrary to the image of Japan as a "strong and controlling" nation-state, we find that the economic leaders, grass-root activists, and younger liberal politicians played central roles for creating a social flow toward the non-profit organizational activities and for the construction of the NPO law in Japan. "Social expectation" is a future vision leading Japan toward a citizen-based society through the dynamic interactions of political and legal - thus often structural - interventions, media, other social groups and individuals. We suggest re-writing stories of civil society development in Japan with a "social expectation" perspective. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I consider the issues of the dynamics of civic participation in suburban areas. In particular, I focus on the questions of how social change is introduced in suburban communities, what makes different communities receptive to change, and what role citizen civic associations may play in the introduction or rejection of social change in their communities. I also briefly consider the issue of how two different parts of civil society, i.e. non-profit 'advocacy' organizations and citizen civic associations, interact during the periods of the exploration of the possibilities of the introduction of change and its direction. Drawing on original empirical evidence, I introduce two multi-actor models of social action that reflect the observed patterns of social interaction in two suburban communities during "community participation" events that took place on Long Island, NY in 2004. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public sociology is an attempt to redress the issues of public engagement and disciplinary identity that have beset the discipline over the past several decades. While public sociology seeks to rectify the public invisibility of sociology, this paper investigates the limitations of it program. Several points of critique are offered. First, public sociology's affiliations with Marxism serve to potentially entrench existing divisions within the discipline. Second, public sociology's advancement of an agenda geared toward a "sociology for publics" instead of a "sociology of publics" imposes limitations on the development of a public interface. Third, the lack of a methodological agenda for public sociology raises concerns of how sociology can compete within a contested climate of public opinion. Fourth, issues of disciplinary coherence are not necessarily resolved by public sociology, and are potentially exacerbated by the invocation of public sociology as a new disciplinary identity. Fifth, the incoherence of professional sociology is obviated, and a misleading affiliation is made between scientific knowledge and the hegemonic structure of the profession. Finally, the idealism of public sociology's putative defense of civil society is explored as a utopian gesture akin to that of Habermas' attempt to revive the public sphere. The development of a strong program in professional sociology is briefly offered as a means to repair the disciplinary problems that are illustrated by emergence of the project of public sociology. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I analyze US civil society assistance for post-Soviet Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Since the early 1990s, civil society assistance provided by public and private American donor organizations has centered on promoting the development of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and resulted in the creation of thousands of post-Soviet NGOs. I argue that US civil society assistance is a mechanism for diffusing the organizational and cultural form of the professional NGO to receiving societies and that, more generally, donors are important, but under-appreciated, agents behind the worldwide diffusion of Western organizational and cultural models. The donor-driven diffusion aims at imposing a familiar conceptual order on an unfamiliar institutional and cultural terrain. When US donors first set foot in the former Soviet Union, the organization of post-Soviet society was illegible to them. Populating the post-Soviet terrain with familiar organizational forms has made it more legible and created clients for donors' funds. After more than a decade of assistance, American donors became institutionalized having established a universe of post-Soviet NGOs vying for their continuing support. At the same time, although NGOs appear natural to US donors, they represent an institutional form unfamiliar to post-Soviet society and their activities are determined by donors' preferences and priorities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, scholars have analyzed the ways that Americans are less engaged civically. At the same time, researchers have explored the professionalization of social movement organizations and the ways that interest groups have changed in recent years. To date, however, very little research has studied the ways that the professionalization of civic groups contributes to the disengagement of American citizens. This paper examines the consequences of one of the main ways that groups on the Left have responded to recent political challenges: by outsourcing their grassroots outreach and fundraising. Although, the outsourcing of activism makes sense financially, it has significant unintended consequences to the civic engagement and grassroots political involvement for the local members and workers. In other words, with national social movement organizations and Left-leaning electoral campaigns hiring external groups to run their grassroots efforts, the members of these groups are becoming less connected and the young people who do the lion's share of the grassroots outreach are becoming less embedded in the social movements for which they are working. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While exploring early modern bourgeoisie society, Habermas presented the concepts of the public sphere and civil society. Using these concepts, Habermas sought to explain the association between voluntary associations and their public activities. Despite extensive research on this topic, the key linkage between voluntary associations and their civil/public activities has been under-studied; little is known about the extent to which voluntary civil society associations contribute to the formation and institutionalization of public activities and public opinion. This gap largely reflects the fact that the public sphere debate has been predominantly theory-driven, lacking sufficient empirical support. I examine the Confucian literati class and their efforts to mobilize public activities and public opinion in Korea from 1506-1800. In doing so, I present Confucian private academies as a form of voluntary associations, and petitions by the Confucian scholarly community as representing aspects of public opinion. By examining the historical association between private academies and petitions, I show empirically the causal linkage between these organizational resources and the making of public activities/public opinion. This paper provides another East Asian parallel to European public sphere and civil society and seeks to contribute to sociology of civil society and public sphere ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses a core question in the literature on states and political challenges from excluded social classes: how is large-scale collective action possible against repressive governments in the global periphery? Using a sequential analytical framework, the article demonstrates that periods of regime liberalization associated with favorable world commodity prices deposit organizational structures in civil society that persist beyond the political opening in the system. Global economic downturns and reformist challenges from below place pressure on ruling elites to rollback on political liberalization. The economic and political threats constituting liberalization reversals provide negative incentives for surviving reform-minded organizations to attempt radical forms of collective action in more hostile and unfavorable political environments. The conceptual model is tested using geographically based data from El Salvador's 1932 peasant-worker uprising - one of the largest popular revolts in Latin America during the worldwide Great Depression. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to connect the macro-level processes of the global economy to the local processes of civil society. More specifically, we explore the impact of certain dimensions of "globalization" on two aspects of civil society; corruption and civil unrest. We begin with a theoretical discussion of the mechanisms by which these global and local processes are linked. Next, a series of quantitative cross-national analyses are presented that find both beneficial and deleterious effects of these global processes on civil society. We close with case studies of two countries, Argentina and Thailand, which give substance to these cross-national findings. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many writings emphasize repressive aspects of authoritarian regimes and resistance against them from society. Paying attention to long-standing stability of the Park Chung Hee regime (1961-1979), this paper attempts to investigate one way in which repressive regimes generate political legitimacy and examines class politics as a ruling strategy of the regime and its reactions. In the 1960s, both working class and middle class were the beneficiaries of a rapid economic developmental project and pseudo-hegemony was formed corresponding to the expansion of the total economic scale. However, the social base for popular support attenuated in the 1970s as income disparity deepened and political repression grew severe. At times when anti-regime worker mobilization intensified, the urban middle class opted for the status quo aligning themselves with state ideology. In short, working class exclusion and middle class inclusion constituted the central mechanism for the generation of regime legitimacy and the necessary political coalition between the working and middle classes for wide opposition and democratization was blocked. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious persecution is a form of social conflict that has attracted the attention of social scientists and policy makers in recent years. This paper investigates the proposition that religious regulation leads to religious persecution. Using improved measures for socio-religious hegemony and inequitable legal/policy restriction of religion for 146 countries, we test a series of hypotheses related to this proposition. Competing hypotheses are also considered and tested, particularly Samuel P. Huntington's Clash of Civilizations thesis. The model of religious regulation put forward in this research also offers a practical approach to understanding the socio-religious forces which contribute to religious persecution, socio-religious conflict, and government responses to religion today. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract:This research paper examines the influence of civil society development on governmental corruption across 25 Eastern European and Central Asian countries from 1997 to 2004. My analysis builds upon previous research that analyzes causes of governmental corruption by adding specific measures of civil society. To effectively measure civil society, I use five indicators of Non Governmental Organization (NGO) performance as a proxy to civil society. Data are analyzed using a pooled time-series, cross-sectional (TSCS) analysis with an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model, including fixed effects to control for inter-country variation. Results show that civil society strength does have a significant impact on corruption over the seven year time period. These results remain significant when controlling for democratic development, gross domestic product and foreign trade. Further, democratic development looses it explanatory power when its non-linear relationship to corruption is established. This research provides and alternative explanation to understanding governmental corruption. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a community case study analysis of the local municipal commissions, boards, and committees (CBCs) whose members are volunteers appointed to formal positions as actors in local governance. The qualitative multimethod research is based on participant observation and archives. These volunteers are distinct from elected officials and paid governmental staff personnel, and also distinct from participants in local voluntary associations involved in the local political process. The analysis focuses on the structure, activities and functions of the CBCs as units of analysis. Drawing on existing literature on local politics and civil society the CBCs are seen to occupy a relatively heretofore understudied distinct niche within the local political process, and they offer new insights into the critical relationship between civil society and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore how nation-states that did not meet corporatist criteria could adopt the tripartite model as their labor strategies and what caused peculiar characteristics of the Korean tripartism between 1997 and 2002. First, I find the impacts of growing civil society and its linkage to world society on the formation of the model after the explosive labor movement of 1987. Second, the analysis on the interplay between the industrial peace logic, the competition logic, and the employment-income protection logic reveals that the relative strength of the competition logic determines the extent of the decoupling between policy and practice in the process of implementing the tripartite agreements in the tripartite commission. I conclude, then, that the Korean tripartism was set up as a means to gain legitimacy in the current context of world culture rather than a direct and functional response to the critical junctures. In addition, the failure of the state to coordinate different institutional logics led to the pact regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why given their remarkably similar class and state structures in the late nineteenth century did Spain and Italy produce strikingly different associational spheres? While in Italy associationism, especially cooperatives, chambers of labor and employers' organizations was highly developed, in Spain associationism was both weak and fragmented. This paper argues that these differences were rooted in the timing of state formation and associational revolution. In Italy the formation of the unified state and the modern associational sphere were concurrent historical processes. Thus state actors were deeply involved in a project of civil society development. In Spain in contrast the associational revolution occurred within the context of a pre-existing state. Associational development was thus driven primarily by non-state actors, and thus tended to be both weaker, and more regionally fragmented than its Italian counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on a paper exploring how people express and sustain collective discontent in transitional democracies without established traditions of civic engagement in Slovakia. Due to weak civil society and the public's distrust of mass movements and organizations, Western models of social movements provide inadequate explanation for domestic violence. The article author says that she proposes the concept of strategic issue networks. Strategic networks exclusive focus on an issue-oriented objective undermines their potential for a broader transformation across all sectors of society.

This paper examines Caucasian attitudes towards the USA and its cultural products, and explores Caucasian attitudes towards the relationship between democratic authority and civil society. A major problem for newly emerging countries of the former Soviet Union is the development of democracy and new social values. This research project is part of a comparative analysis of the reception of a media product as a diagnostic of attitudes toward democracy, nationalism, authority, violence, and new, conflicting social values. This research examines the ability to distinguish between power and authority. How can the same object, the film Air Force One, be interpreted differently by different audiences? A guide of issues to be raised in the focus groups concerns the ways in which people: articulate notions of democracy, differentiate between authority and power, see a threat to their national leaders, respond to violence, understand nationalism. We have carried out 24 focus groups, 8 in the US, 10 in Azerbaijan, 5 in Georgia, and 4 in Armenia. We have visited the Caucasus two times in the past 2 years. The results will be discussed in the roundtable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]