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Tafilelt, as a new urban extension in the south of the ancient ksar of ben-Isguen in the M'Zab Valley of the Algerian Sahara, seems to have a considerable potential for sustainability. It is worldwide recognized as a sustainable and ecological city in a country which is not entirely involved in these concepts. One of the main factors of this qualification seems to be the association between the ancient know-how of the 11th century and the new notion of sustainability of the 20th century. The first objective of this paper is to understand Tafilelt's black box to contribute to the current debates on the correlation between the reinterpretation of heritage values and sustainable development. The second objective is to produce knowledge on the importance of the contemporary reinterpretation of the vernacular and socio-cultural built heritage and the role of this process in safeguarding the image of the M'Zab Valley. This research work is based on a qualitative analysis supported by the on-site observational study methods. The approach is at once descriptive, explanatory, and prescriptive, attempting to analyze the case of Tafilelt city, measure its potential in sustainable urban environment, and produce knowledge on the importance of a contemporary reinterpretation of the vernacular and socio-cultural built heritage. The results show that a significant potential is found in the use of vernacular resources and the reinterpretation of the built and socio-cultural heritage of the region. The latter seems to be defined as an essential operation for achieving urban and societal sustainability, which succeeds in making people react, bringing them together and unifying them. Within this context, the paper looks at how Tafilelt's civil society has approached urban sustainability and discusses the importance of its principles, objectives, and strategies inspired from the M'Zab's heritage and vernacular resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Eastern Partnership (EaP) launched in 2009 as the Eastern dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy introduced the civil society as a new strategic actor in the EU's relations with Eastern Partnership countries. The civil society‟s role is to participate in policy making, to suggest new initiatives and to promote shared values of partnership, such as: democracy, promoting better governance, state law, sustainable development, respect for human rights and for the fundamental freedoms. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, we analyse the role of the civil society in the EaP and we ask whether the increasing role of the civil society in the EaP will lead to the success of this project. In the second part, we analyse the perceptions and the attitudes of civil society towards European integration.

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The principles of good governance, approved by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 2008, are seen as markers that determine the level of implementation of democratic values in Ukraine, which is confidently moving along the European path of social development chosen by the people. The role of civil society as a subject of implementation in Ukraine of the principles of good governance and its influence on the state policy on the implementation of European democratic values is substantiated. In order to identify the state of implementation in Ukraine of the principles of good governance contained in the European Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at the local level, an analysis of the process of their implementation in Ukraine through the National Strategy for Civil Society Development for 2016-2020 (hereinafter - National Strategy). 2020). In particular, the current state of reflection in the legislation of Ukraine of the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the implementation of the principles of good democratic governance is analysed. It is revealed to what extent the freedom of expression of different opinions and participation of citizens in the processes of social development during the implementation of the National Strategy 2020 is ensured in Ukraine. The article substantiates a set of measures to update the process of implementing the principles of good governance in the implementation of state policy to promote the development of civil society. In particular, the ways of further implementation of the principles of good democratic governance in Ukraine in the next National Strategy for 2021-2026 (hereinafter - the National Strategy-2026) are proposed.

The aim of this study is to assess the implementation of the principles of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union (hereinafter - the Agreement) in Ukraine in the field of civil society development, in particular in the implementation of the National Strategy for Civil Society Development for 2016-2020 (hereinafter - the National Strategy - 2020). A comparative analysis of ensuring in Ukraine the principles of stability and effectiveness of democratic institutions, rule of law, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as agreed by the Parties to the agreement in the field of domestic policy. The analysis revealed certain deviations from the provision of these democratic principles. Requirements for the content of the new National Strategy, which is being formed for 2021-2026 (hereinafter - the National Strategy - 2026) by joint efforts of the Ukrainian government and civil society organizations (CSOs) have been formulated. Based on the study, specific recommendations were made on the implementation of the principles of the Agreement in the draft of the new National Strategy - 2026 and on the further development of civil society in Ukraine.

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In current counter-terrorism efforts, the potential of civil society organizations is recognized by international actors for countering radical narratives and implementing prevention activities in non-Western countries. Civil society-led interventions, it is assumed, constitute a more sustainable as well as locally acceptable approach to reduce the threat of radicalization. In line with this, international actors including EU, UN and EU key-member states have lately incorporated this strategy in Tunisia, which since the fall of the Ben Ali regime in 2011 has experienced an increase in jihadist activities challenging the democratic consolidation of the country. In response to growing donor interest, the bulk of civil society organizations in Tunisia have recently started to develop policies and programs to counter violent extremism and radicalization. However, the lack of comprehensive empirical research on civil society engagement in counter- as well as de-radicalization complicates the assessment of scope and impact of these initiatives on local communities in Tunisia. To encounter this lacuna, this paper focuses on the experiences, subjective perception and practices of activists working on the ground in an arising Tunisian Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) landscape. (Critical) peacebuilding and development literature on civil society is introduced to investigate the interplay of international and local actors in the context of CVE interventions. 25 in-depth narrative interviews with local activists and international experts involved in developing CVE initiatives in Tunisia root this paper in rich empirical data that was analyzed by applying a Grounded Theory methodology. Due to the high dependency of civil society actors on external funding, international actors exert a strong influence on how preventative activities are designed and implemented and which local actors are involved. This paper further shows that this dependency does not just result in agenda adaptation, but rather that local actors, to some extent, can resist to the imposed donor agenda or strategically use the increased donor attention for their own purpose.

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Do civil society organizations have a didactic role in instructing its members about politics that extrapolates the immediate issues of interest of that organization? Most of the literature, especially that on the role of the participatory budgeting process of the Workers´ Party in Brazil, claims that such meetings are an opportunity structure for individuals to come together and not only debate their local problems, but also discuss politics more broadly. The same logic applies to other forms of activism, such as participation in Labor Unions, political parties, neighborhood associations and even church groups. This paper attempts to test, using a unique public opinion panel dataset of Brazilian voters collected in the 2002 elections, if activists are, in fact, better informed about politics, specifically, about campaign issues. In addition, the paper also tests if potential informational gaps caused by gender, race and class are attenuated by participation in civil society organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the social activity practices of the Catholic persons, as a set of individual and collective action emerging from the Catholic identity and structuralised under the Church-related formal non-profit initiatives. The purpose of the study is to clarify: (1) to what extent the Catholic unpaid social activities of different kinds could be classified as forms of volunteering and (2) to what extent the third sector definitions of volunteering include the specificity of Catholic activities. There are three reasons for observed tendencies to not include religion-oriented volunteering in voluntary studies. Firstly, while using tools for collecting data adequate for the secular world, researchers face methodological difficulties in order to successfully cover social activities organized in parishes and congregations. Secondly, fonist approach reflects the ideological-rooted tendency to treat religion as a matter pertaining to private life. Thirdly, some of religious-based entities tends to keep social activities of the believers inside the church-related circle. From the Catholic perspective, volunteer engagement represents an important aspect of faith-based daily activities, so called ‘lived religion’. Social engagement of believers provided within the church-related entities, as well as outside them, usually fulfils all the main features of volunteering. The relation between volunteering and religion is to be referred, not only to the general position of faith-based and religious organizations in public sphere, but also to the embeddedness of religious life in the society, as in fact, both religion and volunteering are categories social per se. Reflection on volunteering and Catholicism is illustrated by presenting empirical evidence from the 2018 panel expert research among representatives of 29 Catholic Bishops Conferences across Europe.

Cities in Turkey, following the neoliberal restructuring of the country, have undergone a process of transformation in the last decade at a greater pace than experienced in previous periods. Through these processes, while new territories have been constructed, previous formations have been dismantled. While some of these constructed territories are abstract (e.g. Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics [NUTS] regions), some are tangible and physically defined such as branded housing enclaves.Branded housing projects produce territories in the form of housing enclaves, which provide key services and facilities within their confines exclusively for project residents. By 2013, the number of branded housing projects located in Istanbul alone numbered 852 with the number of units provided by these projects amounting to 7.7% of the total housing stock the city (Sarıçayır 01/21/2014). This paper argues that these territories are co-produced by political society and civil society (in Gramscian terms): while political society regulates and directly contributes to the production of these territories through public actors involved in the branded housing projects, civil society contributes through the production of social consent for such developments. The article discusses the role of political society and civil society in the production of branded housing projects by focusing on the case of Emlak Konut GYO (Real Estate Partnership) projects developed in Istanbul between 2003 and 2014. Firstly, the role of political society is discussed through the roles of TOKI (Housing Development Administration of Turkey) and Emlak Konut GYO as major public actors in the development of these territories; and secondly, the role of civil society is discussed through excavating the traces of production of social consent for branded housing projects in news articles published on Emlak Konut GYO projects between 2003 and 2014. The paper concludes that branded housing projects are emerging as spatial territories in contemporary Turkey as a result of hegemonic struggle through political society and civil society.

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In the first part of my paper, I reconstruct the complex judgment on the process of civilization formulated by Mill starting from the essay Civilization. In particular, I intend to highlight the relationship be- tween freedom and constraint in the primitive and the civilized stage. Furthermore, I focus on Mill’s considerations of the positive and negative effects of the process of civilization. In the second part, however, I intend to show that there are two different opinions on the social func- tion of public opinion that can be traced back to two different groups of works: on the one hand, in Civilization and On Liberty, Mill takes up Tocquevillian themes and arguments. Public opinion is therefore configured as a tyrannical force and as such as a danger to the autonomy and freedom of the individual; on the other hand, in works such as On Perfectibility, Utilitarianism and Considerations on Representative Government, Mill argues that public opinion has an educational function. In the third part, I show the close correlation that exists between the stage of civilization achieved by society and the social function that public opinion should have.

This paper aimed to investigate the FDI determinants in 27 transition countries within the 2002 – 2018 period by employing system GMM analysis. One of the results of our research is that an uncertain political situation and civil liberties violations have a significant negative impact on foreign investors’ confidence. Generally, the erosion of democratic institutions acts as a deterrent to FDI inflows. Transition countries which experienced prolonged periods of central planning also recorded lower levels of FDI inflows. The results show that creating conditions for stimulating foreign investors through the improvement of institutional quality embodied in the control of corruption and voice and accountability impacted positively on FDI inflows. The interplays between overall institutional quality, voice and accountability, regulatory quality, government effectiveness and GDP growth are positive and significant. Hence, macroeconomic development has an important impact on the marginal effect of institutional quality. Therefore, we concluded that the influence of governance on FDI inflows is conditional on the transition countries’ macroeconomic performance. Our findings also reveal that of the governance dimensions, control of corruption and voice and accountability have a significant influence on the decision of multinationals to undertake investment.

Hegel’s interpretation of the question of poverty in modern states has been an important topic in Hegelian scholarship. His early engagement with political economy (e.g., John Locke, Adam Smith and James Steuart) and his attentiveness to social phenomena made him especially concerned with the ethical significance of poverty. Poverty is a puzzling issue for Hegel: it appears both as a necessary and unsolvable outcome of the modern rational ethical life and as an ethical failure that undermines the legitimation of this very form of life. In this paper, I articulate and defend Hegel’s understanding of poverty as an ethical failure, by showing that it frustrates fundamental aspects of the actualization of the concept of freedom. Also, I argue that Hegel’s failures in the face of this puzzle, namely that he is not able to map the necessity of this problem onto the rationale of modern ethical life, stem from the fact that he could not understand that there is another operative law in modern markets, i.e. the law of value, which does not correspond to the market’s rational justification as theorized in his account of “civil society”. Finally, I contend that the philosopher’s impasse expresses a rationality deficit in modern civil society itself. By arguing so I shed light on important aspects of Hegel’s conception of modernity and show how this interesting philosopher can be insightful even in his blind spots.

The paper focuses on the role of ethnocultural public associations, which are civil society institutions preserving ethnic identity. The authors investigate the role of ethnocultural public associations in preserving ethnic culture and language, and report the collaboration of these associations with population and youth. The authors place special emphasis on the specific practices of interaction between public organizations and the authorities in the field of national policy, the maintenance of ethnic identity and language, and the formation of an integrated civic identity and its strengthening in the polyethnic and polyconfessional space.

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Does the future of science rest in the hands of "civil society"? An international con- ference on "Science in Society: Dialogues and scientific responsibility" was held in Paris on 24 and 25 November 2008. The event was part of the initiatives instigated by the French Presidency of the Euro- pean Union. Its interest lies in the fact that it was a culmination of a series of scientific events devoted to the issue of relationships between science and society. Even though, as originally planned, the conference focussed on the European context, it showed that this issue had assumed an international dimension and become a research topic in itself. That said, discussions have shown that because of its many facets, of the importance of the problems and issues at stake, including political ones, the wealth of reflections this topic generates raises more questions than are solved. The great merit of the conference, however, was in providing an overview. Thanks to the attention given during the planning stage to making room for a wide diversity of standpoints, the conference provided the material for a critical reflection on follow up action to be considered. Our paper takes up this objective in a spirit of continuity of the conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper presents the main methodological and conceptual challenges when doing research on the impact of the Internet on civil society organizations in Central America. It also presents a summary of the nine most important findings. The main purpose of this research, undertaken since the end of 1999, is to assess how technology has transformed civil society organizations and their ability to fulfill their missions. This work is led by the Social Impact of ICTs Research Area in Fundación Acceso based in Costa Rica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper attempts to offer a framework for understanding the interdependence between modern civil society and the democratic state in all its complexity and mutual relations. The author seeks inspiration in two very significant sources - in a reconstruction of Tocqueville's social theory and thought, and in Giddens' theory of reflexive modernity. In the first step, the author offers a robust normative perspective of the concept of a civil society and, in the second step, tries to outline the complex interpretative framework for an empirical analysis of state-civil society relations. The presented schemes are intended to support the ambition of overcoming to a certain extent the crucial sociological paradox between the macro- and the micro-sociological approach and considering both the functional-structural perspective and the empirical point of view of the civil society concept. Finally, the author attempts to formulate a justifiable framework for practical action and institutional provisions, both in the public and in the sphere of political power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The concept of resilience acquired academic momentum and pervaded a growing number of crosscutting disciplines along the second half of the twentieth century. Drawing on its epistemological flexibility, its implicit redefinition of agency and the inclusion of the parameters of uncertainty and the inevitability of crisis in its very core, it did not take long until the fields of International Relations and foreign policy-making paid thorough attention to its potential outreach and operationalization. Nor it is surprising that the European Union, imbued in a comprehensive review of its external strategy’s flaws and shortages, embraced the term as a means to underpin the paradigmatic bridge laid by the guidance of principled pragmatism. Yet, resilience-fostering can point at states or societies, and the authoritarian nature of Egypt’s regime compels to prioritize the latter, in accordance to EU’s democratic stance. The current paper will offer a brief review of EU foreign-policy approaches vis-à-vis Egypt, an European Neighbourhood Policy/Instrument walkthrough and it will aim at putting in quantitative terms what kind of resilience is the Union placing at the forefront. To conclude, a series of recommendations will be formulated for EU resilience strategy.

The so-called Web 2.0 will be identified with the use of different digital tools generated around the concepts of collaboration or participation. The objective of this research is the analysis and categorization of diverse digital tools of free access that the civil society uses in a collaborative way, allowing to modify the society in benefit of all, thus generating digital social capital. This paper analyzes the concept of "social capital" and its transition to digital. The methodology used is an analysis sheet, which proposes a classification of those initiatives that involve greater participation, self-management, control and development by citizens over their own interests, without intermediaries. In conclusion, the appropriate use of certain technological tools provides civil society with the possibility of generating digital social capital for the common good.

Albania has undertaken important national and international legal commitments to combat discrimination and to promote and make gender equality a reality. In this context, governmental structures, in cooperation with civil society and international organizations, have particularly worked towards improving gender sensitive legislation and policies, building and strengthening structures in support of gender equality and preventing and fighting violence against women and domestic violence. Albanian governments through years have drafted several strategies that sustain and protect women's rights, with the support of several international organizations and various NGOs. Personal rights and freedoms recognized in the context of human rights include a wide range of rights. Analyzing such rights in general terms is a broad-spectrum issue, so in this paper we will only deal with some of them.

The concept of social innovation is the subject of active discussion in almost any country of the world. This trend is typical of Russia too, and the introduction of social innovation in our country was discussed back in the Soviet period. Taking into account the fact that Russian research findings are not included in the international discourse on a wide scale, we consider it important to summarize the experience in the field of social innovation and highlight characteristic features of its development. The paper consistently analyzes the works of Russian scientists of different periods; this allows us to trace the transformation of views on the social innovation essence. Addressing practical aspects in the social innovation development, we find that the main features of their implementation in Russia are as follows: prevalence of top-down initiatives, development of social entrepreneurship and the non-profit sector of the economy, and creation of support infrastructure.

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Based on qualitative research conducted in Lebanon and Turkey in 2018, this paper centers on Syrian women working in various civil society organizations (CSOs) in the Syrian post-2011 context. It examines conflict and host-context impacts on Syrian women’s participation in CSOs. Using an intersectional framework derived from feminist studies, it argues that gender, socioeconomic status and ethnic/national identity are key intersecting social markers that influence the ability of Syrian women to participate in CSOs in these countries. Findings also demonstrate the value of intersectional approaches in improving our current understanding of discriminatory practices against Syrian women in civil society.

Palestinian and Saharawi resistance to Israeli and Moroccan military occupation and colonization has taken creative forms, inevitably engaging internationally, while Palestinians and Sahrawis endeavor to disseminate their own narratives. For instance, alternative media and social networks are added to the means used to break both physical and informational siege, against editorial limitations or political alliances that dictate how news stories are framed or silenced and how struggles are legitimized or vilified, either they use violent tactics or not. This paper tackles Palestinian and Saharawi resistance as a dispute and expansion of spaces of international solidarity, and to address them it brings recent experiences. Such expansion happens especially through alternative means of communication, but also through growing political and academic engagement from various levels and disciplines, especially but not only from general social sciences, International Relations (IR) and International Law (IL). Moreover, state and international civil society actors get involved not only due to ethical concerns with human rights violations but also as a direct engagement in struggles for liberation. Hence, spaces in which Palestinian, Saharawi and international activists promote resistance are addressed here as an ongoing dispute for the international arena, drawing contributions from IR and IL.

Freelance journalists in China emerged in the early 2000s as a much-needed professional entity in a sector that had changed significantly since the media reform was launched in the country in 1978. When Chinese newspapers, which formerly survived thanks to state funds, had to adopt a business mindset, freelance writers became necessary to sustain these changes. They contributed in particular to the diffusion and standardization of the genre of the “commentary on current affairs” (shiping 时评), establishing themselves as new and original voices in a media system that is still tightly controlled. Building on an analysis of the linguistic features of a corpus of qualitative interviews conducted with Chinese freelance writers between 2008 and 2015, this paper studies their self-representation and understanding of their mission, discussing the extent to which they believe their independent opinions matter in the public arena, in a context that has been changing quickly, due to the decline of print media and due to a new political environment.

The current paper results from a research developed in the metropolitan area of João Pessoa – PB that has the objective of investigating the socio-environmental NGOs performance in the last decades and the ways it has contributed to social legitimacy of environmental problems. Theoretically, the article was based on local literature, on a dialogue with Political Ecology and the authors debating about the resurgence of Civil Society in the last decades of 20th century. The research adopted a qualitative methodological design to explore the experience of eight local socio-environmental NGOs through nine semi-structured interviews with representative members of these organizations. The interviews focused on the history of NGOs constitution, the actions taken, the relations established with other social spheres, their organizational and financial strategies, the perception they have on local environmental problems, the difficulties faced in order to survive and what they think about local environmental culture. The results showed that the entities of this kind in the metropolitan area still are few and small and surviving, mostly, from voluntary work and contributions of their own members. However, in spite of the problems they have on a daily basis, these organizations have played a fundamental role in regional public life. They were able to do so through the defense of environmental causes, the protection of nature and the quality of life of local population, the broadening of public sphere, the educational and cultural diffusion of environmental issues and the progressive advance of political culture and democratic participation.

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