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This article offers a discursive analysis of the Conservative green paper for international development, published as part of the closely fought election campaign of 2010 that culminated in a UK coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. The article examines the paper in comparison with the discursive shifts represented by the first Department for International Development (DfID) white paper, published by the outgoing Labour administration in 1997. In contrast with the optimistic and globalist developmentalism that characterised Labour's development discourse, the green paper sounds a more cautious note, using empire to focus on Britain's leadership role in poverty alleviation rather than on global progress, and brings back the full force of developmentalism only at the point where it seeks to legitimate spending on security concerns as a development concern. The article then moves on to examine the green paper's most explicit discursive move, the signalling of a 'post-bureaucratic age'. This move towards increased information provision to promote transparency and accountability is likely to signal greater control by powerful donors in securitised times, albeit with a potential re-scaling of responsibility for poverty alleviation to the poorest local communities. Finally, the article looks briefly at information technologies in relation to the transnational spatiality of civil society, arguing that attention needs to be paid to the more embodied forms of transnational association encouraged by the green paper, and to the selection and impacts of information, which need to be seen in the discursive context of wider Conservative constructions of the 'big society'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on options for reforming European governance. White Paper of the European Commission.

The concept of ‘civil society’ has been rediscovered in contemporary discourses concerning the relationship between democracy and governance. This paper analyses this rediscovery in the more specific context of the European Commission’s 2001 White Paper on European Governance. However, processes of transnationalisation, governmentalisation and autonomisation may compromise much of the potential of ‘European civil society’ as an intermediating sphere of social action. By reinforcing these processes, the White Paper undermines the normative claims made for a civil society premised upon the voluntary nature of its associative forms and its distinctive open, communicative and deliberative rationality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using ethnographic research from Pakistan, this paper argues that social accountability programmes that overlook the role of intermediaries in clientelistic states risk undermining the wider democratising projects they seek to support. It proposes a theory of 'isomorphic activism' that describes how these public authorities appropriate others' opportunities to participate in politics and, in the process, undermine democratic norms. Isomorphic activism is shown to be more likely when programmes are based on ideals of civil society that render activism a technical exercise, depoliticise it and blind donors to power inequalities. The challenges the paper highlights are important given calls for development programmes to change by whom and how politics is done, whilst granting local ownership to participants and demonstrating value for money. They should also be of interest to those concerned by the spread of reductive views of civil society activism within donor organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature on political corporate social responsibility (PCSR) by considering the forward‐looking, political responsibilities of corporations in relation to structural injustice, based on a critical engagement with Iris Marion Young's Social Connection Model (SCM) of responsibility. Although Young's SCM serves as a key reference point in the PCSR literature, engagement with her work tends to be superficial and lacks critical engagement. By offering a more developed engagement with Young's SCM, this paper addresses several themes that have been highlighted as being insufficiently developed in the PCSR literature. In particular, this paper considers (i) the grounds for corporate political responsibility in relation to structural injustice rather than globalization; (ii) the scope of corporate political responsibilities vis‐à‐vis other actors; and (iii) the role of power in relation to deliberative processes and in relation to scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of state‐society relations (SSR) in the industrial sector on the sustainable economic growth of post‐Revolution Tunisia. The empirical part of the paper depends mainly on qualitative data collected from fieldwork interviews with the most important actors and publications of civil society organizations. The paper suggests the presence of state capture as the defining characteristic of SSR in post‐Revolution Tunisia. The combination of having powerful tycoons, weaker state, and ineffectively organized social actors produced conditions that harmed sustainability. These settings allowed tycoons to violate environmental regulations and prevented Green innovation through the adoption of Green technologies. Yet, factors such as low value‐added creation, increased labor‐intensity, and low environmental awareness or prioritization all interact with state capture to lower sustainability. In those sectors where tycoons are active and dominant, competing social actors are incapable of effectively exploiting the presence of a freer political system, ultimately failing to successfully organize resisting coalitions, as evident in the textile sector. While higher resistance is witnessed where tycoons are not dominant as was the case in the phosphate sector, tycoons could still use the situation to their advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil society is seen as a key actor within and for global development. However, spatial representations of civil society within the global development landscape are dominated by scale, place, and verticality, neglecting more relational understandings of civic participation. Engaging with archipelagic thinking, drawn from the work of Édouard Glissant, Derek Walcott, and others, this paper makes a case for thinking about civil society through archipelagic relational ontologies. By employing an archipelagic lens to empirical material from research with civil society groups in Barbados and Grenada, the paper explores the relational creativity and metamorphic transformations that are part of civil society action. Utilising an archipelagic lens to think about civil society organising emphasises how civil society activity is produced, performed, and operationalised through creative relational arrangements that span (and contest) dominant spatial categories. For civil society actors this 'metamorphic creativity' – the crafting of these relations, the bringing together of 'bits and pieces', and the transforming and reworking of these relations to produce new forms and spaces of civic activity – is key to sustaining civil society and their own civic identities. This illustrates the creative, yet fragile nature of civil society, concluding that through these metamorphic relations civil society actors foster new civic spaces and identities, yet civil society simultaneously may also be constituted through, and potentially (re)produce (new) hierarchies of power. Civil society is seen as a key actor within and for global development. However, spatial representations of civil society within the global development landscape tend to neglect relational understandings of civic participation. This paper engages with archipelagic thinking to explore the importance of creative relationalities for civil society organising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction to the four papers that make up the themed section locates them in the wider theoretical, comparative, and historical perspectives from which they originate. First, it places the study of communalist or sectarian identities in the Middle East in broader comparative debates about the study of ethnic and nationalist identities. It then examines the causalities underpinning the shifting relationship between these different identities in the Middle East. Taking modernity as a starting point, it looks at the integration of the region into a global capitalist market from the mid‐19th century and the consequences of this transformation. It then examines the external imposition and growth in coherence and capacity of geographically delineated states. It details the influence that neo‐liberal policy prescriptions have had on those states and their relationship to society. Finally, it examines the role that a series of extended wars played in the forging of and competition between different sets of identities, trans‐state Arab nationalism, state‐based nationalism, and religious and ethnic identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climatic changes can cause unpredictability in flood regimes that traditional flood risk management (FRM) approaches may struggle with. Therefore, flood resilience is seen as a supplementation to these approaches, putting a larger emphasis on flood acceptance and minimising consequences. An (emergent) group contributing towards flood resilience is civil society. This paper examines how civil society contributions can be furthered and guided in the Netherlands as well as exploring potential limitations in doing so. To achieve this, England is used as a good practice example due to a more developed and defined role for civil society being present here. Data were collected on both actual (England and the Netherlands) and potential (The Netherlands) civil society contributions. These were compared to identify potential avenues for Dutch civil society contributions to flood resilience that can be further investigated. The research shows that the most promising avenues are improving advocacy from citizens, improving local flood awareness and developing relationships between FRM authorities and existing citizen groups that can be harnessed and mobilised to support flood resilience. Additionally, the research also provides insights into potential limitations for transferring resilience approaches from one context to another beyond the cases discussed in this publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the roles of media actors in relation to civil society actors in advocacy campaigns, and what factors shape these roles? Interested in media strategies of civil society actors, the paper examines the advocacy for a 'right to information' law in Ghana. While journalists are obvious partners in pushing for the right to information, the civil society‐led advocacy encountered a passive media. Focused on mechanisms of engaging media actors as advocates in civil society‐led advocacy, this study relies on interviews with key actors in the advocacy campaign and textual analysis of news coverage, spanning 2010–2019. The paper posits that mainly two factors contributed to the media taking a more active role in the campaign; the Civil Society Organisations changed their approach and how they communicated and related to media actors, and media actors developed more awareness and understanding of the advocacy issue. Two important main mechanisms are uncovered in this study. First, it matters how civil society actors perceive of media actors in their media strategy, and how this in turn is received by media actors. Second, when CSOs seek to engage media as partners, it is necessary to also give room for their ownership and advocacy as independent partners. The paper recommends a more actor‐centric approach to the media in civil society organisations' media strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key functions of environmental law is to amplify the voice of those seeking to hold the powerful to account for their environmental performance. Now that the UK has exited the EU's legal and institutional architecture, we turn to domestic law to glimpse the future of environmental accountability. This paper reviews the measures in the Environment Bill. Accountability measures are only ever as effective as the energy of those making use of them. This paper argues that environmental civil society needs to act strategically and collectively to shape the institutional arrangements provided by the (hoped for) Environment Act 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, by looking at the role of Taiwanese citizens in civic organisations for marriage migrants, explores how women's agency and negotiation occur not only against masculine dominance within patriarchal family arrangements, but also in alliance with it, when oppression is located somewhere beyond the family. In contrast to literature that depicts marriage migration as a women's and migrants' issue, this paper explores the role of Taiwanese citizens (often husbands in cross‐border marriages) in shaping the evolution of the phenomenon in both the private and public spheres. The aim of this paper is to fill a gap in empirical literature on marriage migration in Taiwan and East Asia, as well as contribute to feminist debates on women's agency in the context of masculine dominance. Building on ethnographic data collected through fieldwork in Taiwan, including in‐depth interviews and participant observation within civil society organisations for marriage migrants, this paper reveals how Taiwanese male citizens and Chinese female migrants responded to the challenges brought by their decision to engage in cross‐border unions by creating a new narrative that could explain their condition of shared oppression and by developing joint actions to address the structural discrimination they faced as cross‐border couples in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I analyze the changing nationalist narratives of golden age in the Balkans. By zooming in on the case studies of the late nineteenth‐ and early twenty‐first‐century South‐East European societies, I explain how and why the images of the mythical past are articulated differently in the two historical periods. I argue that in the nineteenth century golden age rhetoric was mostly a top‐down phenomenon centered on transforming Balkan peasantry into the loyal members of their new nation‐states. By the early twenty‐first century, this process has reached its institutional limits and the golden age narratives have become a bottom‐up phenomenon: the key agents of their creation and dissemination are members of civil society, social movements, and ordinary people. I focus on the structural processes that underpin this change to explain the historical dynamics of nationalisms. The paper is based on the qualitative text analysis using nineteenth‐century and early twentieth‐century archival materials and the documents from the contemporary mass media, official records, educational materials, and popular culture in the Balkans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impacts of three cash transfer programs, one for orphans and vulnerable children (CT‐OVC), one for older persons (OPCT) and a universal social pension (Inua Jamii Senior Citizens' Scheme), for citizen‐state relations in areas of Kenya that experienced high levels of electoral violence in 2007. Drawing on 40 interviews with civil servants and community leaders and 16 focus group discussions with both beneficiaries and non‐beneficiaries of the cash transfer programs conducted across two sub‐counties in Nakuru, this paper argues that the central state, in the wake of post‐electoral violence, effectively mobilised state power to make and enforce geographic targeting decisions down to the village level in an effort to mitigate ethnic tensions and strengthen citizen‐state relations. The paper further argues that the success of such localised distribution in strengthening citizen‐state relations has been limited due to incomplete program coverage, limited information about targeting procedures, and citizens' prior experiences with the state which collectively undermine citizens' perceptions of inclusion and exclusion at the local level. These findings are brought into conversation with other research on cash transfers and citizenship across Kenya to parse out the ways in which the impacts of cash transfer programs for citizen‐state relations are mediated by state infrastructural power, citizens' prior experiences with the state, and key aspects of program design. The paper also examines the implications of these findings for other countries across Africa that have experienced generalised electoral violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sweden has long been regarded as a 'model' for societal development. Recently, with the rise of an anti‐immigrant party and negative news coverage of crime, the image of a progressive Sweden has frayed. Positive models for societal development have existed in the past and included the United States during the heyday of modernization theory. This paper argues that positive models are useful, partly to crystallize options among the much‐debated varieties of capitalism, and partly as ideals which can be held up by social thinkers and publics as aspirations for the good society. This paper reviews the evolution of the Swedish model from a 'middle way' between Soviet communism and American capitalism to a welfare state under strain. It also examines how the Swedish model has been reinforced by its high international standing. The perceptions of Sweden abroad and domestically have changed in recent years. While these perceptions have correctly identified challenges not just for Sweden but also for other countries with similar problems, Sweden's government and civil society may be able to address them. The paper explores the lessons that can be learned from the current shortcomings and potential renewal of the strengths of the Swedish model, including its wider influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, debates about the localisation of humanitarian aid have intensified. Dominant discourse focuses on reform, although calls for the broader decolonisation of aid are mounting. This paper examines the impact of neoliberal‐inspired competition that incentivises institutional expansion and clashes with localisation. It introduces the concept of the 'conflict paradox' to illustrate how armed conflict and restricted humanitarian access for international actors can both empower and disempower local and national humanitarian actors (LNHAs). These themes are then demonstrated using case studies of Myanmar, Somalia, and Somaliland, revealing the potential for LNHAs to demand humanitarian system change, as well as the challenges to doing so. The paper concludes that for localisation to progress towards decolonisation, fundamental ideological shifts away from the neoliberal competitive mindset are essential. Notably, there is a need to move from low‐quality localisation (subcontracting) to high‐quality localisation grounded in solidarity and an emancipatory agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Queer refugees are misfits in the global political economy of migration. While international human rights law has provided some room for queer acceptance, queer refugees face organised abandonment—marginality, erasure, and invisibility—as they attempt to survive in the face of ongoing displacement. This paper explores queer refugee survival in Nairobi, Cape Town, and Paris, and examines the netted practices of the state, non‐state actors, and civil society embedded in a landscape of heteronormativity and anti‐migrant sentiment. In so doing, this paper emphasises queerness as a form of precarity inseparable from the overarching violence of race, class, and capital. With this critique in mind, queer refugee survival is constrained by the lack of access to shelter, community, and work‐related social reproduction. In short, queer refugees face deeper marginality than their cis‐gendered and heterosexual counterparts as they attempt to survive in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of DOMES: Digest of Middle East Studies is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Policy & Internet is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Swiss Political Science Review is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the new global development goals guiding the work of mainstream development actors until 2030. The shift to "sustainable development" marks a response to climate change and constitutes a rebranding of international development as global development, prominently by the UN, World Bank, and IMF. In this paper, I draw from recent fieldwork in Bolivia to question what is being globalised. In response to calls for northern geographers to better attend to new forms of coloniality and knowledge production, I take seriously indigenous agendas for development, land, and sovereignty to critique Agenda 2030 with decolonial territorial agendas and theories of environmental justice. I argue that the implementation of Agenda 2030 has reconfigured the borderlands between international development and indigenous territorial agendas. In a drastic reworking of the "boomerang effect," development infrastructure is being disconnected from anti‐extractive indigenous territorial politics, as the modes of engagement between states, the private sector, and NGOs are reconfigured by the unifying agenda of sustainable development – weakening both indigenous struggles for territorial sovereignty and the environmental remit of the SDGs. An environmental justice perspective locates the case of the Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro (TIPNIS) Secure case within a bigger struggle between local claims to land and global extractive capital, foregrounding that decolonial agendas for territory are entangled with contemporary extractive capitalism. In seeking consensus between states, the private sector, and civil society, the SDGs minimise the sites of conflict that instruct "sustainable development," revealing both a critical weakness of the SDGs and a pathway towards their greater effectiveness. The 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the new global development goals guiding the work of mainstream development actors until 2030 and constituting a rebranding of international development as global development, prominently by the UN, World Bank and IMF. In this paper, I draw from recent fieldwork in Bolivia and take seriously indigenous agendas for development, land, and sovereignty, critiquing Agenda 2030 with decolonial territorial agendas and theories of environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing emphasis on the local level as well as growing expectations regarding civil society actors in flood‐risk management in the UK. However, not enough is known about the potential contributions of civil society to flood resilience at the local level. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by conceptualising flood resilience at the local level across three phases inherent to flood disasters: pre‐flood, during the flood and post‐flood. These phases act as the foundation for this paper's exploration of the contributions of civil society to local‐level flood resilience. Data were collected before, during and after the 2015 Boxing Day floods through interviews (in 2015 and 2017) and from secondary data sources. The paper identifies the importance of time and place when analysing civil society contributions to local level flood resilience. These contributions were dynamic over time with a strong initial response that diminished over time due to apathy, "active forgetting" and lack of further exposure. Exposure and a sense of community strongly influenced civil society contributions to flood resilience in the Upper Calder Valley. Issues of representation and varying place‐based capacities were also identified as relevant for flood resilience‐based policies. These results have larger implications for our understanding of the contributions of civil society actors to flood resilience and suggest that while they can deliver better local context‐specific approaches, there needs to be caution over the long‐term sustainability and longevity of their contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The launch of the European Pillar of Social Rights occurred at a phase of endogenous critical juncture for Social Europe. By analyzing the Pillar's formulation and adoption process, we investigate to what extent the European Commission used the involvement of civil society and policy responsiveness to foster change in the modes of governance and legitimize stronger intervention in the social sphere, by re‐launching the methods of coordination introduced in the 1990s. Methodologically, we rely on a content analysis of EU policy documents before and after the public consultations, a content analysis of over 60 position papers and on interviews with policy actors. We find that despite increased openness and responsiveness, the Pillar initiative did not allow to alter the predominance of 'soft law' routes and patterns of intergovernmentalism characterizing the governance of EU social policy, a result that further qualifies the conditions that lead (endogenous) critical junctures to generate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions between horizontal accountability agencies (e.g., anti‐corruption agencies [ACAs]) and social accountability actors (e.g., journalists, civil society activists, and complainants/whistleblowers) are recognized as important to horizontal agencies' performance, but the reason(s) is not clear. This study therefore explores why horizontal accountability agencies need social accountability actors in performing their functions. The study analyses data from 30 key stakeholders in Australia, including ACAs staff members, social accountability actors, and other observers to report on the specific support roles social actors play to ACAs' activities and operations. Through the conceptual lens of social accountability, evidence show that social actors play four key types of support roles to ACAs' activities and operations: activate ACAs' investigations; "amplify" ACAs' operations; guard ACAs' activities and operations; and defend ACAs' independence and powers. These findings support the need for interactions and, also, affirm the potential for research into how these support roles can better be provided for effective anti‐corruption outcomes. The research is of value to public accountability agencies in Australia, and internationally. This paper examines why anti‐corruption agencies (ACAs) need social accountability actors to effectively perform their accountability functions. It shows that social actors play four key support roles to ACAs' activities and operations: activate ACAs' investigations; "amplify" ACAs' operations; guard ACAs' operations; and defend ACAs' independence and powers. The findings are of value to public accountability agencies in Australia and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is fierce controversy in the United States over whether parents should be able to choose their children's schools and/or curriculum. To discuss the pedagogical arguments inherent in this question, Todd Alan Price and Ruprecht Mattig begin with the classical concept of Bildung as developed by Wilhelm von Humboldt around 1800. Next, they compare Humboldt's ideas with the ideas of John Stuart Mill and Milton Friedman, who stand in the tradition of liberal thought, as Mill was strongly influenced by Humboldt and Friedman, in turn, by Mill. Finally, they consider Friedman's role as a central figure in the school choice movement, and are thus able to trace a line of thought from Humboldt to actual controversies. Price and Mattig's analysis here shows that the liberalism of Humboldt, Mill, and Friedman revolves around diversity and choice in education. Moreover, it traces that in the process of translating, translocating, and transcontextualizing Humboldt's original thought through Mill to Friedman, the complexity of arguments about education and the role of parents and the state in a liberal society has been unduly reduced. The authors conclude the paper by proposing a principle for thinking about the relationship between different educational institutions in democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia has generated a large and growing number of conflicts between rural communities and palm oil companies over, mainly, access to land. Employing a detailed documentation of 150 such conflicts in four Indonesian provinces, this paper assesses and evaluates how local, national and international NGOs help communities address their grievances. We find that rights‐based activism characterises only a small portion of NGOs working on land conflicts, as a more common strategy revolves around political brokerage. NGOs generally fail to achieve significant impact, with the partial exception of (those connected with) international NGOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Guidelines establish a framework for how therapeutics and vaccines are developed, assessed and approved. They influence which innovations are likely to be approved in the European Union (EU), and thus, they have an impact on the pipeline decisions taken by research‐based industry. This study analyses the level of acceptance for changes suggested by stakeholders within the authoring groups at the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Methods: We looked at 87 guidelines from EMA Working Parties (WPs) launched for consultation between 2013 and 2017. Acceptance of stakeholder proposals and the time between the end of consultation and guideline adoption were studied as well as the openness of different WPs to accept changes. Results: Adoption of a guideline after the close of public consultation took at least 4 months, with an average of 12–16 months. The number of accepted and rejected comments were nearly equal across the stakeholders, with government having slightly higher chance for acceptance. Academia and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) had generally higher chances to have their comments accepted for general and indication‐level guidelines. Government and individual companies had highest acceptance for molecule‐level guidelines and trade associations for indication‐level guidelines. Only a third of the comments related to scientific content of the guideline. Conclusion: This pattern of progress in regulatory science at EMA demonstrates the essential and interrelated role of academia, industry, government and civil society—described as the quadruple helix model—to promote establishment of a strong innovation ecosystem in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the turn of the century, an increasing number of governments around the world has introduced or tightened restrictions on civil society organizations (CSOs). Attempts by local CSOs and external actors to counter this trend of shrinking civic spaces have been mostly unsuccessful. In a few notable cases, however, civic space restrictions have been reversed or even prevented from being adopted in the first place. Focusing on resistance to so‐called NGO laws, this paper explores the strategies, causal mechanisms and scope conditions that help explain the successful defense of civic space. In a first step, the paper develops a theoretical framework by drawing on research on the diffusion and promotion of international norms, civic resistance and social movements. Second, it looks at two cases – Kenya (2013) and Kyrgyzstan (2013–2016) – in which governmental attempts to impose legal restrictions on foreign‐funded NGOs were effectively aborted. The analysis finds that successful resistance in both cases was based on domestic campaigns organized by broad alliances of local CSOs, which were able to draw on preexisting mobilizing structures and put forward a socioeconomic narrative to lobby against civic space restrictions. In Kyrgyzstan, but not in Kenya, external actors also played a significant role. The question of how governments respond to resistance to NGO laws brings us to a final issue that merits further investigation. Instead of trying to push through planned legal restrictions, governments may also turn to non‐ or extralegal measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In societies where civic space is closing, integrity in the civic sector is critical for its sustainability. Where state regulatory frameworks are inadequate, or worse, manipulative, self‐regulation can help defend the sector's integrity and strengthen the ability of civic associations to serve the public and contribute to democracy. This paper describes the strategic role in self‐regulation of a particular type of third sector actor in Mexico, the coordinating body or civic network. A case study of the Mexican Center for Philanthropy (CEMEFI) and its Accreditation in Institutionalization and Transparency project illustrates the contribution of NGO networks in service to the sector, and their key role in diffusion of norms of transparency and accountability within the civic sector and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how dynamics between Brazil's right‐wing populist government and civil and uncivil organizations affected the role of civil organizations, especially rights‐based ones, and Brazil's democratization process. These dynamics contributed to stripping policies of their progressive nature and rejecting the values of diversity, freedom, and equality. Our analysis relies on the inhabited institutions approach to comprehend the role of action, interaction, and meaning in institutionalized spaces. We analyzed two policy fields—gender, sexual, and reproductive rights, and ethnic and racial relations—through documents and in‐depth interviews. Our analysis shows that Bolsonaro's government mobilized mechanisms related to institutional changes, the replacement of actors, and their interactions to inhibit civil society organizations' influence in policy formulation and provision and strengthen the participation of uncivil groups, thereby legitimating conservative ideas and discourses, and closing civic space for NGOs with rights‐based agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decade ago an exploration of civil society in South Africa, Tajikistan and Argentina highlighted its role in supporting democratization. Despite continuing global autocratic trends since then, South Africa and Argentina have remained vibrant democracies with strong civil societies. Tajikistan, in contrast, remains autocratic, and civil society has apparently weakened in recent years. However, at the grassroots level a combination of traditional grassroots organizations and Internet organizing provides a more complex picture of the relationships between local participation, ties with other civil society organizations, democratization and development. The purpose of this paper is to highlight both these relationships and the contrast between local democratization and national autocracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the actual and potential contributions of community‐led initiatives (CLIs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As examples of self‐determined practical action for sustainability and social justice, CLIs prefigure many of the intended outcomes of the SDGs. Existing evidence shows that CLIs are already contributing, at local scale, to almost all of the SDGs, and achieving particular success in bringing different goals into synergy. However, these achievements are based on ethics, guiding philosophies, issue framings, practical goals and ways of organising that differ significantly from those behind the formulation and delivery of the SDGs. Embracing those differences, and with them greater plurality and ongoing critical self‐reflection, would allow the SDGs to transcend certain self‐limiting contradictions, particularly concerning the role of economic growth. Such a shift in orientation is essential if the SDGs are to move from reinforcing to challenging the root causes of unsustainability and injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil Society spaces provide citizens opportunities to frame their collective identities and interests through the formation of voluntary interest groups and organisations set to specific purposes. In the west, historically these interest groups have contributed to the development of political thought that assisted to forge the economic interests of emerging bourgeoisie. This paper situated in the context of India begins with a thematic perspective and reviews the challenges that emerge as a result of the demands that emerge within the civil society space. The paper considered three broad range organizations for this review such as the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the river Narmada Campaign); National Alliance for People's Movement (NAPM); and the Self‐Employed Women's Association (SEWA). The authors see civil society as a conciliating place—where individual interests appear to mingle with societal requirements while providing adequate representation to the marginalized groups and expression of concerns around economic and environmental rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa presents a unique case for mining development and impacts on sustainability because the lines between the mining industry and the state are unclear and due to the increasing inequality between citizens. This questions the potential for citizens to hold mining industries (and government) accountable for environmental abuse. This paper examines the ability of civil society actors to take action against (coal) mining development by way of social capital collective actions in the natural tourist destination in Dullstroom. Semistructured interviews were conducted with various social actors and are reported in this paper. The paper highlights that local responses to engage in social capital against mining development for local sustainability are best understood in relation to the socio‐economic and political positioning of individuals and ethnic groups. Overall, class and race differences, a tough farming environment, and perceptions and priorities of mining versus tourism jobs undermined capacity for social capital to act against mining risks. There is a need for social capital bridging and linking ties to protect the environment for tourism growth and long‐term human‐environment sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyses the extent to which the civil society organizations (CSOs) have influenced the decision‐making of the local government toward the needs and priorities of citizens. In development discourse, civil society organizations hold a significant importance as they are deemed to provide holistic and new ways to ensure participatory local governance. Therefore, their role against the backdrop of their involvement in mobilizing citizens’ involvement and influencing decision‐making in Pakistan calls for further research. This paper aims to fill this gap. Using qualitative research methods, the current paper appraises the role of CSOs in mobilizing public involvement in the decision‐making process of local government institutions of Punjab, Pakistan. The paper finds that the effectiveness of CSOs is very low due to various institutional and political constraints. Motivations for CSOs seeking citizen involvement have been instrumental in nature rather than motivated by participatory principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A unique model of government and civil society cooperation has emerged in Ukraine since the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and grew even more important amid the full‐scale invasion of Russia. Recent reforms and teacher professional development in Ukraine build on this model that promotes addressing national‐level challenges in equitable partnerships between government and civil society organisations (CSOs). This paper considers examples and results of their cooperation and draws on: (1) experiences in teacher education—specifically, from the EdWay national platform and the SEE Learning programme, both implemented by EdCamp Ukraine NGO (EdCamp); (2) national sociological studies—specifically, the 2018 study Teach and Learn, and the 2021 Feasibility Study on Opportunities for Social and Emotional Learning in Ukraine; (3) and data from the 2022 case study SEE Learning in Ukraine Through Teachers' Eyes: Before, During, and After the War. Experiences and study data demonstrate the need to support Ukrainian teachers in developing social and emotional skills both for self‐help and for students. These findings align with the requirements of the current New Ukrainian School reform. The authors discuss the potential education CSOs possess in addressing teacher needs for developing emotional and ethical competence and corresponding soft skills. It may be predicted that government and civil sector collaboration will continue to play an important role in the development of education in Ukraine. These expectations are supported by Ukraine's involvement in the 2023 OECD Survey on Social and Emotional Skills where EdCamp is the designated national research centre in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until the 1990s, secular feminism prevailed in the socialist Balkan countries, while religious feminism appeared only as an exception in the works of certain Catholic theologians. After democratic changes, gender equality was reaffirmed, but there was no dialogue in feminist knowledge production between secular and religious feminists. This paper presents initiatives by religious scholars and activists aimed at overcoming the secular‐religious divide in achieving gender equality. It looks at two key regional initiatives: Believers and Citizens, and the Feminism and Religion online school. These initiatives established collaborations between feminist scholars from various academic disciplines, religions, and worldviews and connected activists from civil society organizations and religious communities. The interreligious and interdisciplinary nature of these initiatives is unique not only in the Balkan region but also in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Korean authorities have the responsibility to protect (R2P) their people from starvation. Yet, reports of death from starvation in North Korea have been consistent since the widespread famine during the so‐called "Arduous March." According to Amartya Sen, in a society with massive starvation and food refugees, famine crises are not merely due to food availability decline (FAD). Instead, the dominant variable in such crises is the food entitlement decline (FED) of vulnerable social groups. Therefore, since the repeated failure of the North Korean government to fulfill its responsibility justifies and obliges the international community to act, the "food entitlement" of the North Korean people needs to be further explored from social, economic, and political perspectives to help clarify and validate such international responsibility. Focusing on Kim Jong‐un's leadership since 2012, this paper explores the substance and causes of FAD and FED in North Korea and monitors any changes. To seek effective commitments from the international community, including South Korea, the current research also analyzes the impact of the persistent violation of the people's right to food on the North Korean economic‐social system and political regime, and the ensuing influence on the human rights situation with reference to the cases of Vietnam, China, and Mongolia in terms of the dichotomic social differentiation, beginnings of the civil society, and political change in the late‐communist stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disaster education outcomes are highly dependent on the political context of that education. Based on a rich, in‐depth case study of the creation of community monitors in a landslide and flood‐prone city in southeast Brazil, this paper demonstrates how developmental and political environments add much additional nuance to existing theories of behaviourist and transformative education for disaster preparedness and mitigation. Beyond identifying the benefits of education, it argues that disaster risk reduction outcomes are reliant on governance frameworks that alter over time. The study reveals the political complexity associated with programme implementation and cites the perspectives of a number of participants. Disaster education is shown to be the necessary yet underappreciated twin of the militarised and technical approaches that dominate disaster response in Brazil. Understated, however, is education's situatedness: how it can become an arena of conflict between government and civil actors over matters of state and society in increasingly hazardous urbanisation settings in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Policy & Internet is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Conventional theories of political economy assume that dependency on natural resources, such as oil, have a negative impact on the development of a democratic political system. While there is a developed body of work that explains the different mechanisms that shape this relationship, one mechanism, the role of the civil society, remains mostly ungrasped. As a result, the aim of this paper is to expand our understanding of the group formation effect, first discussed by Michael Ross (2001), and unpack the mechanisms that underline it, by looking at the relationship between rent from oil production, the civil society, and the rise of authoritarianism in Iraq during the period of 1945–1958. We argue that examining the relationship between these variables will help us understand the past and the current situation in Iraq, and it will improve our knowledge of the political formations and activism in oil‐producing countries in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments have led the way on climate action in the United States. While the federal government has largely stood to the side, local governments have made great efforts to adopt policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A large and robust literature in urban politics has explored the variables that influence local government action on climate change in the United States. Issue severity and resident ideological preferences have been identified as two of the most important factors in local climate action. Governments that are more likely to face major impacts from climate, such as coastal communities, and governments serving more liberal residents have both been found to pursue climate policy at higher rates. In this paper we suggest that these relationships are better understood as conditional. We argue that the effect of issue severity will be moderated by ideology. When residents are liberal, issue severity will matter. When residents are conservative, the impact will be muted. We find strong evidence for this hypothesis. Coastal governments and governments that have experienced drought adopt more climate policies, but this is conditional on the ideology of residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes empirically to the international debate on the drivers for the formation of civil society organizations (CSOs) by testing three separate hypotheses: demand, supply and integration. To investigate this question, we analyse the CSO sector in Iraq, which transformed since 2003 from being implicitly banned to being a central pillar of poverty alleviation and social service provision with thousands of formally registered organizations. Using OLS regression analysis with district level and official register data, we examine the geographic distribution of CSOs in relation to poverty levels in Iraq. We find no significant confirmation for demand side drivers that social service providing CSOs form in high poverty districts. Instead, we find strong support for CSO formation in governorate administrative centres, which confirms supply‐side drivers of CSO development. However, we do find some support for a higher concentration of human rights‐based CSOs in high poverty areas. The findings raise important policy implications for the UN Sustainable Development Goal of no poverty in an Iraqi context and internationally, but also how to fund CSOs to meet the demands of the primary recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper studies collective memory in divided societies. To do so, we begin by studying national memory in civil societies, where the nature of this memory is hegemonic. We use Gramsci's concept of hegemony to explain national memories in civil societies and differentiate it from that of contested memories in divided places. In order to explain memory in divided societies, we apply Ibn Khaldoun's concepts of 'aAsabiyah and Istitba'. Societies deeply divided tend to have contested memories at two levels: within a community which creates an internal other and outside the community where groups compete to impose their memory at the state level. We use examples from Lebanon, Northern Ireland and Bosnia‐Herzeogvina to explain the memory dynamics from a Khaldounian perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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From climate change to potentially disruptive technologies to the COVID‐19 pandemic, our era is characterised by unprecedented complexity and uncertainty. Philosophy has always been a promising tool for facing puzzling scenarios. Yet, contemporary philosophy may not be able to successfully face our era's unprecedented complexity and uncertainty. On the one hand, contemporary philosophy results from a kind of hypertrophisation of logos restricting the forms of rationality legitimately usable. On the other hand, our era's unprecedented complexity and uncertainty seem to require not only restricted forms of rationality, such as logic and computation, but also other forms of rationality underdeveloped in our philosophical tradition, such as wisdom. This paper proposes reasons why increasing our focus on wisdom may help us face our unprecedentedly complex and uncertain era in four respects as philosophers: when educating our students; when publishing our work; when talking to civil society; and when acting in our technological era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid‐19 pandemic has been a massive disaster in Brazil, causing more than 350,000 deaths as of April 2021. Moreover, President Jair Bolsonaro suggested that already marginalised groups should take what came to them, as if they were an expendable surplus in his necropolitical perspective. However, civil society initiatives are emerging to tackle the impacts of this crisis. This paper adds to current literature on the forms and levels of resistance to disasters, using primary and secondary data pertaining to three key Brazilian groups: domestic workers; the urban poor in favelas; and indigenous Amazonians. The analysis indicates that their historical, political resistance has been a foundation upon which to develop disaster mitigation and their actions have built on and gone beyond previous modes of organising. More specifically, their responses have replaced a 'present–absent' federal government, entailed local, innovative adaptations, led to new public–private sector relations, and may offer the prospect of consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I describe a few ways in which I've ventured outside of my comfort zone and become more engaged with multidisciplinary communities, policy groups and governmental agencies, the media, and civil society. Through such efforts, I've tried to help broaden and deepen the presence of environmental sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]