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Civil Society has become a standard work of reference for those who seek to understand the role of voluntary citizen action. Recent global unrest has shown the importance of social movements and street protests in world politics. However, as this lucid book shows, the power that people have to shape their societies is usually channeled through day-to-day participation in voluntary associations and communities: expressions of "normal" civic life beyond the headlines. This is the underlying story of civil society. This new edition explores issues that have developed rapidly in recent years, including the overlaps between civil society and the market in the form of social enterprises and "venture philanthropy," and the increasing role of social media and information and communication technologies in civic interaction. Different varieties of civil society in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere are investigated in more detail, and case studies, data, and references have been updated throughout. Colleges, foundations and NGOs, policy-makers, journalists and commissions of inquiry Ð all have used Edwards's book to understand and strengthen the vital role that civil society can play in deepening democracy, re-building community, and addressing inequality and injustice. This new edition will be required reading for anyone who is interested in creating a better world through voluntary citizen action.

This title brings together competing theories of civil society with critical studies of the role of civil society in diverse situations and the way in which it has been promoted as the key to democratization. The combination of contemporary theory and practical applications provides valuable reading for students of civil society and contemporary social and political change, and its policy implications for Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

This title brings together competing theories of civil society with critical studies of the role of civil society in diverse situations and the way in which it has been promoted as the key to democratization. The combination of contemporary theory and practical applications provides valuable reading for students of civil society and contemporary social and political change, and its policy implications for Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Amid fears of terrorism, rising tides of xenophobia, and loose talk of 'anti-globalisation', John Keane mounts a defence of global civil society, stressing the need for new democratic ways of living. Keane's provocative reflections draw upon a variety of scholarly sources to breathe new life into contemporary political thinking

At the moment, no other European city attracts so much fascination as the city of Berlin. An unrivalled symbol of modern urban life, Berlin is a dynamic city whose inhabitants, in the course of the past two centuries, have lived through both the rapid growth and the violent destruction of the institutions of civil society, several times over. This volume situates itself within these developments by presenting, for the first time in English, a sample of the best, recently written essays on contemporary civil societies, their structural problems, and their uncertain future, written by scholars

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Maps of Central Asia -- Introduction / M. Holt Ruffin -- Civil Society in Central Asia / S. Frederick Starr -- The Legal Regulation of NGOs: Central Asia at a Crossroads / Scott Horton and Alla Kazakina -- Freedom of Association and the Question of Its Realization in Kazakhstan / Evgeny A. Zhovtis -- Government and Nonprofit Sector Relations in then Kyrgyz Republic / Erkinbek Kasybekov -- Environmental NGOs and the Development of Civil Society in Cental Asia / Kate Watters -- Kolkhoz and Civil Society in the Independent States of Central Asia / Olivier Roy -- Prospects for Development of an Independent Media in Kazakhstan / Oleg Katsiev -- Can Uzbekistan Build Democracy and Civil Society? / Abdumannob Polat -- Civil Society and Identity in Uzbekistan: The Emergent Role of Islam / Reuel Hanks -- Islam and Tajikistan's Human and Ecological Crisis / Aziz Niyazi -- Women's NGOs in Cental Asia's Evolving Societies / Ula Ikramova and Kathryn McConnell -- The Real Work: Sustaining NGO Growth in Central Asia / Jay Cooper -- Organizations -- Kazakhstan -- Kyrgyzstan -- Tajikistan -- Turkmenistan -- Uzbekistan -- Online Resources -- E-mail Lists -- Web sites -- Internet Access Centers in Central Asia -- Appendices -- About the Authors -- Glossary.

The concept of civil society was borrowed from 18th-century Europe to provide a framework for understanding the transition to post-authoritarian regimes in Latin America and post-communist regimes elsewhere. This book asks whether this concept is useful for analyzing China

The European Union (EU) has clearly made a difference for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). EU officials and European political entrepreneurs have been crucial in the promotion of funding and access opportunities, but they have been proven to have little capacity to create CSOs from scratch or to use CSOs too bluntly for their own purposes. This book brings Europeanization studies closer to society by providing a sociologically-informed analysis, which challenges current assumptions and highlights neglected areas of study. It also addresses many of the methodological challenges in the empirical study of the Europeanization of interest groups, including a comparative analysis over a long time period. The book provides a comparison across three countries, France, UK and Spain, and two policy sectors, international solidarity and social CSOs.

The annual Global Civil Society Yearbooks provide an indispensable guide to global civil society or civic participation and action around the world. The Yearbook includes commissioned contributions from leading commentators across the social sciences on the latest issues and developments, explores and presents the latest approaches to measuring and analyzing global civil society and provides a chronology of key global civil society events in the year. The Global Civil Society Yearbook remains the standard work on all aspects of contemporary global civil society for activists, practitioners, st

Unlike other books on civil society in Russia which argue that Russia's civil society is relatively weak, and that democratisation in Russia went into reverse following Vladimir Putin's coming to power, this book contends that civil society in Russia is developing in a distinctive way. It shows that government and elite-led drives to encourage civil society have indeed been limited, and that the impact of external promotion of civil society has also not been very successful. It demonstrates, however, that independent domestic grassroots movements are beginning to flourish, despite difficulties and adverse circumstances, and that this development fits well into the changing nature of contemporary Russian society.

In this contribution to contemporary political philosophy, Jensen aims to develop a model of civil society for deliberative democracy. In the course of developing the model, he also provides a thorough account of the meaning and use of "civil society" in contemporary scholarship as well as a critical review of rival models, including those found in the work of scholars such as John Rawls, Jurgen Habermas, Michael Walzer, Benjamin Barber, and Nancy Rosenblum. Jensen's own ideal treats civil society as both the context in which citizens live out their comprehensive views of the good life as well as the context in which citizens learn to be good deliberative democrats. According to his idealization, groups of citizens in civil society are actively engaged in a grand conversation about the nature of the good life. Their commitment to this conversation grounds dispositions of epistemic humility, tolerance, curiosity, and moderation. Moreover, their regard for the grand conversation explains their interest in deliberative democracy and their regard for democratic virtues, principles, and practices. Jensen is not a naive utopian, however; he argues that this ideal must be realized in stages, that it faces a variety of barriers, and that it cannot be realized without luck.

Civil Society' has been a global catch phrase since the end of the Cold War, and is an important topic among academics and politicians. Understanding the evolution of this concept in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is vital to its study. This introduction to the transnational history of civil society is useful for students and scholars

The European Union (EU) has clearly made a difference for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). EU officials and European political entrepreneurs have been crucial in the promotion of funding and access opportunities, but they have been proven to have little capacity to create CSOs from scratch or to use CSOs too bluntly for their own purposes. This book brings Europeanization studies closer to society by providing a sociologically-informed analysis, which challenges current assumptions and highlights neglected areas of study. It also addresses many of the methodological challenges in the empirical study of the Europeanization of interest groups, including a comparative analysis over a long time period. The book provides a comparison across three countries, France, UK and Spain, and two policy sectors, international solidarity and social CSOs