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For many commentators, global civil society is revolutionising our approach to global politics, as new non-state-based and border-free expressions of political community challenge territorial sovereignty as the exclusive basis for political community and identity. This challenge 'from below' to the nation-state system is increasingly seen as promising nothing less than a reconstruction, or a re-imagination, of world politics itself. Whether in terms of the democratisation of the institutions of global governance, the spread of human rights across the world, or the emergence of a global citizen.

This key text brings together twenty activists, officials and researchers from the five continents to discuss this burning question of today's globalization debate. Providing rare, authoritative analyses by those who deal with the issues first hand, Civil Society and Global Finance is rich in insight and policy ideas for decision-makers, students and concerned citizens.

AbstractThis paper presents a novel methodological approach, multi-dimensional measure of resource stratification in civil society (MMRSC). The method aims at mapping civil society organisations based on different types of resources for studying resource stratification in civil society. The approach is based on six indicators consisting of economic, political, and media resources, internal and external to civil society. The MMRSC is a development and adaptation of the positional method within the elite research tradition aiming at identifying individuals holding central positions in powerful organisations. To be able to apply the positional method to civil society studies, the paper argues for a multi-dimensional understanding of resources taking into account diverse organisational forms and goals within civil society. The method is presented in a systematic step-by-step structure with exemplifications based on how it has been used in a study of civil society elites in four European countries and at the EU level.

Discusses misunderstandings of the expression burgerliche Gesellschaft in John Ehrenberg's "Civil Society and Marxist Politics" (1998). Although the German expression is commonly translated as "civil society," it is argued that the two terms are not synonymous, & differences in their meanings have political & theoretical implications. The insights of Antonio Gramsci are drawn on to assess meanings expressed by Friedrich Engels & Karl Marx, noting that Marx aligned a differentiated civil society with political alienation & never suggested reconstituting, democratizing, or preserving civil society. G. W. F. Hegel uses burgerliche Gesellschaft to designate a domain distinct from the state, while conceiving civil society as bourgeois society. Marx & Engels see burgerliche Gesellschaft as a social sphere not completely absorbed by bourgeois society & focus instead on capitalist relations of production in bourgeois society. Gramsci blamed the failure of post-WWI socialist revolutions in Western European countries on Marx's neglect of civil society, emphasizing the need for ethical leadership in centers of capitalist development. Implications are discussed in relation to mainstream liberal political discourse in the US. J. Lindroth

The design and development of this study emerged as the result of an action research partnership between Brad Tucker of Washington University in St. Louis and the Aga Khan Foundation East Africa's Yetu Initiative. Consultations between study collaborators led to the following observations: 1) The conceptualization and the study of organizational sustainability and effectiveness (OS/OE) – both in scholarship and in practice – are fragmented and, while emphasizing the critical importance of context, do not explain how context impacts sustainability. 2) Existing conceptualizations of OS/OE lack the perspectives of key stakeholders – namely the management and staff of the local NPOs themselves. 3) There is a considerable disconnect between the level of investment in organizational development (through international funding and capacity building) and the expected level of return (in the form of enhanced organizational performance/effectiveness) of that investment. 4) There seems to be an increasing belief in the potential of community philanthropy/local fundraising to enhance organizational sustainability/effectiveness of local nonprofits even in the often resource-constrained countries of the Global South. These four observations gave rise to several questions this study was designed to address. Kenya was chosen as the specific context in which to address these questions due to the ongoing work of the Yetu Initiative as well as the primary investigator's previous work experience and contacts there.