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Klappentext: Now in its fourth edition, Civil Society has become a major work of reference for those who seek to understand the role of voluntary citizen action in a troubled world. Recent economic and political developments do not bode well for the theory and practice of civil society: communities are increasingly divided; inequality is on the rise; authoritarians and populists have gained a foothold even in advanced democracies; restrictions on freedom of speech and association are increasingly common and recent scandals have even reduced trust in charities. Worryingly, public spheres seem incapable of addressing these concerns. Yet, as Michael Edwards makes clear, ideas about the civil sphere can shed much light on what is happening, why, and how we might respond to polarization, privatization, and authoritarians of various stripes.

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.

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