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Nearly two decades have passed since the events of the WTO's Seattle Ministerial marked civil society as relevant to global trade politics. Despite this, and as the chapter explains, there remains significant ambiguity as to what is meant by the term 'civil society'. That civil society matters in global trade governance needs to be understood in terms of two inter-related questions: how the WTO Secretariat, and other institutional actors, give recognition to certain groups and individuals; and, why it is that the actors described as 'civil society' seek to contest a governance domain often seemingly closed to their demands.

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 article discusses the experience of civil society and social movements inCentral and Eastern Europe both before and after the events of 1989. It showshow the different paths to the development of "civil society" as an organisingconcept in the pre-1989 period impacted on experiences after that date, and relates this to broader theoretical debates on the concept. In particular, it argues that the movements of "un-civil society" often fulfil a more substantial political role than the NGOs of "civil society", for a range of reasons. Thearticle draws on a series of interviews conducted with "alter-globalisation" activists in the region

Civil society with developed economic, cultural, legal and political relations, independent of the state, but to interact with it, the society of citizens of high social, political, cultural and moral status, creating together with the state of development of legal relations.

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.

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.

Just as domestic civil society is widely regarded as serving the greater common good of a national democratic political community, global civil society is also promoted as a vehicle through which a host of humanity's ills may be remedied. This article argues that the pinning of such high hopes on global civil society is mistaken, for its proponents have failed to recognise that global civil society is insufficiently analogous to domestic civil society for it to be a similarly positive force. At the national level, civil society functions in a balanced interdependence with the state. At the global level there is no equivalent of the state to provide the necessary scrutiny and regulation that at the national level prevents constituents of domestic civil society from committing injustices.