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This article explores the evolution, role and impact of the Civil Society Support Room (CSSR), the first formal mechanism to involve civil society in the UN-led political talks for Syria. Through surveys, focus groups and interviews, it examines how and whether the CSSR influenced the peace process. Importantly, it also illustrates how the CSSR transformed the participants and third-party mediators themselves, suggesting that it shapes the conflict and peace-making landscape beyond the high-level political process. It argues that the CSSR had a transformative impact on both the attitudes and behavioural patterns of the participants themselves, while also challenging the dominant representations of the conflict that strengthen the power of conflict actors and shape international action. Even if the UN failed to successfully mediate a political agreement, the paper demonstrates how an inclusive and more independent mechanism can inject the logic of civicness. This can be seen in the design of the Constitutional Committee, in actions taken to broaden inclusivity, and in the changing discourse of political actors.

This article is dedicated to the analysis of a preponderant institution of Civil Society in Russia such as the Bar Association, consequently, its role in the implementation of the state function of providing qualified legal assistance is examined. In addition, it ad-dresses the criminal defense mechanism of the Russian legal profession. To achieve the objective of the study, several general scientific techniques, and methods of scientific knowledge (analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, systemic-structural, formal-logical approaches) and specific scientific methods were launched: historical-legal, formal-legal, comparative-legal, and interpretative are employed. Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that the legal profession, being an institution of civil society, remains vul-nerable in the legal sense in its interaction with law enforcement agencies. At the same time, by illegally interfering in promotion, public officials go unpunished. There is still no criminal liability for unlawful interference in the activities of a lawyer. It therefore proposes to introduce specific amendments to the criminal legislation governing this matter of general interest.

Oftentimes, democracy is not spread out evenly over the territory of a country. Instead, pockets of authoritarianism can persist within a democratic system. A growing body of literature questions how such subnational authoritarian enclaves can be democratized. Despite fascinating insights, all existing pathways rely on the actions of elites and are therefore top-down. This article seeks to kick-start the discussion on a bottom-up pathway to subnational democratization, by proposing the attrition mechanism. This mechanism consists of four parts and is the product of abductive inference through theory-building causal process tracing. The building blocks consist of subnational democratization literature, social movement theory, and original empirical data gathered during extensive field research. This case study focuses on the 'Dynasty Slayer' in the province of Isabela, the Philippines, where civil society actors used the attrition mechanism to facilitate subnational democratization. This study implies that civil society actors in subnational authoritarian enclaves have agency.

In 2016, Chinese legislators introduced the first statute dedicated to the Chinese non-profit sector—the Charity Law of the People's Republic of China. This article concentrates on the relationship between the Chinese non-profit sector and the state. By analysing the statute and the newly drafted regulations that will implement it, this article finds evidence that the statute itself clearly intends to lessen state control over non-profits. However, the wording of the draft regulations and their subsequent legal implementation suggest a degree of inconsistency. Therefore, the author argues that the post-2016 legal system tends to follow the graduated control model as the legal reforms are not comprehensive enough to transform the state–non-profit relationship into a civil society model, at least in the short term. In the future, it is strongly recommended that the Charity Law adopts new approaches that accommodate both the graduated control model and the civil society model for actual implementation in Chinese non-profit organisations. (China/GIGA)

This chapter investigates transnational solidarity action across the fields of unemployment, disability and immigration in Denmark. It discusses how solidarity is manifested and organised by civil society, focusing on 30 qualitative interviews conducted with the so-called transnational solidarity organisations (TSOs). The chapter explores solidarity challenges that Danish TSOs were facing in the context of the welfare retrenchment and the structural reform in 2007, as well as the 2008 financial crisis and the migration crisis of 2015. Our interviews confirm that the effects of the financial crisis, austerity measures and the migration crisis were not easy to separate from the welfare retrenchment in the Danish system. These recent changes to the welfare state have been experienced as dramatic as they have loosened the traditionally close ties between the Danish civil society and municipalities in providing welfare services. The voluntary sector has, in response, become more political, not only providing services to affected groups but also increasingly seeking to defend their social rights, as well as entering into conflict with the government.

This article outlines the community economies of Esch-sur-Alzette, the 'second city' of Luxembourg. 'Community economies' – an approach outlined by J.K. Gibson-Graham – draws attention to alternative narratives of economic development and the representation of economic identity. Despite (the Grand Duchy of) Luxembourg's reputation as a European Union centre, with substantial finance and tax activity, Esch-sur-Alzette is a post-industrial and multilingual melting pot. The alternative narrative here is of the multiple community-based organisations and movements in Esch-sur-Alzette: an energy cooperative, urban gardening, an upcycling clothing factory, a local food shop and restaurant, and vibrant civil society discussions and interventions in (inter)national politics. Civil society, while central to both understandings of grassroots environmental action and the community economies framework of Gibson-Graham, takes on quite a different flavour in Luxembourg. This article then takes the case of Luxembourg to reread the relationship of the state to the so-called third sector, in doing so defending the political possibilities of community economies.

We describe partial results from a study on the construction of the international image of the political process in Catalonia in recent years in the main European and the US newspapers. In particular, using several analytical techniques we determine the presence of civil society organisations for and against independence in press articles between July 2010 (the first mass demonstration, in this case against a Spanish Constitutional Court ruling on the Catalan Statute of Autonomy) and October 2017 (the self-determination referendum). To detect the dominant frame, a framing analysis was undertaken from a communicative and deductive perspective, applying the widely tested and used Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) classification. The international press has generally depicted the Catalan sovereignty process as a conflict involving institutions and politicians, despite the fact that the Catalan process has always been claimed as an initiative with social and cultural roots. The research concludes that, although social movements and civil society played a significant role in the emergence of the sovereignty movement, these have been rendered largely invisible by the international press.

Core social movement research argues that large-scale challenges to authority build upon preexisting organization and civil society resources. How do dissenters mobilize masses in repressive settings where, given curtailment of civil society, autonomous associations scarcely exist and norms discourage trust more than encourage it? Testimonials from the Syrian uprising illustrate how protest can become widespread under such conditions, yet occurs through processes different from what dominant theory expects. Activists get demonstrations off the ground by planning around awareness of their organizational deficits. Once in motion, contention propels both organization and increasing organizational sophistication. To be effective, mobilization sometimes evades or obscures established social relationships, even as it produces new forms of sociability. Bridging literatures on mass and clandestine mobilization, this research reconsiders the assumed sequential logic of movement development from organization to protest, rather than vice versa. It also shifts attention from movement antecedents toward the resourcefulness and strategy that enable mobilizing both from scratch and at grave risk.

With mounting sustainability challenges, policy makers have embraced the idea of transformative, mission-oriented innovation policies, to direct innovation objectives towards the 'grand challenges' in recent years. Against this backdrop, the discourse on innovation ecosystems, bringing together actors from science, industry, government and civil society for collaborative research and innovation, has increasingly gained traction. Yet, their role and architectural set-up in a sustainability context remains rather poorly understood. Complementing a systematic literature review with methods of bibliometric analysis and typology building, this paper introduces a typology of mission-oriented innovation ecosystems. It finds that, depending on the type of mission they are trying to address, ecosystems differ, with both a view to the actors involved, and the specific role taken on by them throughout the innovation process. In particular, it points to an increasingly important role of the state for realizing system-level transformations, underlines the importance of civil society involvement, and highlights research organizations' need to adapt to new requirements.

This article outlines the community economies of Esch-sur-Alzette, the 'second city' of Luxembourg. 'Community economies' – an approach outlined by J.K. Gibson-Graham – draws attention to alternative narratives of economic development and the representation of economic identity. Despite (the Grand Duchy of) Luxembourg's reputation as a European Union centre, with substantial finance and tax activity, Esch-sur-Alzette is a post-industrial and multilingual melting pot. The alternative narrative here is of the multiple community-based organisations and movements in Esch-sur-Alzette: an energy cooperative, urban gardening, an upcycling clothing factory, a local food shop and restaurant, and vibrant civil society discussions and interventions in (inter)national politics. Civil society, while central to both understandings of grassroots environmental action and the community economies framework of Gibson-Graham, takes on quite a different flavour in Luxembourg. This article then takes the case of Luxembourg to reread the relationship of the state to the so-called third sector, in doing so defending the political possibilities of community economies.

AbstractThe rise of "new" transnational governance has intensified debates about a lack of accountability in global politics. Reviewing the mechanisms through which transparency can foster accountability beyond the state, this article explores the determinants of information disclosure in the field of transnational sustainability governance. Examining the institutional design of 113 voluntary sustainability programs, we find a positive correlation between the involvement of public actors and information disclosure. In contrast, the role of civil society is more ambiguous. There is no statistical support for arguments linking non‐governmental organization participation to increased transparency. At the same time, our analysis reveals a robust correlation between civil society‐led metagovernance and information disclosure. Moreover, we find that crowding has a negative effect on transparency, whereas normative peer pressures have no influence. At a broader level, the analysis reveals a lack of "deep transparency" among transnational sustainability governors. This limits the scope for transparency‐induced accountability in this policy domain.

First published: 28 February 2019 ; The rise of "new" transnational governance has intensified debates about a lack of accountability in global politics. Reviewing the mechanisms through which transparency can foster accountability beyond the state, this article explores the determinants of information disclosure in the field of transnational sustainability governance. Examining the institutional design of 113 voluntary sustainability programs, we find a positive correlation between the involvement of public actors and information disclosure. In contrast, the role of civil society is more ambiguous. There is no statistical support for arguments linking non-governmental organization participation to increased transparency. At the same time, our analysis reveals a robust correlation between civil society-led metagovernance and information disclosure. Moreover, we find that crowding has a negative effect on transparency, whereas normative peer pressures have no influence. At a broader level, the analysis reveals a lack of "deep transparency" among transnational sustainability governors. This limits the scope for transparency-induced accountability in this policy domain.

As of 2005, 170 Palestinian civil society groups launched the Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions movement (BDS) against the Israeli government (Morrison, 2015, 245). This is used as a means to address issues of land theft, Israel's refusal to comply with international law with regards of building settlements on Palestinian land and neglecting the right of return for Palestinian refugees (Barghouti, 2011, 215). Under the initiation of Omar Barghouti, one of the founders of this movement, Palestinian civil society groups worldwide, have opted to use this form of non-violence to place economic and socio-cultural forms of global pressure as an attempt to have Israel comply with international law (Barghouti, 2011, 50). The aim of this paper is to explain the expansion and growth of the BDS movement by using political process theories and theories of contentious politics to explain power degradation of Israel's legitimacy as a democratic and Jewish state (Barghouti, 2011, 10).