International Encyclopedia of Civil Society PDF Download

Author: Helmut K. Anheier
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387939962
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1722

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Book Description
Recently the topic of civil society has generated a wave of interest, and a wealth of new information. Until now no publication has attempted to organize and consolidate this knowledge. The International Encyclopedia of Civil Society fills this gap, establishing a common set of understandings and terminology, and an analytical starting point for future research. Global in scope and authoritative in content, the Encyclopedia offers succinct summaries of core concepts and theories; definitions of terms; biographical entries on important figures and organizational profiles. In addition, it serves as a reliable and up-to-date guide to additional sources of information. In sum, the Encyclopedia provides an overview of the contours of civil society, social capital, philanthropy and nonprofits across cultures and historical periods. For researchers in nonprofit and civil society studies, political science, economics, management and social enterprise, this is the most systematic appraisal of a rapidly growing field.

Author: Alejandro Colás
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745666000
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Since the end of the Cold War, activists and scholars alike have celebrated the phenomenal growth of transnational social movements across the globe. For some, this new eruption of grass-roots political activism on a world scale – from the Rio Earth Summit to the Seattle anti-globalization protests – represents the emergence of a global or transnational civil society. This book provides a critical survey of recent approaches to the study of civil society and international relations, presenting an alternative historical and sociological account of the interaction between these two spheres. It makes a theoretical case for the importance of social movements in world politics arguing that modern social movements emerging out of civil society have been instrumental in shaping the contemporary international system. In this wide-ranging engagement with past and present controversies in international relations, Colás shows how a renewed conception of international civil society can illuminate future possibilities for international social movement activity. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of international relations, political sociology and social history, as well as those who seek to play a part in global politics.

Author: Elisabeth Jay Friedman
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791483843
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Sovereignty, Democracy, and Global Civil Society explores the growing power of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by analyzing a microcosm of contemporary global state-society relations at UN World Conferences. The intense interactions between states and NGOs at conferences on the environment, human rights, women's issues, and other topics confirm the emergence of a new transnational democratic sphere of activity. Employing both regional and global case studies, the book charts noticeable growth in the ability of NGOs to build networks among themselves and effect change within UN processes. Using a multidimensional understanding of state sovereignty, the authors find that states use sovereignty to shelter not only material interests but also cultural identity in the face of external pressure. This book is unique in its analysis of NGO activities at the international level as well as the complexity of nation-states' responses to their new companions in global governance.

Author: Nora McKeon
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 184813276X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
The UN is able to recognize key global challenges, but beset by difficulties in trying to resolve them. In this, it represents the current global political balance, but is also the only international institution that could move it forward. Civil society can be a catalyst for this kind of change. In this book, Nora McKeon provides a comprehensive analysis of UN engagement with civil society. The book pays particular attention to food and agriculture, which now lie at the heart of global governance issues. McKeon shows that politically meaningful space for civil society can be introduced into UN policy dialogue. The United Nations and Civil Society also makes the case that it is only by engaging with organizations which legitimately speak for the 'poor' targeted by the Millennium Development Goals that the UN can promote equitable, sustainable development and build global democracy from the ground up. This book has strong ramifications for global governance, civil society and the contemporary debate over the future of food.

Author: Michael Walzer
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782381600
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The demise of Communism has not only affected Eastern Europe but also the countries of the West where a far-reaching examination of political and economic systems has begun. This collection of essays by internationally renowned scholars of political theory from Europe and the United States explores both the concept and the reality of civil society and its institutions.

Author: G. Laxer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230523714
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This volume critically examines the promise of a global civil society. Exploring issues in cases of diverse social justice movements, the contributors show that a global civil society is still far from emerging and its promotion may even harm the realization of grassroots democracy. The Internet is an exciting new means for activists to communicate internationally, and citizens' movements increasingly co-ordinate campaigns through transnational advocacy networks, but most effective civic action still takes place at national and local levels.

Author: Justin Rosenberg
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1804295973
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
The Empire of Civil Society mounts a compelling critique of the orthodox "realist" theory of international relations and provides a historical-materialist approach to the international system. Opening with an interrogation of a number of classic realist works, the book rejects outright the goal of theorizing geopolitical systems in isolation from wider social structures. In a series of case studies—including Classical Greece, Renaissance Italy and the Portuguese and Spanish empires—Justin Rosenberg shows how the historical-materialist analysis of societies is a surer guide to understanding geopolitical systems than the technical theories of realist international relations. In each case, he draws attention to the correspondence between the form of the geopolitical system and the character of the societies composing it. In the final section of the book, the tools forged in these explorations are employed to analyze the contemporary international system, with striking results. Rosenberg demonstrates that the distinctive properties of the sovereign-states system are best understood as corresponding to the social structures of capitalist society. In this light, realism emerges as incapable of explaining what it has always insisted is the central feature of the international system—namely, the balance of power. On the other hand, it is argued that Marx’s social theory of value, conventionally regarded as an account of hierarchical class domination, provides the deepest understanding of the core international relations theme of “anarchy.” Provocative and unconventional, The Empire of Civil Society brilliantly turns orthodox international relations on its head.

Author: Mary Kaldor
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745657176
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The terms 'global' and 'civil society' have both become part of the contemporary political lexicon. In this important new book, Mary Kaldor argues that this is no coincidence and that the reinvention of civil society has to be understood in the context of globalization. The concept of civil society is no longer confined to the borders of the territorial state. Whether one considers dissidents in repressive regimes, landless labourers in Central America, campaigners against land mines or global debt, or even religious fundamentalists, it is now possible for them to link up with other like-minded groups in different parts of the world and to address demands not just to national governments but to global institutions as well. This has opened up new opportunities for human emancipation, and, in particular, for going beyond war as a way of managing global affairs. But it also entails new risks and insecurities. This is a book about a political idea - an idea that came out of the 1989 revolutions. It is an idea that expresses a real phenomenon, even if the boundaries and shape of the phenomenon are contested and subject to constant redefinition. The study of past debates as well as the actions and arguments of the present is a way of directly influencing the phenomenon, and of contributing to a changing reality, if possible for the better. The task is all the more urgent in the aftermath of September 11. Global Civil Society will be read by students of politics, international relations and sociology, as well as activists, policy-makers, journalists and all those engaged in global public debates.

Author: J. Steffek
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230592503
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
It is often argued that the enhanced consultation of civil society contributes to the democratization of European and global governance. This collection investigates whether this theoretical argument is supported by empirical evidence. Ten original essays analyze current patterns of civil society consultation in 32 intergovernmental organizations.

Author: John Keane
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521894623
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
John Keane, a leading scholar of political theory, tracks the recent development of a big idea with fresh potency - global civil society. In this timely book, Keane explores the contradictory forces currently nurturing or threatening its growth, and he shows how talk of global civil society implies a political vision of a less violent world, founded on legally sanctioned power-sharing arrangements among different and intermingling forms of socio-economic life. Keane's reflections are pitted against the widespread feeling that the world is both too complex and too violent to deserve serious reflection. His account borrows from various scholarly disciplines, including political science and international relations, to challenge the silence and confusion within much of contemporary literature on globalisation and global governance. Against fears of terrorism, rising tides of xenophobia, and loose talk of 'anti-globalisation', the defence of global civil society mounted here implies the need for new democratic ways of living.