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research themes > global civil society > research > |
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RESEARCH
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global civil society research
Our research on Global Civil Society
aims to contribute to understanding "Globalisation from Below" through four
types of activity: research, graduate training, interaction with practitioners,
and transnational institution building.
The focus of our research is on the
interlinkage between civil society, on the one hand, and problems of global
security and political economy, on the other hand.
The programme has three components:
(a) Concepts: The programme aims to elaborate the conceptual underpinning of global civil society.
(b) Mapping Global Civil Society: A major thrust of our work is the attempt to give substance to the
concept of global civil society through empirical mapping of global civil society.
Our work consists of the collection of existing data sets covering globalisation, the extension of
international law and various measures of global civil society.
The latter include data on international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) drawn from the Union of International
Associations and on values from the World Value Survey.
We also try to generate our own data through studies of parallel summits and social forums and through our chronology
of global civil society events based on a network of correspondents in different parts of the world.
(c) Case Studies: Our case studies are of two kinds – issues and infrastructure.
Issues refer to the role that civil society plays in relations to key global issues; hence the emphasis is
on the character of the global public debate.
Infrastructure case studies are about particular types of civil society actors or about aspects of their
organisation, for example, funding, accountability, forms of organisation.
Many of our case studies are commissioned especially for our Global Civil Society Yearbook.
The global civil society programme is undertaken in partnership with the Centre for Civil Society at LSE and
the Center for Civil Society at UCLA, under the direction of Helmut Anheier, who is responsible for much of the
mapping exercise, the methodology chapters of the yearbook, and some important infrastructure case studies on
forms of organisation and on philanthropy. In addition, we are developing global partnerships. We co-operated with
the University of Witwaterstrand on the AIDs/HIV project and the University of Delhi for our work on global civil
society and democracy and on some of the conceptual issues relating to civil society. Most importantly, the Political
Science Department of the University of Cairo is producing an Arabic edition of the Global Civil Society Yearbook, with a combination of
translated chapters and especially commissioned chapters by Arabic scholars. This relationship is proving extremely
valuable in developing joint research on such issues as democratisation in the Middle East or theories of violence
and civil society.
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your feedback
We are interested in your opinion. Please have a look at our online Global Civil Society yearbook questionnaire.
Intellectual Rationale
General background of our research on global civil society
The Global Civil Society Programme began in 1999 with a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
Related links:
Center for Civil Society (UCLA)
Centre for Civil Society (LSE)
Cairo University
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