The Experts below are selected from a list of 360 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Richard Price - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
transnational Civil Society and advocacy in world politics
World Politics, 2003Co-Authors: Richard PriceAbstract:This article takes stock of a plethora of recent works examining the flowering of transnational Civil Society activism in world politics. The author argues that this work contributes to a progressive research agenda that responds to a succession of criticisms from alternative perspectives. As the research program has advanced, new areas of inquiry have been opened up, including the need for a central place for normative international theory. The author also contends that the focus of this research on the transnationalization of Civil Society provides a trenchant response to an important puzzle concerning the leverage of Civil Society vis-a-vis the contemporary state in an era of globalization. Further, the liberal variant of transnational advocacy research constitutes a powerful theoretical counter not only to other nonliberal theories that privilege other agents or structures but also to other varieties of contemporary liberal international theory, such as those privileging preexisting domestic preference formation or state centric versions of liberal constructivism.
Jezierska Katarzyna - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
Three Types of Denial : Think Tanks as a Reluctant Civil Society Elite
'Cogitatio', 2020Co-Authors: Jezierska KatarzynaAbstract:Think tanks, or policy advice institutions, are Civil Society organizations producing and delivering social analysis to policymakers and the wider public. Their aim is to influence policy in a given direction. Compared to most other Civil Society organizations, they hold relatively privileged positions, both in terms of wealth (on average bigger budgets and staffs), political influence (their very raison d’etre), knowledge (educational level of the staff), and social networks. Thus, it seems beyond dispute that think tanks adhere to the elite of Civil Society. This article focuses on think tanks’ negative self-identification, on their reluctance to accept labels. Not only are think tanks unwilling to take on the elite designation, some of them also deny being part of Civil Society, and some go one step further in denying identification with the think tank community. These multiple denials are expected if we recall Pierre Bourdieu’s observation that “all aristocracies define themselves as being beyond all definition” (Bourdieu, 1996, p. 316). The analysis focuses on how this definitional ambiguity is discursively constructed. Think-tankers are often described as situated in an interstitial space between such fields as politics, Civil Society, media, market, and academia. While this intermediary position is the source of their unique role as converters of various forms of capital, it also complicates the identity formation of think tanks. The argument is illustrated by Polish think tanks and the data consists of original interviews with think tank leaders. The article provides a novel perspective on think tanks and on Civil Society elites
-
Three Types of Denial: Think Tanks as a Reluctant Civil Society Elite
'Cogitatio', 2020Co-Authors: Jezierska KatarzynaAbstract:Think tanks, or policy advice institutions, are Civil Society organizations producing and delivering social analysis to policymakers and the wider public. Their aim is to influence policy in a given direction. Compared to most other Civil Society organizations, they hold relatively privileged positions, both in terms of wealth (on average bigger budgets and staffs), political influence (their very raison d’être), knowledge (educational level of the staff), and social networks. Thus, it seems beyond dispute that think tanks adhere to the elite of Civil Society. This article focuses on think tanks’ negative self-identification, on their reluctance to accept labels. Not only are think tanks unwilling to take on the elite designation, some of them also deny being part of Civil Society, and some go one step further in denying identification with the think tank community. These multiple denials are expected if we recall Pierre Bourdieu’s observation that “all aristocracies define themselves as being beyond all definition” (Bourdieu, 1996, p. 316). The analysis focuses on how this definitional ambiguity is discursively constructed. Think-tankers are often described as situated in an interstitial space between such fields as politics, Civil Society, media, market, and academia. While this intermediary position is the source of their unique role as converters of various forms of capital, it also complicates the identity formation of think tanks. The argument is illustrated by Polish think tanks and the data consists of original interviews with think tank leaders. The article provides a novel perspective on think tanks and on Civil Society elites
Markus Egermann - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
elucidating the changing roles of Civil Society in urban sustainability transitions
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2016Co-Authors: Niki Frantzeskaki, Adina Dumitru, Isabelle Anguelovski, Flor Avelino, Matthew Bach, Benjamin Best, Constanze Binder, Jake Barnes, Giuseppe Carrus, Markus EgermannAbstract:Understanding the diversifying role of Civil Society in Europe’s sustainability pathway is a valid proposition both scientifically and socially. Civil Society organisations already play a significant role in the reality of cities, what remains to be explored is the question: what is the role of Civil Society in the future sustainability of European cities? We first examine the novelty of new forms of Civil Society organization based on a thorough review of recent case studies of Civil Society initiatives for sustainable transitions across a diversity of European projects and an extensive literature review. We conceptualize a series of roles that Civil Society plays and the tensions they entail. We argue that, Civil Society initiatives can pioneer new social relations and practices therefore be an integral part of urban transformations and can fill the void left by a retreating welfare state, thereby safeguarding and servicing social needs but also backing up such a rolling back of the welfare state. It can act as a hidden innovator—contributing to sustainability but remaining disconnected from the wider Society. Assuming each of these roles can have unintended effects, such as being proliferated by political agendas, which endanger its role and social mission, and can be peeled off to serve political agendas resulting in its disempowerment and over-exposure. We conclude with a series of implications for future research on the roles of Civil Society in urban sustainability transitions.
James L Gibson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
social networks Civil Society and the prospects for consolidating russia s democratic transition
American Journal of Political Science, 2001Co-Authors: James L GibsonAbstract:Conventional wisdom asserts that democracies require a strong Civil Society and high levels of interpersonal trust. Neither of these attributes seems to characterize contemporary Russia. This article challenges this conventional wisdom, finding Russian culture characterized by broad, porous, and politically relevant interpersonal networks. Perhaps in response to the totalitarianism of the past, Russians have developed extensive social networks with high levels of political capacity. These social networks are important means for the diffusion of democratic ideas in Russia. For instance, those embedded in extensive social networks are more likely to support key democratic institutions and processes. My analysis also reveals that interpersonal trust actually has little to do with attitudes toward democratic institutions and processes. I conclude by arguing that Russians are not atomized and socially isolated, and that aspect of Russian political culture has important consequences for the future of democracy in Russia. ew concepts have captured the imagination of those studying democratization more than "Civil Society-' Dating to ancient studies of political systems, theories of Civil Society claim that democracies require a particular set of autonomous institutions in order to check the power of the state (e.g., Putnam 1993). Furthermore, Civil Society is enhanced by efficacious attitudes and participatory behaviors on the part of the citizenry (e.g., Brehm and Rahn 1997). Civil Society seems to be an essential condition for successful democratization. The importance of Civil Society has recently been reinforced by the momentous changes in the former Soviet Union and the states of Central and Eastern Europe. Many argue that nascent Civil societies were instrumental to the democratic revolutions of the late 1980s, although to varying degrees across the countries experiencing democratic change (e.g., Bernhard 1996; Kubik 1994; Ost 1990; Stokes 1993; Tismaneanu 1995; Weigle and Butterfield 1992). The democratization of Poland in particular is attributed to the ascendancy of Solidarity, a quintessential Civil Society organization (Bernard 1996; Kumar 1993). Others, however, argue that the weakness of Civil Society in these countries today poses a threat to their ability to consolidate democratic change (e.g., Ekiert 1991; Arato and Cohen 1992; Nelson 1996; Mondak
Niki Frantzeskaki - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
elucidating the changing roles of Civil Society in urban sustainability transitions
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2016Co-Authors: Niki Frantzeskaki, Adina Dumitru, Isabelle Anguelovski, Flor Avelino, Matthew Bach, Benjamin Best, Constanze Binder, Jake Barnes, Giuseppe Carrus, Markus EgermannAbstract:Understanding the diversifying role of Civil Society in Europe’s sustainability pathway is a valid proposition both scientifically and socially. Civil Society organisations already play a significant role in the reality of cities, what remains to be explored is the question: what is the role of Civil Society in the future sustainability of European cities? We first examine the novelty of new forms of Civil Society organization based on a thorough review of recent case studies of Civil Society initiatives for sustainable transitions across a diversity of European projects and an extensive literature review. We conceptualize a series of roles that Civil Society plays and the tensions they entail. We argue that, Civil Society initiatives can pioneer new social relations and practices therefore be an integral part of urban transformations and can fill the void left by a retreating welfare state, thereby safeguarding and servicing social needs but also backing up such a rolling back of the welfare state. It can act as a hidden innovator—contributing to sustainability but remaining disconnected from the wider Society. Assuming each of these roles can have unintended effects, such as being proliferated by political agendas, which endanger its role and social mission, and can be peeled off to serve political agendas resulting in its disempowerment and over-exposure. We conclude with a series of implications for future research on the roles of Civil Society in urban sustainability transitions.