Transcript Contemporary Issues in Global Civil Society Research

Contemporary Issues in
Global Civil Society Research
Brenda Gainer
York University, Toronto
and
International Society for Third Sector Research
International Society for
Third Sector Research (ISTR)
• Founded in 1992 as an organization
committed to
• establishing a global community of
scholars and institutions
• dedicated to the Third Sector as a visible,
valued and respected field of study and
application
• that contributes to international
development and human well-being.
How do we do this?
• We promote high quality research
• We enhance the dissemination and
applications of knowledge globally
• Conferences (next international in
Istanbul, July 2010)
• Voluntas, a top-ranked international
journal and working paper series
Global and Regional Research
• Global research infrastructure continues to be
concentrated in western and northern countries
(journals, publishers, academic centres and
graduate degree programs)
• ISTR and Voluntas founded to develop crossnational and global research on civil society
• Also a need for focused research agendas that
reflect the particular preoccupations of specific
regional contexts
• ISTR regional networks and conferences in Latin
America, Africa and Asia
Research Streams
1. Theorizing civil society
2. Practice
3. Social innovation
1. Theory:
Definitions and Descriptions
• American theory (70s and 80s): non-distribution
constraint, public goods, contract failure
• Followed by a period of definitions of structure and
organization (Salamon and Anheier 1992)
• Salamon and Anheier (1998) started to study the sector
in cross-national terms (“social origins” theory)
• Current: focus on other ways of defining the “nonprofit”
sector in specific regions–for example, social economy in
continental and especially Catholic Europe….solidarity
economy in Latin America, or non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) in the Global South
2. Theory:
Boundary Issues
• 1990s/2000s saw explosion of research on
“boundaries”—specifically changing
relationships between civil society and the state
• Shift to study of changing relationships between
civil society and corporations: CSR,
partnerships, etc (loss of independence and
control; erosion of role and responsibilities for
advocacy, “downgrade” to service provision)
3. Theory:
Role and Responsibilities
• Early research: Failure of the market to provide
collective goods and failure of the government to provide
for minorities led to development of nonprofit
organizations to provide both of these
• Current: CSOs as a source of “social capital”
(contributes to trust and stability--Putnam) or
mobilization (contributes to social change--Edwards)
4. Global Governance and Citizenship
• Current: post-national global civil society movements,
new systems of global governance, global issues and
policy debates
1. Practice:
Management and Governance
• Largest category in terms of papers and articles
submitted by academics and practitioners around the
world
• Reflects preoccupation with the “accountability” agenda
and with resource dependency
• Social accounting small but hot—may grow or die
• Governance research moving from an internal
perspective to larger external concerns about inclusion,
participation, representation, appropriation, etc.
• Evaluation also responds to accountability to funders but
increasingly research is being conducted on sector-wide
“impact” studies
2. Practice:
The New Philanthropy Agenda
• One of the largest categories within the
management literature (fundraising)
• Behavioural research growing
• Critical studies are growing
• Social and cultural research agendas are
growing with respect to current issues
(diaspora, religio-politics, civic
participation…)
3. Practice:
Corporate Social Responsibility
• Outgrowth of corporate philanthropy, buyerseller approach to civil society and the postReagan/Thatcher ideology of privatization
• Research polarized between boosters and critics
• The new “partnerships” are the subject of a
great deal of this research
• Also considered in terms of its contribution to the
corporation’s role in global governance systems
Social Innovation:
Is this “civil society?”
•
New trend to looking at ‘social value creation’ as the focus of research
Current trends:
• Focus on systems, processes and outcomes related to social value as
opposed to specific organizational form that defines civil society
•
Social economy (traditionally seen as a specific “regional” variation of the
dominant theoretical model) coming to be viewed as a more appropriate
frame for research as it is based on a conceptualization of sector
convergence and shared values as opposed to a narrower set of structuraloperational features
•
New emergent forms: social enterprises (privately owned, for-profit), hybrid
organizations, mutually-governed inter-sectoral partnerships, horizontal
networks (Aids in Brazil), complexity theory (Dart, Zimmerman)
Summary: 2 Shifts
• Shift to “post-empirical” theory (Taylor
2010) as researchers adopt a normative
approach to social change and social
justice
• Shifting from “multi-national comparison”
to “trans-national collaboration” in terms of
setting the agenda for international and
regional research