Civil Society Strategies Research Articles

Lessons from the Women and Gender Constituency: Interrogating Civil Society Strategies for Organising in the UNFCCC

While scholarship on the topic of gender and the environment is steadily growing, little is known about the challenges faced and successes seen by women and gender NGOs operating as a central part of environment-focused civil society. In this paper, I offer such an analysis, examining the political strategies—rhetorical and procedural—mobilised by the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). I argue that the WGC has seen lots of success in mobilising arguments that foreground women’s vulnerability to the effects of climate change. But at the same time, the constituency has seen far more resistance to more intersectional feminist arguments that interrogate the role of masculinised discursive power in shaping climate politics. This is at least in part a result of a wider structure of civil society that pigeonholes different identities (e.g. gender, youth, indigenous peoples) in a way that separates their deeply interconnected struggles. Understanding this structural barrier, or dark side of civil society, is crucial to envisioning a more fruitful integration of civil society in sustainability politics.

Barriers and Facilitators Related to the Adoption of Policies to Reduce Ultra-Processed Foods Consumption: A Scoping Review

to conduct a scoping review to answer the question "What factors have influenced the adoption of food taxes, front-of-pack labeling and restrictions on marketing to children?". A scoping review was developed from four databases. Studies that described and analyzed policy processes were included. Analysis was performed to identify the barriers and enablers mentioned under the guidance of Swinburn et al., Huang et al., Mialon et al., and Kingdon. 168 documents were identified, describing experiences from five regions or groups and 23 countries, which have generated 1584 examples of 52 enablers (689 examples; 43.5%) and 55 barriers (895 examples; 56.5%) that may have influenced policies. The main enablers were related to the government environment and governance and to civil society strategies. Corporate political activity strategies were the main examples of barriers. This scoping review consolidated barriers and facilitators related to policies aimed at reducing ultra-processed foods consumption, demonstrating that factors related to the actions of governments and civil society are the main facilitators. On the other hand, as the most interested actor in promoting the consumption of these products, the strategies adopted by the companies that produce these products constitute the main barrier to these policies in all the studied countries and should be overcome.

The commissioner’s perspective: the lived realities of commissioning children’s preventative services in England and the role of discretion

Commissioning remains the dominant process by which England’s state and third sector financial relationships are managed, attracting much criticism and debate. In response, the Civil Society Strategy (HM Government 2018) has called for a renewed focus on collaborative commissioning arrangements. However, the absence of much comment on commissioners suggests we have not paid enough attention to the role of the individuals who manage these processes. Semi-structured interviews with 15 commissioners, responsible for children’s preventative services, provide new empirical evidence exploring commissioners’ lived experiences. Drawing on the notion of vertical discretion, which is an individual’s freedom from external control, versus horizontal discretion, which is an individual’s freedom for decision making, this article explores the space for commissioners’ individual discretion within the commissioning process. Findings highlight that greater consideration of the role discretion has in commissioning processes can add some insight into how more collaborative commissioning arrangements may be achieved at a local level.

Civil society strategy: a policy review

In August 2018, the UK government published its Civil society strategy for England, aiming to establish a policy agenda for creating social value. This paper reviews the strategy, critically assessing its contribution to the creation of social value, the civil society–state relationship, public sector commissioning and youth participation. By concluding with an analysis of the strategy’s language, we argue that there are risks in the strategy’s narrative positioning of voluntary action and wider civil society.

Introduction

This article serves as an introduction to this special issue on recent developments in civil society organization and strategies in Russia. Despite the widespread assumption that the increased restrictions placed on NGO activity by the state in recent years have hampered their ability to operate, we argue that civil society in Russia continues to show signs of vitality. This is demonstrated by the fact that protests by ordinary Russians have grown and have often led to the formation of new groups and movements which have had some success in campaigning on specific issues. As the articles in this special issue highlight, one of the key tools affecting whether or not such movements can be successful in achieving their aims is that of framing. When organizations are able to frame the issue they are campaigning on in such a way as to resonate with ordinary people and avoid directly challenging the balance of power within Russia’s political system, they tend to enjoy more success than those groups which tend to take a more confrontational stance and thus face greater pushback and sanction from the authorities. This serves to highlight that NGOs and other civil society groups in Russia employ a range of different strategies and enjoy very different relationships with the authorities as a result.

Rescuing Welfare Society: Political Strategies for Mobilizing Civil Society in Denmark, 2010–2018

The article analyzes how civil society is constructed in two Danish civil society strategies from 2010 to 2017, the governmental programmes of the governments in question and the role civil society plays in the proposed upcoming reform of the Danish public sector, the Cohesion Reform. The article approaches civil society from a Foucauldian perspective meaning that it on the one hand analyzes civil society as a transactional reality, something which does not exist as such, but must be continually produced as a given thing with certain values. On the other hand, it means analyzing civil society as a central part of a governmental rationality, or governmentality, which represents the natural movements of society and which government must respect and govern according to. This means that the natural, vital and originary processes of civil society becomes a measurement for good and right government in contradistinction to the artificial, cold and bureaucratic state and thereby posited as the rescuer of welfare society.

Repoliticizing international migration narratives? Critical reflections on the Civil Society Days of the Global Forum on Migration and Development

ABSTRACTThis paper draws on Pécoud’s international migration narratives (IMN) as an analytical framework to examine the Global Forum on Migration and Development’s Civil Society Days (GFMD-CSD). We analyse the narratives both produced and challenged at the GFMD-CSD, suggesting that while the GFMD-CSD poses a gentle challenge to existing IMN, it falls short of meaningfully (re)politicizing predominant migration paradigms. This is partly due to how the forum is a fraught space that reflects and reproduces uneven power dynamics between the Global North and South, concealing and nullifying contestations of power. Nonetheless, the GFMD-CSD, as a hybridized, experimental and fluidly defined discourse-led ‘global’ space, still functions as an important arena through which challenges to depoliticized state-led rhetoric might slowly trickle. Therefore, a closer interpretation of self-reflexive GFMD-CSD civil society strategies might challenge Pécoud’s conceptualization of what constitutes a ‘depoliticized’ approach to migration.

Losing UNGASS? Lessons from civil society, past and present

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the role of civil society in the recent history of drug policy reform. It focuses on the UN drug control system, which is designed to regulate certain “scheduled” or listed substances internationally. It provides new light on recent reformist discourses and strategic agendas and how they related to the reality of UN politics and international relations. It questions the idea that the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) in 2016 was a failure in terms of outcomes. It concludes by suggesting that the true outcomes of the UNGASS process will initially be obscured by the complexity of national-international drug policy dialectics, but may eventually prove more tangible and enduring than proposed formal systemic reforms.Design/methodology/approachThe paper examines the historical role of civil society in the UN drug control system. It highlights that although civil society played a key role in the early formation of the system, this role diminished over time as the system professionalised. Meanwhile, as a new reformist movement emerged in the 1990s challenging the status quo, the paper traces this movement through the early UNGASS process, the decline of the reformist era and the eventual UNGASS outcomes. It concludes with a critical evaluation of civil society strategies and the relationship between idealistic strategies and the realities of national and international politics.FindingsRather than a failure of outcomes, UNGASS represented a failure of assumptions, strategic vision and ultimately expectations on the part of reform optimists. These groups ultimately created and became captive to a goal of formal systemic reforms, or treaty revisions, underpinned by a dogmatic assumption of “the inescapable logic of reform necessity”. This logic argued that highlighting treaty “breaches” and contradictions would be a sufficient condition to drive a formal UN system-wide re-evaluation of drug control. These failures of strategic assumptions and vision ultimately resulted in the sense of “failure” of UNGASS 2016.Research limitations/implicationsThis research highlights the need to critically evaluate civil society strategies and desired outcomes with an eye to history, international relations and the realities of managing a complex global issue. The application of mono-causal explanations for individual state actions or international cooperation is shown to be vastly insufficient to explain, plan for or predict the outcomes of a complex multilateral framework. Furthermore, this paper highlights a research agenda on the role of civil society in drug policy formation and how this relates to the current policy and advocacy groupings among member states and interest groups at national and international levels.Practical implicationsThis paper highlights a more realistic appraisal of the determinants of and possibilities to change international drug policy. It thereby utilises an impressionistic historical narrative of the UNGASS process to enable an evaluation of the frontiers of policy reform at the UN level and provide some guidance on the failures of past strategies and potential future directions of international drug control and reformist strategies.Social implicationsAs highlighted in this paper, drug policy is an area where major policy failures are recognised within the current international approach. Experimentation with new tactics and strategies are needed to break out of the traditional prohibition-centric approach to this issue. The benefits of more successful policies would be felt though a lower level of harm from drug use, drug markets and drug policy. As such, a pragmatic understanding of how the international system might evolve to support new evidence-based approaches is crucial to developing a socially beneficial approach to drugs and drug policy.Originality/valueThe originality of this research lies in its blending of a historical evaluation of the role of civil society in the UN drug control system and the strategies of contemporary civil society actors around the UNGASS process. Thereby it allows a more critical evaluation of the strategic goals, assumptions and outcomes of reformist strategies in the recent era and potential strategies moving forward.

Europeanisation and De-Europeanisation Dynamics in Turkey: The Case of Environmental Organisations

While Europeanisation of civil society in Turkey has received considerable attention, there has been much less interest in how environmental organisations, as key civil society actors, have been affected by Europeanisation/de-Europeanisation dynamics. Interviews with civil society representatives and European Union (EU) and Turkish policy-makers indicate that the EU impact on environmental organisations has been ambivalent, and that Europeanisation dynamics are intertwined with the adverse consequences of these processes. While Turkey’s EU candidacy has empowered civil society through both EU-isation and Europeanisation, there has also been a remarkable rise of scepticism towards the EU’s civil society strategy and the EU has lost its attractiveness as a normative context in environmental debates.

Fighting for Justice (and Survival): Kenyan Civil Society Accountability Strategies and Their Enemies

Drawing on interviews with civil society actors and international donors, this article examines the role of Kenyan civil society in advancing accountability for serious international crimes, specifically the 2007–2008 post-election violence. We consider civil society as recipient and transmitter of norms of accountability and as transformer and user of such norms, as well as civil society strategies for engaging with actors domestically and internationally. Exploring how civil society has devised advocacy strategies relating to the International Criminal Court and domestic justice mechanisms, we challenge some of the assumptions in the literature on civil society and accountability. In particular, we question whether civil society can predominantly rely on international standards as part of a ‘justice cascade,’ arguing that the Kenyan case illustrates a more complex situation where narratives of justice and accountability continuously change and may be undermined as a consequence of counternarratives devised by those opposed to criminal justice.

How does single party dominance influence civil society organisations' engagement strategies? Exploratory analysis of participative mainstreaming in a 'regional' European polity.

A raft of United Nations Treaties, European Union Directives and domestic laws oblige governments in 180 + countries to apply the Participative Democratic Model of mainstreaming equalities to public administration by involving those targeted by equality initiatives at all stages in their design and delivery. Notwithstanding Participative Democratic Model’s deeply political nature, extant work has overlooked how governing party turnover influences civil society organisations’ (CSOs) strategies. Here, this lacuna is addressed using a negative ‘extreme case study’ research design involving qualitative accounts from civil society organisations in Wales, a ‘regional’ European polity characterised by one-party dominance. The findings reveal how the absence of turnover distorts the Participative Democratic Model in relation to diverse factors including: strategic bridging, extraparliamentary politics, cognitive locks and party institutionalisation. Inter alia, the wider contribution of this analysis lies in showing the importance of turnover to effective engagement, the ‘pathologies’ associated with one-party dominance and the need for adaptive civil society strategies tailored to prevailing electoral politics and governing party turnover in liberal democracies.

Resistance, rupture and repetition: Civil society strategies against intimate partner violence in Cambodia

This paper offers a new interpretation of the ‘resistance’ carried out by local civil society organisations in Cambodia against intimate partner violence (IPV). In this, the paper explores the nexus between ‘rupture’, ‘resistance’ and ‘repetition’ and concludes that different ‘repetitions’ can contribute to acts of violence while simultaneously creating possibilities for resisting IPV. In regard to the latter, the concept of ‘rupture’ is investigated as a performative politics through which organisations try to disrupt the ‘repetitions’ of violent masculinities. Furthermore, it is argued that the importance of ‘repetitions’ and the concept of time should be acknowledged. The French criminal defence lawyer Jacques Vergès’ understanding of ‘rupture’ and the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze's notions of ‘repetition’ inform the analysis. To exemplify our discussion and findings, the paper embraces stories of a number of civil society workers who facilitate various men's groups in Cambodia in order to negotiate the practice of IPV.

Changing civil society in Cambodia: in search of relevance

After decades of civil war and internal conflicts, Cambodia is on the path of democracy. The country, despite steady economic growth in the last decades, is facing challenges around poverty, exclusion, and inequality. The contributions of civil society in the past two decades, in development and deepening democracy, were significant, but civil society is now facing new challenges in the face of pro-neoliberal policies of the State. The relationships within civil society are characterised by both cooperation and competition, but its relationships with political society, media, and academia are underdeveloped. Civil society's strategies and capacities require transformations to continue to be relevant in the future.Société civile en mutation au Cambodge : en quête de pertinenceAprès plusieurs décennies de guerre civile et de conflits internes, le Cambodge est sur le chemin de la démocratie. Ce pays, malgré la croissance économique constante qu'il a affiché au cours des dernières décennies, est confronté à des défis relatifs à la pauvreté, à l'exclusion et à l'inégalité. Les contributions de la société civile au cours des deux dernières décennies, en termes de développement et d'approfondissement de la démocratie, ont été considérables, mais la société civile se heurte maintenant à de nouveaux défis face aux politiques néolibérales de l’État. Les relations au sein de la société civile se caractérisent par la coopération ainsi que la concurrence, mais ses relations avec la société politique, les médias et le milieu universitaire sont sous-développées. Les stratégies et les capacités de la société civile requièrent des transformations pour continuer à être pertinentes à l'avenir.La cambiante sociedad civil de Camboya: en busca de la relevanciaTras varias décadas de guerra civil y de conflictos internos, Camboya ha tomado el camino de la democracia. A pesar del sostenido crecimiento económico que se ha registrado durante las últimas décadas, el país enfrenta situaciones de pobreza, de exclusión y de desigualdad. Las contribuciones de la sociedad civil para impulsar el desarrollo y la democracia han sido significativas. Sin embargo, actualmente la sociedad civil enfrenta retos nuevos vinculados a las políticas neoliberales del gobierno. En el seno de la sociedad civil, las relaciones se caracterizan tanto por la cooperación como por la competencia. No obstante, sus relaciones con la sociedad política, con los medios y con la academia están poco desarrolladas. Las estrategias y las capacidades de la sociedad civil tendrán que transformarse para ser relevantes en el futuro.Mudança na sociedade civil do Camboja: em busca de relevânciaApós décadas de guerra civil e conflitos internos, o Camboja está no caminho da democracia. O país, apesar do crescimento econômico constante nas últimas décadas, está enfrentando desafios relativos à pobreza, exclusão e desigualdade. As contribuições da sociedade civil nas duas últimas décadas para o desenvolvimento e fortalecimento da democracia foram significativas, mas a sociedade civil está agora enfrentando novos desafios em face de políticas pró-neoliberais do Estado. As relações dentro da sociedade civil são caracterizadas por cooperação e competição, mas suas relações com a sociedade política, mídia e academia estão pouco desenvolvidas. As estratégias e competências da sociedade civil exigem transformações para que continuem a ser relevantes no futuro.

The 1989 Revolutions in Retrospect

Reminding us of the failure of academia to predict the East European revolutions, and the challenges presented by the latter to the theories of revolution, the essay claims that in order to understand why the exit from communism comprised so many varied modes, one should take a ‘path-dependence’ diachronic and synchronic comparative perspective. Based on this dual approach and a set of variables, the essay advances a typology of East European revolutions and argues that the issues regarding the type of political regime, the development of civil society and its way of interacting with the state are of paramount importance for comprehending how the ‘negotiated revolutions’ in Central Europe came about. Finally, the significance of the Central European civil society strategy under late communism for the era of globalisation is addressed.

Civil Society in the Shadow of the Irish State

The dominant perception is that Irish society has responded to the current economic crisis in a relatively muted, moderate and passive fashion. How can we explain this apparent absence of political contestation or protest in Irish civil society? Various cultural and historical explanations can partially explain this apparent passivity; the approach here complements these explanations by exploring the institutional nature of the Irish state as an explanatory factor for the nature of the Irish civil society response to the crisis. Having first defined civil society and explored the scale and scope of Irish civil society, the article focuses on whether, or to what extent, the relative absence of a progressive civil society or movements can be partially attributed to the institutional nature of the Irish state. Five institutional or state-centred rationales are offered: the populist nature of Irish political parties; patterns of interest group formation; clientalism; corporatism; and state strategies to silence dissent. The impact on civil society of the increased marketisation of public goods is briefly discussed. The article argues that more critical awareness in civil society of how populist state institutions influence civil society will open up new possibilities for civil society strategies. It concludes by examining how institutions, interests and ideas might change. Society needs to develop a greater public sphere where cross-sectoral progressive alliances can demonstrate popular support for alternatives.

The perils of a shared past: rethinking civil society strategy

The perils of a shared past: rethinking civil society strategy

Philippine Civil Society and WTO Negotiations: Opportunities and Challenges

The essay discusses how civil society has found an opening in intervening in the decision-making process on the country’s negotiating position in the World Trade Organization (WTO). It particularly looks at political opportunity structures which made this possible including the following external and domestic factors: 1) the anti-globalization movement which has pressured states to be more transparent and accountable to the manner in which WTO policymaking is being undertaken, 2) the failure of the Uruguay Round to provide the economic benefits to the Philippines inducing the government to be more open to civil society intervention, 3) the effort of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the lead agency for the negotiations of the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), to bring in civil society players, which was exemplified by the DA’s establishment of the Task Force on the WTO (Re)Negotiations on the Agreement on Agriculture (TFWAR), and 4) the emergence of coalition-building in the WTO, particularly among developing countries. However, there are also challenges which civil society groups face such as the need for the active involvement of the legislators in the WTO negotiations; the institutionalization of civil society participation at the local and global levels; and the prioritization of civil society strategies on dealing with the WTO and their respective governments.

The Quest for the Effective Use of Natural Resource Revenue in Africa: Beyond Transparency and the Need for Compatible Cultural Democracy in Nigeria

Questions about the effective use of natural resource revenues have in recent years become increasingly central to local and international efforts to address the problem of resource curse in Africa. The emerging and dominant perspective tends to emphasize the links between transparency and accountability. This approach has been instrumental to the opening of new spaces for stakeholder engagement in the bid to transform natural resource revenues into sustainable development benefits. However, despite its contribution, this transparency-accountability strategy is underpinned by a misdiagnosis of the governance failure complex in Africa. Consequently, the approach is unable to adequately facilitate the transformation of natural resource revenues into sustainable development benefits for Africans. Focusing largely on Nigeria, the paper suggests that the key to the effective use of natural resource revenue in Africa lies in addressing the structural inadequacies inherent in African state-nations and the systemic anomalies in its societies. This would require the pursuit of compatible cultural democracy, the strengthening of the technical and institutional capacities of institutions of checks and balances, the diversification of civil society strategies, an emphasis on macro- and microcorporate citizenship issues by transnational corporations, and the global regulations of their socioenvironmental impacts. The paper concludes by exploring the ramifications of its arguments for the resource curse literature.

The contentious role of civil society in reconstituting democracy in the European Union

Assuming that an EU supportive civil society is neither a preconditions nor a “quantité négligeable” in the EU's struggle for a democratically legitimate constitutional settlement, the article explores the contentious role of civil society in the EU's “would-be democratic” polity, arguing that this offers opportunities for European political information and reasoned communication that provide uninformed and disgruntled citizens with democratic alternatives to post-democratic withdrawal, and politically accountable and responsive leaders with necessary feedback. An Europeanisation perspective is adopted to develop a framework for analysing the domestic politics of European constitutional treaty reform. This analytical framework rests on three key components: first, the “misfits” between member states’ and EU democratic norms in the context of the “fragmented democratic legitimacy” of the composite EU polity [Schmidt, V. A. (2006). Democracy in Europe. Oxford: The EU and National Polities]. Second, a typology of practices chosen by civil society actors for responding to EU treaty reforms, categorised in terms of “exit, voice, and loyalty”. And third, as a key for explaining variations in organised civil society's strategies in EU reform politics, the different kinds of ideas that intermediary actor cherish regarding their preferred model of European democracy. The article derives a number of empirical propositions from this framework, leaving it to future research to systematically test how the impacts by national democratic contexts on the contentious role of civil society in EU politics are shaped by competing ideas about a primarily national, supranational or a cosmopolitan-transnational model of democracy in Europe.

The adolescent sexual world and AIDS prevention: a democratic approach to programme design in Zimbabwe.

The main aim of this study was to redress the under-representation of adolescent attitudes in AIDS prevention programme design and to discuss the implications of a democratic sexuality education approach within a health promotion context. The study surveyed the attitudes of adolescents (average age 16 years) on sex-related topics such as culture, marriage, sexual behaviour and sex education, identified similarities and differences in attitudes according to gender and socio-economic environments, and examined sources of students' knowledge of selected sex-related topics. Questionnaires were completed by 3429 secondary school students from different backgrounds. Findings showed significant differences in attitude related to gender and socio-economic settings and also in sources of information. The study drew on a democratic sexuality education approach. Using this approach, adolescents review ideological perspectives and decide which are most appropriate for them as guides in making decisions about their own lives. This type of education is fully consistent with the principles of democratic living and gives guidance to teenagers who are trying to decide how to live a healthy life. Study results suggest that programmers would be well advised to collect information from the adolescents' psycho-social-economic environment and link it with good governance and civil society strategies in developing AIDS prevention programmes that involve the adolescent in making lifestyle decisions. To achieve a more supportive environment for AIDS prevention, this approach can link adolescent attitudes and health promotion action to advocate for public policy reform, gender equality, multi-dimensional partnerships and social marketing.