Leaders Of Civil Society Organizations Research Articles

Cambodia’s foreign policy (re)alignments amid great power geopolitical competition

In recent decades, Cambodia has gained geopolitical significance in the competition among great powers in the Indo-Pacific—China, Japan, and the United States—forcing Cambodia to align and realign its relations with these powers. Comprehensive, comparative, systemic analyses of Cambodia’s relations with these three great powers remain limited. This is despite the shifting geopolitical context associated with China’s rise, the United States’ changing international liberal agenda, and Cambodia’s domestic political development. Utilizing various qualitative methods that include data from news reports in Khmer, English, and Chinese and interviews with diverse stakeholders—scholars, journalists, leaders of civil society organizations, representatives of multilateral institutions, and diplomats—this article seeks to fill this gap by providing an up-to-date, empirically rich, and theoretically grounded analysis of Cambodia’s relations with these three great powers. This study will delineate economic, security, and domestic causes of change and continuity within an integrated analytical lens that combines international relations and comparative politics to provide a multi-level (state and systemic) and multi-actor (state and non-state) analysis.

Exploring settler-Indigenous engagement in food systems governance

Within food systems governance spaces, civil society organizations (CSOs) play important roles in addressing power structures and shaping decisions. In Canada, CSO food systems actors increasingly understand the importance of building relationships among settler and Indigenous peoples in their work. Efforts to make food systems more sustainable and just necessarily mean confronting the realities that most of what is known as Canada is unceded Indigenous territory, stolen land, land acquired through coercive means, and/or land bound by treaty between specific Indigenous groups and the Crown. CSOs that aim to build more equitable food systems must thus engage with the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism, learn/unlearn colonial histories, and build meaningful relationships with Indigenous peoples. This paper explores how settler-led CSOs engage with Indigenous communities and organizations in their food systems governance work. The research draws on 71 semi-structured interviews with CSO leaders engaged in food systems work from across Canada. Our analysis presents an illustrative snapshot of the complex and ongoing processes of settler-Indigenous engagement, where many settler-led CSOs aim to work more closely with Indigenous communities and organizations. However, participants also recognize that most existing engagements remain insufficient. We share CSOs’ practices, tensions, and lessons learned as reflections for scholars and practitioners interested in the continuous journey of building settler-Indigenous partnerships and reimagining more just and sustainable food systems, work which requires iterative and critically reflexive learning.

Producing leadership legitimacy in civil society – A study of online presentations of leaders in Sweden

ABSTRACT This article investigates how Swedish civil society organizations (CSOs) legitimize their leaders through online press releases presenting newly elected or recruited leaders, and which leadership ideals that are reproduced. The aim is to analyze how leaders are socially legitimized through leadership ideals in a time of increased demands on CSOs. The study moves away from the dominant perspective on leaders as actors contributing to the organizations, in favour of studying leaders as organizational assets whose image needs to be handled by the organizations. The article is based on a qualitative analysis of 54 online statements from Swedish peak CSOs, focusing on how the leaders are presented concerning personal characteristics, qualifications and missions. The results of the study indicate that Swedish CSO leaders are mainly legitimized with reference to traditional popular movement leadership ideals. Such ideals seem to serve as legitimators regardless of the type of organization. However, there are also legitimacy claims linked to managerial and administrative skills in line with third sector leadership ideals, suggesting potentially conflicting expectations on CSO leaders. These findings can be related to trends such as New Public Management, which push civil society actors to develop new skills and networks and to become more business-like.

Organizational Strength and Authoritarian Durability in Cambodia

This article draws from multiple sources of data including longitudinal field research such as interviews with diverse stakeholders—party apparatchik, leaders of civil society organizations, and representatives of international institutions operating in Cambodia. Analyzing these data using the literature on the durability of single-party authoritarianism, we argue that authoritarian durability in Cambodia is associated with the ruling party’s strength, which has its roots in the party’s evolution from a liberation movement and counterinsurgency struggle from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. This movement and struggle fostered a shared sense of hardship, and a common identity among the party’s leadership, which in turn generated enduring partisan identities, rigid interparty boundaries, and strong party organizational structure. Additionally, we postulate that distribution of patronage largesse made possible through rents associated with extraction of natural resources, foreign aid, and foreign investment further strengthened the ruling party, allowing it to project infrastructural power in surveilling and mobilizing voters and in exercising coercion against its challengers.

Transformational Leadership and Conflict Management in Zanzibar

Zanzibar has had a turbulent political history for more than half a century, from the time of nationalist struggles in the 1950s. The major bone of contestation has revolved around the politics of identity with its resultant long-standing political conflict. In November 2009, the then President of Zanzibar, Amani Abeid Karume from Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), and the Civic United Front (CUF) Secretary-General, Seif Shariff Hamad met and declared their commitment in public to end the long-standing political conflict between the two main political parties on the islands. This article seeks to explain the process of reconciliation in Zanzibar with specific reference to the role of leadership in transformational change. The study was conducted between March 2015 and February 2017, involving two main data collection methods: in-depth interviews and documentary reviews. Interviews were conducted with politicians, government functionaries, academics, journalists, and leaders of civil society organizations. The study found that the only substantive achievements that were realized in the short run were power-sharing under the Government of National Unity (GNU) and some changes in attitudes among some of the key political actors, which, to a certain degree, amounted to a discourse switch from a hostile political attitude based on zero-sum politics to the recognition of the need for cooperation across party lines. The uniqueness of the power-sharing arrangement in Zanzibar was that the system was entrenched in the constitution. The constitution was negotiated and established before the election. The theory of transformational change suggests that transformational leaders tend to have a strong personal attachment to their missions. Their absence in the course of implementation may sometimes negatively impact the transformation process, even in the context where the mission has been translated within the legal and constitutional framework. The case of Zanzibar indicates a pressing need for deepening the power-sharing deal so that it becomes people-centered rather than a mere elite project entrenched in partisan politics.

Living as immigrant in Germany: an analysis of civil society organizations leaders’ perspectives

Purpose Immigration is considered a stressful process that causes many problems such as social isolation, prejudice, unemployment, minority status and intergenerational tensions. This study aims to determine the opinions of the leaders of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Germany about the experiences of individuals who immigrated from Turkey to Germany. Design/methodology/approach In this study, a qualitative method was used. This study was conducted between April and May 2014 with leaders of CSOs who were living in Germany. Informed consent forms were signed by all the participants. Purposeful sampling was used to select the leaders of CSOs to be included in the sample. In-depth interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview format. The data reached saturation for the 30 leaders of CSOs. The data were collected through in-depth interviews and evaluated through thematic analysis. Findings Four main themes were identified: “Difficulties experienced”, “Recommendations to cope with/solve the difficulties experienced,” “Medical tourism” and “Use of health services.” Research limitations/implications This study has some limitations that should be taken into consideration during the interpretation of the results. A majority of the leaders of CSOs had bachelor’s degrees, and were middle-aged and older, which might affect the variety required in qualitative studies. Thus, it remains unclear whether the results could be generalized to all Turkish immigrants in Germany. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first qualitative study conducted with different Turkish CSO leaders living in Germany. This study outlines perspectives of CSO leaders’ migration-related challenges that Turkish immigrants struggle with to integrate into German societies. As a consequence, Turkish immigrants’ socio-cultural values, beliefs, difficulties they experienced, and legal rights should be taken into consideration in health care and tourism interactions. Possible found experiences could help to provide evidence on how to improve migrants’ situations.

Civil Society Leaders’ Experiences of Peacebuilding in Londonderry/Derry City, Northern Ireland: Transforming Cultural and Psychological Barriers

This article reviews the empirical data the second author collected from 120 semi-structured interviews with the leaders of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and funding agency development officers conducted during the summer of 2010 in Northern Ireland and the Border Counties. The research explores 44 Derry City respondents' experiences and perceptions regarding external economic aid in the Northern Ireland peace process. To this end, this article explores the role of economic aid from the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) and the European Union (EU) Peace and Reconciliation or Peace 3 Fund in engaging with civil society in transforming psychological and cultural barriers towards building sustainable peace in Londonderry or Derry City. Themes emerged inductively from data. It includes the CSO leaders' and funding agency development officers' perspectives on building peace and both funds' impact on the Northern Ireland peacebuilding process. CSO leaders and funding agency development officers acknowledge the importance of external economic assistance support in development and forging cross-community contact projects. The interviewees also highlighted issues related to political participation, community competitiveness, and psychological barriers that emerge from CSOs working with both programs. Some of the conclusions are related to broadened peace process interventions to a multi-articulated approach that includes different areas of peacebuilding intervention.

Can EU Civil Society Elites Burst the Brussels Bubble? Civil Society Leaders’ Career Trajectories

The Brussels-based civil society organizations (CSOs) have been conceived by the EU to act as a bridge between the bureaucratic elites and the citizens of Europe. The institutionalized presence of the major EU-based CSOs has, however, called their legitimacy into question, as exemplified by notions such as ‘revolving doors’ implying homogeneous social, educational, and professional backgrounds shared by both EU officials and CSO leaders. This article therefore asks the following questions: To what extent do the leaders of EU-based CSOs merely reproduce the types of capital that mirror those of the political elites in the so-called ‘Brussels bubble’? To what extent do the CSO leaders bring in other sets of capital and forms of recognition that are independent of the Brussels game? How can we explain differences in the salience of EU capital found across policy areas, types of leadership positions, and types of organizations? Empirically, this article qualitatively analyzes the career trajectories of 17 leaders of EU-based peak CSOs that are active in social and environmental policy areas. Despite the highly integrated and institutionalized characteristics shared by all organizations, we find diversity in the composition of the leaders in terms of the extent to which their career trajectories are embedded in the EU arena.

Civil Society Organization Participation in Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Implementation

Civil society organizations (CSOs) have been at the forefront of advocating agrarian reform principles that engender hope for rural development and nation-building. This study assessed the extent of participation of CSOs and the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in the areas of claim folder (CF) documentation, land survey activities, and Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) distribution and installation. This descriptive-comparative and correlational research used a researcher-made survey questionnaire administered to randomly selected implementers, key leaders of CSOs, and farmer-beneficiaries. Using descriptive and inferential analyses, the study yielded a great extent result for both participation and implementation of CARP. A significant difference was found in the areas of assessment for both participation and implementation. Also, there is a significant relationship between participation of CSOs and implementation of CARP. The study recommends strengthening tripartism initiatives in the implementation of the program.

Deliberate Differentiation by the Chinese State: Outsourcing Responsibility for Governance

AbstractDo authoritarian governments’ responses towards different civil society organizations (CSOs) reflect policy differentiations? Building on the existing literature of graduated control, diversification of civil society, and consultative authoritarianism, this paper utilizes an online field experiment,1and interviews with government officials and CSO leaders to demonstrate that local governments have the tendencies to intentionally treat different CSOs with different policy responses, referred to as “deliberate differentiation” in this paper. However, contrary to what the existing literature would suggest, this study reveals that at the local level, such differentiation is driven more by the state's interest in extracting productivity and outsourcing responsibility for the provision of public goods and less by the state's need to acquire information from CSOs, including politically sensitive advocacy groups.

Necessary but Insufficient: Civil Society in International Mediation

Abstract Civil conflicts are more intractable and complex than ever before. In these conflicts, civilians are increasingly targeted and weaponized. Yet, because civilians are disproportionately affected by the ensuing violence and instability, they also have a larger role to play in the peacemaking process. This stems from the fact that local civil society organizations (CSO) assume new responsibilities vis-a-vis their communities as the state disintegrates. They often became the coordinators and providers of basic security and services. Unsurprisingly, CSO leaders often emerge as the only credible and authoritative actors in this complex environment, trusted by both the disputing parties and the affected communities. This article argues that CSOs are necessary to any international mediation process; however, they must be leveraged in conjunction with conventional third party mediator resources (that is, financial, technical and military assistance) to maximize the potential of an enduring peace deal.

The Meanings of Representation and Political Inclusion in the Conferences of Public Policies in Brazil

Participatory Budgets, Public Policy Conferences and Public Policy Management Councils, among other participatory institutions in Brazil, are altering the configuration of processes that define and elaborate public policies, while incorporating citizens and civil associations into political spaces where different mechanisms of participation and representation converge. These new institutions call for reflections concerning political inclusion and representation that go beyond electoral models. We propose to contribute to these debates by discussing the perceptions of some actors, in particular the leaders of civil society organizations, with regard to conferences' capacity for inclusion, and the meanings that they attribute to representation through conferences. The research findings allow us to identify a broadening of the idea of political inclusion and to highlight some of the tensions raised by demands for representation as presence in conference spaces.

Developing Political Strategies across a New Democratic and State Architecture

Under new democratic regimes, civil society organizations (CSOs) alter their political strategies to better engage public officials and citizens as well as to influence broader political debates. In Brazil, between 1990 and 2010, CSOs gained access to a broad participatory architecture as well as a reconfigured state, inducing CSOs to employ a wider range of strategies. This article uses a political network approach to illuminate variation in CSOs’ political strategies across four policy arenas and show how the role of the state, the broader configuration of civil society, the interests of elected officials, and the rules of participatory institutions interact to produce this variation. Data for this article’s analysis come from a survey of three hundred CSO leaders in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. The survey identified the strategies they employed to promote policy change and direct resource allocation in the arenas of participatory budgeting, health care, social services, and housing. Sociographs generated from survey results reveal a distinct clustering within each policy arena of the strategies employed by CSOs, providing further support to the usefulness of the analytical framework.

Социальная Динамика: Российский Контекст. Преодоление Cоциальной Несправедливости (Social Dynamics: Russian Context. Overcoming of the Social Injustice)

Russian Abstract: Книга является одним из удачных опытов междисциплинарного анализа феномена социальной несправедливости в современном российском обществе, позволяющего увидеть новый поворот в развитии социальной системы и новые возможности для ее развития. Поскольку «динамика насилия и несправедливости усиливается в зонах флуктуации, изменяя темпоральность системы, что увеличивает ее неоднородность и, в конечном итоге, разрывает социальную ткань, формируя новые пространства, «открывая окна возможностей» для проведения изменений», авторами выбран инструментарий, включающий сценарный подход и учитывающий социальную динамику. Показано, что процессы формирования нового порядка, прорастания принципиально новой социальной системы воспринимается социумом и существующей системой управления неоднозначно. Новые социальные факторы – параметры порядка, возникающие спонтанно в обществе, начинают подавляться другими факторами, известными как параметры управления. Это противостояние порождает всплески несправедливости, отражая непростую социальную динамику развития общества. Книга рассчитана на широкий круг читателей – преподавателей, студентов, научных работников, лидеров организаций гражданского общества, предпринимателей инновационного типа, государственных служащих и специалистов, работающих в органах власти, а также всех граждан, заинтересованных в развитии России. English Abstract: The book is one of the most successful experiments, interdisciplinary analysis of the phenomenon of social injustice in modern Russian society, allows you to see a new twist in the social system and development of new opportunities its development. Since the of violence and injustice is enhanced in the areas of fluctuations, changing the temporality of the system, which increases its heterogeneity and, ultimately tearing the social fabric, creating new spaces, opening the window of opportunity for change, the authors selected tools, including scenario-based approach which takes into account the social dynamics. The authors have shown that the formation of a new order, the germination of a fundamentally new social system is perceived by society and the existing control system is ambiguous. New social factors - the order parameters arising spontaneously in society begin to be suppressed by other factors, known as control parameters. This confrontation generates bursts of injustice, reflecting the difficult social dynamics of society. The book is designed a wide range of readers - teachers, students, academics, leaders of civil society organizations, entrepreneurs of innovative type, civil servants and professionals working in the government, and all citizens interested in the development of Russia.

Earthquakes and the typologies of state–society relations in China

The proliferation of civil society organizations after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and the 2013 Lushan earthquake in China has caught the attention of scholars in Chinese politics and disaster politics. Immediately after the earthquakes and during the recovery period, civil society organizations were given a rare opportunity to work closely and intensely with the state. As a result, these organizations adjusted their behaviour – sometimes compromising with the state on many fronts – in exchange for better relations with the state and in order to achieve their goals, but they had to work in new and creative ways. Drawing on evidence from a dozen case studies and 61 in-depth interviews with government officials and leaders of civil society organizations in Sichuan Province, this article argues that we can map the state’s preferences and policy distinctions through its varied responses to these organizations during an earthquake recovery period. Specifically, whether the state is more effective in delivering public goods and services in a given area and whether the goals of civil society organizations align with those of state are two key determinants of relations between the state and civil society organizations. This article proposes a comprehensive typology of such relations in China: complementary, cooperative, competitive and confrontational. These categories are not static, because the government and civil society organizations adjust their policies and behaviour as they interact. These learning experiences, triggered by the earthquakes, create a dynamic process of evolving state–society relations in China today.

The Gezi Protests and the Europeanization of the Turkish Public Sphere

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the extent to which Turkish civil society organizations (CSOs) represented at the 2013 Gezi Park protests reflect a Europeanization of the Turkish public sphere. The methodology consists of 14 semi-structured interviews conducted with leaders of CSOs that participated in the protests and one questionnaire sent to a member of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Istanbul Youth board (and member of the Istanbul Bar Association). The findings of our research reveal differentiated patterns of Europeanization of the Turkish public sphere, depending on CSOs’ history, ideology, and multi-level relations with the European Union and the Turkish state. Conversely, pro- and anti-AKP CSOs converge on growing criticism of EU institutions.

Grassroots Perspectives on Hate Speech, Race, & Inequality in Brazil & Colombia

Across Latin America, online and digitally mediated racist speech directed at Afro-descendant youth has intensified existing racial stigma and contributed to the marginalization of minority groups in both online and offline contexts. Racist speech is not a new phenomenon in the region. However, such speech is often amplified through digital media platforms, including social media, and some claim its increasing prevalence may be contributing to the normalization of racism.While racist speech online is prominent in both Brazil and Colombia, studies focused on Latin America are extremely limited and have addressed the overarching theme of online hate speech. Through interviews with leaders of civil society organizations (CSOs) and a review of existing literature, this study discusses efforts and interventions that CSOs have employed to counter racial stigma faced by the collective population of Afro-descendant youth in an attempt to understand and examine signs of impact related to hate speech in Brazil and Colombia, distinct from existing overarching studies of online hate speech.Informed by in-depth conversations with practitioners working in the field, and working closely with collaborating institutions that directly serve Afro-descendent youth, the case study presents an overview of the environment and context within which Afro-descendent youth impacted by racist speech exist. The interviews illustrate that most CSOs view digital racism as an extension of historical racial inequality. This case study documents the efforts of CSOs in the region who are helping to support the actions of young Afro-descendants to occupy roles historically denied to them, thereby deconstructing negative perceptions and re-claiming representations of their identities and realities.

Finding Political Opportunities: Civil Society, Industrial Power, and the Governance of Nanotechnology in the European Union

The European Union encourages and institutionalizes participation by environmental, consumer, and labor organizations in the governance of nanotechnology. Interviews with leaders of the civil society organizations (CSOs) show that they identified multiple problems with nanotechnology policy but had only limited success in gaining the changes that they sought. CSO leaders explain their lack of success as due to the overwhelming power of industry and the support of the European Commission for new industrial development, including nanotechnology. We analyze the perspectives of CSO leaders about their difficulties to develop the theory of the political opportunity structure in the situation of a highly scientized policy field with strong industrial monitoring. We suggest the need to extend the theory to pay more attention to the strategies that reformers can use to maneuver in and to open a relatively closed political opportunity structure. We argue that formal stakeholder engagement is not very effective and suggest instead the importance of the following: building coalitions with government actors, threatening or mobilizing grassroots mobilization, making the issue salient to the public, and pursuing the full range of institutional repertoires.

Mining Companies and Corruption Behavior: A Local Analysis in Burkina Faso

Mining sector is one of key economic sectors in Burkina Faso. Its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) and its leadership in the country’s export earnings make it the most attractive sector both inside and outside the country. However, this fancy for mining activities remains smeared by a strong presumption of corruption. Through the current research, we analyze factors that explain the corrupt behavior from mining enterprises in their location areas. This local level analysis based on behavioral approach has identified some significant local factors that stimulate corruption in situ. So, using data on corruption presumption, we reached to key results that negative effects of mining activities on local communities’ wellbeing can lead these enterprises to corrupt local leaders, religious leaders, civil society organizations leaders, etc.

A Model of Moral Courage: A Study of Leadership for Human Rights and Democracy in Myanmar

This article presents a conceptual model of moral courage based on results of an exploratory, qualitative, and cross-cultural study of the moral courage of leaders of grass roots organizations working for human rights and democracy in Myanmar. Interviews were conducted in Myanmar and Thailand with 19 participants who as leaders of primarily small, local, and non-governmental organizations regularly engaged in acts of moral courage. Consistent with a definition of moral courage based on a review of the literature on moral courage, an analysis of the interview data reveals a relationship between moral motivation and the demonstration of moral courage that is mediated by political, social, and psychological factors, as well as by activist knowledge. Demonstrations of moral courage result in both positive and negative outcomes for individuals, organizations, and society. Understanding how key elements of moral courage might lead to political and social change provides leaders of civil society organizations with a map of what is needed to stand up to oppression and effect change. By engaging their moral principles, commitment, compassion, and sense of urgency while recognizing the risks and potential hardships that they face, leaders can be empowered to stay the course and contribute to the development of civil society within a newly democratic country and a broader global context.