Civil Society Leadership Research Articles

Shaping Civil Society Leaders: Horizontal and Vertical Boundary Work in Swedish Leadership Training Programmes

Civil society leadership training programmes are a new phenomenon, and they are often overlooked by civil society scholarship despite being linked to the professionalisation of the sector. In this article, we examine 14 Swedish leadership programmes in order to identify leadership ideals in the sector. Drawing on the notion of ‘symbolic boundaries’, we argue that leadership programmes produce horizontal boundaries in relation to other societal sectors and vertical boundaries between leaders of the sector and other members. Together, these symbolic boundaries form a leadership ideal that detaches leaders from their organisation and internal democratic processes, instead depicting leadership as a question of personal characteristics and values. Leaders in the sector need to be authentic and to anchor their leadership in the personal values they hold. Theoretically, our analytical model may prove useful in the study of other empirical phenomena in civil society.

Editors' Notes on Themed Issue on Civil Society Education: East Asia

This is the fourth themed issue in the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership (JNEL) in which researchers around the world examine regional and national training and education programs for individuals with civil society leadership roles. The issue has its origin in a post-conference airport meeting a few years ago between one of the editors of this series of themed issues and a set of prominent scholars from East Asia. As most researchers would confirm, the value of a research conference is seldom found in the various seminars or panels, but rather in the unplanned encounters that take place at breakfast, over a coffee, or—in this case—at the airport. The mere airport happenstance turned out to be the beginning of several valuable research initiatives. Since then, among other things, the authors and the editors have met and organized public disseminations, including the Nonprofit Higher Education Research Summit at he ISTR International Conference in 2021. The overall result is not only a significant contribution to the series of themed issues, but also, and more importantly, the first mapping of programs in nonprofit and nongovernmental management education in East Asia.

Civil Society Education: Western Perspectives

This is the third themed issue in the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership (JNEL) in which researchers around the world examine regional and national training and education programs for individuals with civil society leadership roles. When we as editors set our sails in the early years of the last decade, the third issue was always our planned destination. However, as with most voyages, things do not always go according to plan. As we now proudly present the third issue, we are already hard at work with two more themed issues—one with a focus on a set of countries in Southeast Asia and another with a focus on regional mappings and studies. Over time have we come to realize that this voyage has no one harbor, to arrive at once and for all, and that the true delight is the cruise itself.

Wing Populism: Capturing the Globe

This article is an attempt to explore the reasons for the recent trend of the rise of rightwing populism in the whole world. The origin of the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ dates back to the French Revolution and the seating arrangements. The term ‘right’ was soon understood to mean reactionary or monarchist, and the term ‘left’ implied revolutionary or egalitarian sympathies. While populism is an idea of grouping people against ‘the elites. Both right ideology and populism are based on the segregation of society in two sections. When right wing political ideology merges with populist ideology, it is termed as “Right wing populism”. Right wing populists generally converge on issues like opposing immigration, nativism, protectionism etc. This ideology is gaining popularity rapidly in the present world order. The reasons are many, like social media, print and electronic media, civil society, economic instability, and charismatic leadership. Along with this the article also tries to find out the connection of hatred and human nature with the rise of right-wing populism. It focuses on how when hatred at the international level is justified it gives away for hatred at the domestic level as well which results in the cause and effect of right-wing populism.

Essential, complex and multi-form: the local leadership of civil society from an Anglo-Italian perspective

Individuals and organisations within civil society play a crucial role in our cities, but little direct research has been carried out on their leadership role. By employing a place-based leadership approach, this article aims to identify the leaders of civil society in two cities, one in Italy (Padua) and one in the UK (Peterborough). We draw our results from 34 interviews with city leaders. Our findings highlight important similarities between the two cities, such as the fundamental function of umbrella organisations and the influence of faith leaders. We discuss the multi-form character of the leaders of civil society as acting within three main spheres of city leadership – the third/voluntary sector, community and faith – as highlighted by the participants in this study. We also find that civil society exercises the key leadership role of intermediary between citizens and government in public services delivery and in enabling community voice from different publics.

MAINSTREAMING IDEA: ALTERNATIVE READING OF STATE AND CIVIL SOCIETY RELATION IN POLICY MAKING

Scientific climate as the unity of ideas and the activator of an organization is suspected to be a form of civil society leadership. It moves from the personification of actors to the debate of ideas. Civil society as a political movement is a study that still being debated because of its position when faced with the state and policy. This article provides a different review, by carrying out the phenomenon of research-based policy in Indonesia. Through qualitative data tracking, it was shown that some civil society did not put themselves in these two positions, namely as the opponent or the partner for the government. Furthermore, the reality showed that both of them, in this case civil society and the state were more concerned with the realization of their ideas, the openness, and the professionalism of publications to support policy making. More specifically, the existence of openness and implementation of science and information as a collaborative arena appeared from the interaction of the National Development Planning Agency and Knowledge Sector Initiative which had been running since 2011 in building the ecosystem of Research- Based Policy. Then, it was followed by the presence of Open Science community in 2017 and the establishment of National Research and Innovation Agency in 2019. Therefore, both collaborations encouraged the creation of a data openness climate in policy making. This was a general 'norm', but it did not work fully. Moreover, this article provides a space that the opportunities to strengthen the ecosystem of research-based policy can be optimized by setting out the idea approach and makes the civil society goes beyond the institutional barrier

Divisions within post-2011 Tunisia’s secular civil society

ABSTRACTPopular and academic discourses frame civil society as a key factor that prevented Tunisia from following the unfortunate path of other “Arab Spring” states. But while such discourses tend to portray it as a monolithic political force, Tunisian civil society comprises a diverse range of different types of actors with different backgrounds, interests, views and approaches towards activism. Drawing upon interviews with Tunisian activists, this article maps a range of tensions within Tunisian secular civil society along these lines and sets out to explain their origins. Notably, it identifies a generational division between those activists that started to engage in the late 2000s or during and after the 2011 ouster of Ben Ali and those who were already active before. This division is based on a range of factors, including a sense of entitlement to the leadership of post-2011 Tunisian civil society on both sides, a lack of mutual respect for and trust in each other as well as differences regarding practices and priorities of civil society engagement.

The Role of the Popular Movement Tradition in Shaping Civil Society Leadership Education in Sweden

This article explains the role of noncredit-based leadership education in, or aimed at, civil society in Sweden, and it discusses the extent to which this role has changed over the last 100 years. Working from previous research, it explores the idea that the specific features of Swedish civil society—including the prominent role of popular movement organizations, and the system of government support for such organizations—have shaped the organization of such education in Sweden, giving a central role to the broad concept of knowledge and education as folkbildning. Examples suggest that as academic education has become more common among leaders in civil society, leadership education conducted within civil society organizations has become increasingly normative and often tailor-made to suit the needs and ideology of specific organizations. This partially explains why university- and credit-based education of civil society leaders and managers has remained comparatively limited in Sweden, while noncredit-based education developed in civil society has become comparatively prevalent. It also explains why it is based on a different approach than university-based education. As a secondary aim, this article seeks to highlight areas of further research that will increase understanding of the role of noncredit-based leadership education in, or aimed at, civil society in Sweden and to discuss the extent this role has changed over time. Subscribe to JNEL

Early use of the HPV 2-dose vaccination schedule: Leveraging evidence to support policy for accelerated impact

Although human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines were initially licensed based on efficacy after three-dose regimens in women aged 15–26 years, it was recognized early in clinical development that comparable immunogenicity could be obtained after just two doses when administered to younger girls. In both Canada and Mexico, public health authorities made the decision to administer two doses 6 months apart with a planned additional dose at 60 months, while simultaneously doing further study to determine if the third dose would confer meaningful additional benefit. This delayed third dose approach permitted a more cost-effective program with opportunities for improved compliance while minimizing injections and leaving open the opportunity to provide a full three-dose vaccination series. It required close cooperation across many governmental and civil society leadership bodies and real-time access to emerging data on HPV vaccine effectiveness.Although still limited, there is increasing evidence that even one-dose vaccination is sufficient to provide prolonged protection against HPV infection and associated diseases. Ongoing clinical trials and ecological studies are expected to consolidate existing data regarding one dose schedule use. However, to accelerate the preventive effect of HPV vaccination some jurisdictions, in particular those with limited resources may already consider the initiation of a one dose vaccination with the possibility of giving the second dose later in life if judged necessary. Such an approach would facilitate vaccination implementation and might permit larger catch-up vaccination programs in older girls (or as appropriate, girls and boys), thereby accelerating the impact on cervical cancer and other HPV-associated diseases.

Building Relationships Across the Boundaries: The Peacebuilding Role of Civil Society in the Korean Peninsula

ABSTRACTThe expectations for the role of civil society are growing due to an abysmal record of high-level political leadership in reaching an agreement and a sustainable peace process. How much impact can civil society have and what roles can it take in the peace process? This case study of South Korean civil society shows how the civil society was able to bridge the horizontal and vertical boundaries of the Korean conflict with the support of a global civil society, and created a hospitable public atmosphere for the peace process in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the space for the civil society to make a contribution in the Korean peace process required the interdependency of the roles of high-level and civil-society leadership in the interplay between the international and domestic political environments. The peacebuilding role of South Korean civil society demonstrates that the horizontal capacity of civil society alone cannot guarantee a breakthrough and sustainability in a peace process, but if it is coordinated with the vertical capacity, civil-society peacebuilding can be a useful platform for sustainable peacebuilding.

Civil Society Leadership in the Struggle for Aids Treatment in South Africa and Uganda

This thesis is an attempt to theorise and operationalise empirically the notion of ‘civil society leadership’ in Sub-Saharan Africa. ‘AIDS leadership,’ which is associated with the intergovernmental institutions charged with coordinating the global response to HIV/AIDS, is both undertheorised and highly context-specific. In this study I therefore opt for an inclusive framework that draws on a range of approaches, including the literature on ‘leadership’, institutions, social movements and the ‘network’ perspective on civil society mobilisation.This framework is employed in rich and detailed empirical descriptions (‘thick description’) of civil society mobilisation around AIDS, including contentious AIDS activism, in the key case studies of South Africa and Uganda. South Africa and Uganda are widely considered key examples of poor and good leadership (from national political leaders) respectively, while the Treatment Action Cam- paign (TAC) and The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) are both seen as highly effective civil society movements. These descriptions emphasise ‘transnational net- works of influence’ in which civil society leaders participated (and at times actively constructed) in order to mobilise both symbolic and material resources aimed at exerting influence at the transnational, national and local levels. They endeav- oured to influence both AIDS policy and the course of the epidemic directly. I conclude that these networks played a key role in the effectiveness of both TAC and TASO.These qualitative case studies are complemented by econometric analyses. At the continental level, I attempt to measure the impact of civil society mobilisation on the performance of national governments through a cross-country regression analysis applied to 42 Sub-Saharan African states. This analysis fails to show a strong relationship between the presence of AIDS NGOs and HAART and PMTCT coverage (controlling for a range of factors) — potentially supporting my hypothesis that civil society mobilisation is only effective in certain circumstances. At the local level, a second set of regression models using household survey data investigates whether TAC’s mobilisation in Cape Town impacted appreciably on HIV prevention efforts. They show a significant relationship between contact with TAC and not endorsing false conspiracy beliefs about AIDS as well as condom use, indicating that TAC’s impact is not restricted to the national policy level.

Conference Report on Tobacco Taxes in Central America: Current Situation and Opportunities to Reduce Prevalence and Increase Fiscal Revenues

As stated in Article 6 of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), increasing tobacco prices through higher taxes is one of the most effective interventions to reduce tobacco use and to encourage smokers to quit. The potential for tax increases on tobacco products in Central America is ample. We aim to synthesize the current tobacco taxes situation and highlight research needs to strengthen taxation. In May 2012, a workshop was carried out with representatives from each Central American country to analyze the tobacco tax situation in each country and to identify key research gaps with experts in the field. Tobacco taxes in Central America fall far short of the levels recommended by FCTC. Moreover, the legal framework is complex and creates barriers for higher taxes that require further research and political will. Top research priorities are an in-depth analysis of tobacco tax legislation, impact of tax and price policies, analysis of costs associated to health care of tobacco-related diseases and lost productivity, and the feasibility of approaches to increasing tobacco taxes in certain contexts. An additional area of research is the interrelationship between human rights and tobacco control. Central American countries would benefit from increasing excise taxes on tobacco products. The lack of available data and research to counteract tobacco industry arguments are significant obstacles. Active leadership of civil society in support of the partnership of chronic disease interventions is vital in order to obtain tax increases on tobacco products.

The United Nations High Level Meeting Addresses Noncommunicable Diseases, But Where Is Hypertension?

THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH LEVEL MEETING ON NONCOMMUNICABLE DISEASES In September 2011, the United Nations’ General Assembly will hold a high-level meeting (UN HLM) of heads of state and government and representatives of states and governments to address the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This high-level meeting, to be held in New York City, is expected to be a watershed event in the prevention and control of NCDs. It will provide a unique opportunity to prioritize NCDs as a global health challenge of enormous proportions with significant societal, economic, and developmental implications. The UN HLM should bring much needed attention and resources to the prevention and control of NCDs, especially in lowand middle-income countries where nearly 80% of global NCD mortality occurs. Successful implementation of priority actions in the anticipated ‘‘Outcomes Document’’ could lead to a sustained global movement against preventable death, disease, and disability from NCDs, especially cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory disease. Accordingly, the World Health Organization (WHO) and several health professional associations have called for a strategy addressing these four NCDs and four related behavioral risk factors including tobacco use, poor diet, physical inactivity, and harmful use of alcohol. In this perspective, we praise the work that the WHO, civil society leadership, and many health professional organizations have done in bringing attention to these major NCDs and risk factors. Considering how common hypertension is, and the magnitude of associated preventable morbidity, mortality, and economic costs, we also highlight hypertension as an important chronic disorder and a major risk factor for NCDs.

Civil Society in the Age of Crisis

Three crises dominate today's globalized political landscape: trans-national terrorism, financial crisis, and climate change. Collectively, these crises have hurt civil society organizations and constricted their political space. Rights of association and to state information (the foundations of civic engagement) have been eroded in the name of ‘state security’; and their support base and financial viability have declined. While not a death knell for civil society, it is important to understand how these new threats arose, how they relate to and synergize with each other, and how they balance new opportunities. Whereas the diversity of views found in the ‘anti-globalization movement’ appeared to have advantages at the turn of the millennium (caricatured by the slogan that the movement espoused ‘One big “NO!” and many small “YESSES”’), today this appears more as a weakness—suggesting a lack of clarity, focus, and credibility. Yet, thanks to new technology and the growing confidence of civil society leadership in poorer countries, we are seeing the emergence of a new energy in civil society that focuses more on the processes of government than on its substance and which shows signs of transforming civic engagement and enhancing state accountability to citizens.

Civil Society Leadership and Industrial Risks: Environmental Justice in Durban, South Africa

This paper examines the ability of civil society leaders in Durban, South Africa to champion environmental justice in an industrial risk society. It presents viewpoints from key social actors at the Durban city level, including three local case sites, to examine civil society leadership capacity to achieve environmental justice by addressing grassroots concerns. It explores how leaders engage with other civil society actors and subsequent responses towards government and industry. The paper compares the urban regional and case studies analyses and highlights that although post-apartheid civil society leadership is not built from the anti-apartheid leadership, changed civil society leadership during the transition has influenced contemporary leadership in Durban, addressing industrial risks. New opportunities and challenges have resulted in the emergence of limited leaders championing industrial risks such as individualized leaders hindering wider collective actions against risks, including engagement in formal technical processes as opposed to mobilizing people. Not only is new and collective interest in civil society leaders required to mediate between classes, communities and the state and capital, but leaders also need to strategically combine the social and industrial pollution issues for solidarity in order to achieve environmental justice.

Civil Society after Democracy: The Evolution of Civic Activism in South Africa and Korea

The phase of democratic consolidation can significantly impact the motives, dynamics and objectives of civil society. Its internal roles, dynamics and power balances are significantly altered by the advent of democracy, due to shifting resources, political opportunities and a general reframing of goals and objectives. By adopting a definition of civil society as an ‘arena’ (which highlights the continuously evolving composition and leadership of civil society) and borrowing a number of theoretical dimensions from social movement theory (which underline the importance of resource mobilization, political opportunities and conceptual framing processes), the article shows that the advent of democracy has posed a number of challenges to civil society organizations in Korea and South Africa. Moreover, the consolidation of democracy has inevitably changed the nature of government–civil society relations. While in South Africa institutional politics reasserted itself in the first years of democracy, thereby sidelining organizations and movements concerned with public accountability and good governance (which have only recently resurfaced through the action of new social movements), in Korea corruption and lack of transparency immediately marred the dawn of democracy, providing civic movements with a fertile terrain to galvanize civic mobilizations vis-à-vis the lack of responsiveness of the political class.

The unexpected cosmopolitans – Romania's Jewry facing the Communist system

This article presents the failure and inability of the emerging Communist regime in post-war Romania to integrate and make the surviving Jewish community of more than 400,000 into a productive participant in the new socialist regime. Ultimately, both leading Communists of Jewish origin and Jewish activists of the Communist Party, acting through the Jewish Democratic Committee, were branded as ‘cosmopolitans’, removed and purged as unfit to enjoy the benefits of living in a new Romania. The paper traces the mutual images between Jews and Communists, the role of the Joint Distribution Committee in becoming the major agent of the Communists to communise the Jewish community and take over its leadership and elements of civil society, only to be disbanded at the end of the Stalinist era with its leaders purged as ‘cosmopolitans’ and ‘Zionist agents’. The activities of high-ranking leaders of Jewish origin such as Ana Pauker, and their attitude towards Jewish emigration, are also examined in the light of documents available since 1989. In this context, the paper also examines the growing dilemma of the new regime. On the one hand it supported, based on the guidelines of Soviet foreign policy, the establishment of the State of Israel. At the same time, it tried to avoid mass emigration of Jews from Romania. Later, it would again shift policy according to the Soviet pattern and brand Israel as a ‘Zionist state, supported by US imperialism’. By 1951–52 the Romanian Communists realised several facts – that the Jewish community is largely made up of ‘middle class cosmopolitan’ elements, that the regime should get rid of them, and that high-ranking Communist leaders of Jewish origin, soon to be purged themselves, promoted the idea that Jews were unfit to adapt to the new regime and had better leave.

Knowing Self and Others: Worldview Study at Renaissance College

AbstractKnowing self cannot be accomplished without investigation of the other. Knowing self and others—in essence, understanding the human—entails engaging the larger existential or ultimate questions of life. These questions loom large and defy easy solutions, yet wrestling with them remains the hallmark of the educated person, as questions asked of others quickly become those we ask of ourselves. Posing these questions lends weight to exploring the beliefs and values that constitute one's worldview and the myriad of influences and experiences that give it shape. The study of differing worldviews enhances knowledge and critical thinking; for global citizenship and civil society leadership; for open-mindedness and discernment. This article explores worldviews—visions of life and ways of life—as an inclusive search for knowing self and others. It argues for a comprehensive approach that includes both religious and secular worldviews and offers a pedagogical model that incorporates worldview study at t...

Living City: community mobilization to build active transport policies and programs in Santiago, Chile

Although the usefulness of walking and cycling to promote health is increasingly recognized, the importance of civil society leadership in developing new policies and activities is often overlooked. This case study, of Living City (Ciudad Viva) a community-based organization in Santiago, Chile, examines how several communities used knowledge about transport’s impact on the environment and health, gained through opposition to a major highway project, to build effective sustainable urban transport initiatives. Inspired by urban reforms in Bogot´a, Living City now focuses mainly on “active transport” (formerly nonmotorized), building the policies, attitudes and infrastructure necessary to encourage walking and cycling, and the inclusion of the differently abled. It has won two major awards for innovation and now partners with NGOs in The Netherlands and elsewhere in Chile and Latin America. Moreover, Living City now organizes cycling-inclusive training programs, design charrettes and participatory processes in cooperation with Santiago’s regional and national authorities. Its publication, La Voz de La Chimba, distributed free throughout the city by volunteers, has helped to open people’s eyes to the implications of active transport for social equality and health, and provided support to other citizens’ initiatives, struggling to get off the ground. This experience illustrates how citizens’ and community organizations acquire important knowledge and practical experience in learning by doing situations, and how they can learn to reach out to ordinary people and key policymakers, building bridges across the citizen-policy divide to produce innovative, win-win programs that simultaneously bring change at micro- and macro-levels.

A direction and contents of communication program in university for cultivating leadership of civil society

A direction and contents of communication program in university for cultivating leadership of civil society