Rebuilding Civil Society Research Articles

Identity Politics, Natural Law, and Human Dignity

Rooted in Marxism and Critical Theory, identity politics upended traditional philosophical anthropology about personhood, and argues that identity is wholly manifested through economic group, social class, gender, or racial categories. Humans are ontologically viewed through their status as victims, not as fully integrated moral persons. Touted as a political issue, identity politics is at heart a philosophical and anthropological problem, and to address it one must return to a better understanding of the soul and human dignity. The resurrection of the classical Natural Law tradition is the remedy for finding common ground and rebuilding civil society, for at the heart of Natural Law is the belief in human dignity which imbues every human being with worth to be honored and respected regardless of race, sex, age, or different culture or religion. Classical Natural Law provides the theological, philosophical, and definitional background for human dignity and only if it is resurrected can “the discontent” in American culture be fully human again.

In search of civil society: From peasant populism to postpeasant illiberalism in provincial Hungary

The need to rebuild civil society was a prominent theme in dissident writings in East-Central Europe in late socialism, but the revival of this concept deserves close scrutiny and local contextualization. This article identifies two currents in Hungarian debates, one focused on addressing problems of backwardness by opening up paths of material embourgeoisement and the other on abstract liberal notions of associational freedom. It then outlines successive transformations of economic and social life in a small Hungarian town where no industry existed prior to socialism and the dominant political forces were populist in the sense of ‘peasantism’. The agrarian and industrial transformations of the socialist decades were undone in the 1990s. In the 2010s, under governments led by Viktor Orbán, it is argued that norms of civility have been threatened by postpeasant illiberalism. If civil society was the gauntlet laid down to social theorists by East-Central Europe in 1989, the challenge posed by this region nowadays is the theorization of incivility and a new brand of populism. It is suggested that these political processes are driven by the collapse of socialist embourgeoisement and the emergence of a new national bourgeoisie under peripheral capitalism, and that some of the moral responsibility for these developments lies with the unwavering intellectual enthusiasts of abstract liberalism.

Adat in Maluku: New Value or Old Exclusions?

The religious-ethnic violence in Maluku has unearthed a complex network of rivalries, inequalities and rhetoric. Opinions as to the causes of the conflict, and possible avenues for reconciliation are extremely diverse, and reflect many of the tensions and challenges faced by Indonesia as a whole, as it moves towards decentralization. One of the elements of Maluku society that has proved to be controversial in this context is tradition or adat . This paper explores some current perspectives on the role of adat in Maluku, and its potential for social transformation. Does a situation as extreme as that in Maluku itself encourages radical transformation and creative solutions for rebuilding civil society, or does it simply further entrench existing prejudice and power relations? How will regional autonomy influence this? What relation do these questions have to other reconciliation initiatives? The paper does not attempt to draw far-reaching conclusions about the future role of adat in Maluku society, but simply indicates some of the questions to be asked and answered in the years ahead. It provides examples of past activities, current perspectives, and future possibilities. It is hoped that these questions will contribute to an already lively debate at the local level.

Adat di Maluku: Nilai Baru atau Eksklusivisme Lama?

The religious-ethnic violence in Maluku has unearthed a complex network of rivalries, inequalities and rhetoric. Opinions as to the causes of the conflict, and possible avenues for reconciliation are extremely diverse, and reflect many of the tensions and challenges faced by Indonesia as a whole, as it moves towards decentralization. One of the elements of Maluku society that has proved to be controversial in this context is tradition or adat . This paper explores some current perspectives on the role of adat in Maluku, and its potential for social transformation. Does a situation as extreme as that in Maluku itself encourages radical transformation and creative solutions for rebuilding civil society, or does it simply further entrench existing prejudice and power relations? How will regional autonomy influence this? What relation do these questions have to other reconciliation initiatives? The paper does not attempt to draw far-reaching conclusions about the future role of adat in Maluku society, but simply indicates some of the questions to be asked and answered in the years ahead. It provides examples of past activities, current perspectives, and future possibilities. It is hoped that these questions will contribute to an already lively debate at the local level.

Lament as Transitional Justice

Chapter 2, Through interpretations of poetry in Carolyn Forche’s anthology, Against Forgetting, and novels from Rwanda, the USA, and Bosnia, Chapter 2, “Lament as Transitional Justice,” argues that lament is a social and ritualized form, the purposes of which are congruent with the aims of transitional justice institutions. Both laments and truth commissions employ grieving narratives to help survivors of human rights trauma bequeath to the ghosts of the past the justice of a monument while renewing the survivors’ capacity for rebuilding civil society in the future. Human rights scholars need a broader, extra-juridical meaning for “transitional justice” to capture its true power.

Rebuilding Civil Society and Community Empowerment with Community Funding

Rebuilding Civil Society and Community Empowerment with Community Funding

Understanding the New Rural Co-operative Movement: towards rebuilding civil society in China

Along with the emergence of the ‘three rural issues’ and rural crisis, a new co-operative movement has been witnessed in rural China, which is different from the former revolutionary communalist co-operative movement. This social movement can help to understand and rebuild civil society in China, which has, more often than not, been criticized as not genuine, civil nor society-based. Following the debate's background of the juxtaposition of a fast economic reform together with slow social and political reforms in China, the paper addresses a crucial question on the impact of economic development on civil society dynamics in China. By identifying the causal mechanisms of the new co-operative development and the conditions needed for them to develop, the paper presents some implications of the co-operative model in today's society. These causal mechanisms are set within the context of one historical process evolving with a path dependency. Using this theoretical framework, it further presents the empirical observations. Through the findings it is concluded that the new co-operative movement in rural China can be considered as a mild liberalization within civil society's sphere. While questioning a popularly used perspective examining the voluntary/non-profit nature of civil society organizations and excluding the economic aspect within civil society studies in China, the paper suggests an alternative approach representing an inclusive third sector with diverse organizations that combine both economic and social aims.

For the Love of God: NGOs and Religious Identity in a Violent World. By Shawn Teresa Flanigan. Sterling, VA: Kumarian Press, 2009. Pp. 184. $75.00 (cloth); $24.95 (paper).

<i>For the Love of God: NGOs and Religious Identity in a Violent World</i>. By Shawn Teresa Flanigan. Sterling, VA: Kumarian Press, 2009. Pp. 184. $75.00 (cloth); $24.95 (paper).

Multiple Modernities in Bulgaria: Social Strategies of Capitalist Entrepreneurs in the Agrarian Sector

Multiple Modernities in Bulgaria: Social Strategies of Capitalist Entrepreneurs in the Agrarian Sector The article focuses on trust/mistrust relations, strategies of cooperation, and emerging conflicts in the period of establishing capitalist reforms in Bulgaria after 1989. In this frame, trust building, as a key challenge for a successful transformation process, is analysed as a premise for cooperation and social cohesion in the process of reforming governance, establishing local institutions, rebuilding civil society, and validating the acknowledged human and natural potential of a "failing" i.e. "fragile state" like Bulgaria. Of specific significance is the analysis of agency in which individuals possess mainly personalised types of trust and cooperation and are suspicious about systemic trust. The analysis of the empirical materials reveals that the agents involved in present capitalist agriculture do not follow the abstract model proposed by transition/consolidation theories but rather they confirm the validity of the multiple modernities approach proposed by S.N. Eisenstadt.

Religious and Social Participation in War‐Torn Areas of El Salvador

Toward a New Agenda for the Study of Religion in the Americas Recent scholarly work on Latin American religion reflects the pluralism and fragmentation of both religion and civil society. What effect will religious practice at the local, micro level have on institutions and structures at the macro level-namely, the process of democratization? A deeper, simultaneously more foundational and more encompassing definition of democratic politics might be involved. In an increasingly global context, the study of religion and social change in Latin America and among U.S. Latinos needs to take a comparative, truly interamerican approach. Churches as Winners and Losers in the Network Society This essay argues that Manuel Castells's explorations of networks and the emergent network society in his recent trilogy The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture may offer useful clues to recent religious developments in Latin America. In this regard, Pentecostalism, by adopting a logic of horizontal integration, rapid response, and flexible production, might be more successful than the Catholic Church in attracting followers. No Land ofMilk and Honey: Women CEBActivists in Posttransition Brazil Brazil's comunidades eclesiais de base (CEBs) forged a generation of women leaders from poor communities who helped rebuild civil society and spurred the democratic transition. Fifteen years later, the CEBs and their women leaders have largely disappeared from politics. This study examines the reasons for their eclipse and the chances for their reemergence. New alliances with other Catholic progressives, Pentecostals, and feminist groups may enable these women to resume their activist role and may again help revitalize Brazilian civil society. Religious and Social Participation in War-Torn Areas of El Salvador The Salvadoran civil war destroyed local community life throughout the province of Morazan. Despite the peace accords, poverty, unequal land distribution, and a culture of violence demand structural and institutional transformations well beyond the individual moral regeneration offered by churches. Religion, however, supplies coping tools, especially for youth, women, and repatriated refugees. By focusing on local issues, furthermore, churches are fostering social participation among hitherto disenfranchised groups, a critical element in building an inclusive, robust democracy.

No Land of Milk and Honey: Women CEB Activists in Posttransition Brazil

Brazil’s comunidades eclesiais de base (CEBs) forged a generation of women leaders from poor communities who helped rebuild civil society and spurred the democratic transition. Fifteen years later, the CEBs and their women leaders have largely disappeared from politics. This study examines the reasons for their eclipse and the chances for their reemergence. New alliances with other Catholic progressives, Pentecostals, and feminist groups may enable these women to resume their activist role and may again help revitalize Brazilian civil society.

Rebuilding civil society in Northern Ireland: the community and voluntary sector’s contribution to the European Union’s Peace and Reconciliation District Partnership Programme

English Since 1995, 26 District Partnerships have been established in Northern Ireland - one in each local government area. They are overseen by a Northern Ireland Partnership Board, drawing representation from across the ethnic and political spectrum. Funding of over £80 million (up to the end of September 1999) has been given by the European Commission through its Peace and Reconciliation Special Support Programme. Representatives of voluntary organisations and community groups form one of the largest constituencies within each District Partnership, alongside local government, the business sector and trade unions. This article outlines the work of the partnerships and describes the contribution of voluntary organisations and community groups. Despite the inherent ambiguities of the central terms of ‘peace and reconciliation’ and uneven data, there is evidence that the voluntary and community sector has played a significant role in the rebuilding of civil society in Northern Ireland.

No Land of Milk and Honey: Women CEB Activists in Posttransition Brazil

Brazil’scomunidades eclesiais de base(CEBs) forged a generation of women leaders from poor communities who helped rebuild civil society and spurred the democratic transition. Fifteen years later, the CEBs and their women leaders have largely disappeared from politics. This study examines the reasons for their eclipse and the chances for their reemergence. New alliances with other Catholic progressives, Pentecostals, and feminist groups may enable these women to resume their activist role and may again help revitalize Brazilian civil society.

Rehabilitation in complex political emergencies: is rebuilding civil society the answer?

The paper examines the challenge of rehabilitation from complex political emergencies (CPEs) and identifies a strategy that is characterized as a civil society rebuilding approach. It focuses on Somalia and a case study of CARE project that aims to build the capacity of local NGOs. The paper argues that civil society in CPEs is simultaneously being undermined and contested by warring parties and emerging after state collapse. The scope of the paper is limited to one case study and that case study examines only a single aspect of civil society: national and international NGOs The paper therefore presents tentative and preliminary results based on limited research. However, in reviewing the literature and presenting a way of approaching the subject, it aims to suggest a starting-point for developing a theoretical framework for such research. The paper finds that international agencies have tended to focus on civil society institutions simply as conduits for aid money and that this has tended to create organisations which lack downward accountability, are dependent on donors and are not addressing the wider roles for civil society envisaged in the approach. Rebuilding civil society does hold out the promise of giving non-military interests a stronger voice and starting a process of changing the aid delivery culture. Achieving these objectives, however, will be a slow and largely indigenous process and there is a need for lowered expectations about what outside assistance can achieve.

The Troubled History of Partition

Th eSeptember elections in Bosnia highlighted what was until then an implicit aspect of the current peace: it is more likely to move Bosnia toward the ethnic states for which the war was fought than to reestab lish the multiethnic Bosnia that once was. Indeed, as the Dayton process unfolds, it becomes clearer that the peace agreement signed in November 1995 after three and a half years of war was something historically familiar: a so-called peace accord that is in reality a partition agreement with an exit clause for outside powers. At the same time, while key aspects of the document, such as the cre ation of two entities with virtually separate legislatures, administra tions, and armies, tend toward partition, the pact attempts to get around some of the more hostile legacies of partition through a common eco nomic space and arms control, and it creates structures that could reverse the partition process by returning refugees and rebuilding civil society. So far, these structures have been dormant, and the holding of national elections in a still highly uncertain peace marks the tilt toward partition. As was widely predicted, the Bosnians gave their ethnic leaders new mandates, and Bosnia took another step toward partition. However, the postponement of the municipal elections due to irregularities in voter registration means the international community is not yet in a position to accept partition as the democratically expressed will of the people.

Repairing the breach: key ways to support family life, reclaim our streets, and rebuild civil society in America's communities: report...

Repairing the breach: key ways to support family life, reclaim our streets, and rebuild civil society in America's communities: report...

Archives in the Guatemalan Western Highlands

The region most often associated with Guatemalan history and culture is the western highlands, known locally as Los Altos. Only thirty miles from the hot Pacific coast, the highlands are located where the sierra rises rapidly to an altitude of three thousand meters, an area of painful beauty captured in Jean-Marie Simon's telling phrase, “eternal spring, eternal tyranny.” Amidst volcanoes, lakes, and cloud-covered mountains, Guatemalans struggle to rebuild civil society in the wake of what may have been the worst repression in the hemisphere, eking out a living by farming exhausted corn plots. The majority of Guatemala's twenty-three ethnic groups reside in these western highlands, where anthropologists have catalogued and attempted to interpret Mayan culture. Here also historians of nineteenth-century Guatemala have constructed a national history outlining the commercialization of land and coercion of labor that accompanied the growth of the Guatemalan coffee industry.