Rural NGOs Research Articles

Polish Rural Non-Governmental Organizations During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract This article describes the extent and nature of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the activities of communitybased organisations in rural Poland. The analytical foundation of the study is the research carried out in 2021 on a sample of three hundred and thirty-three rural NGOs. The negative and positive impact of the pandemic on the activities of these organisations were noted. Negative phenomena include a significant slowing down of existing tasks, abandonment of the completion of projects, an exodus of volunteers and active members. The bottom-up organised activity of the rural third sector during the pandemic also brought about noticeable positive phenomena: a widening of the activity field of organisations by new dimensions, an expansion of the cooperation network of rural organisations, and a significant increase in the appreciation of civic activity as a result of the speed and flexibility of self-help activities.

What Features Distinguish the Rural Nongovernmental Organisations that Implement Social Innovations? Evidence from Postcommunist Poland

Social innovation (SI) solves social problems. What features distinguish NGOs that are experienced in implementing SI? This article employs a survey of a representative sample of 400 rural NGOs from Poland to highlight certain features that distinguish NGOs with experience implementing SI among the following: (1) cooperation with other organisations and public institutions; (2) the involvement of rural inhabitants in activities intended to solve their social problems; and (3) human and financial resources. NGOs implementing SI are distinguished by features (1) and (3). The results are interpreted in the context of rural NGO activities in the postcommunist countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Networking with rural NGOs for strengthening tobacco control programme at the grassroots level

Networking with rural NGOs for strengthening tobacco control programme at the grassroots level

Rural Intelligentsia and Path Dependency in Post‐socialist Civic Organising: The Case of Lithuania

AbstractSince the late 1990s the number of rural community development groups in Lithuania has grown exponentially. The article presents the results of one of the first representative surveys of rural NGOs (N = 326) in Lithuania designed to evaluate their structure and resources. Unlike civic organising during the perestroika period, which was characterised by charismatic personalities and organisational innovations, the most recent surge in rural activism follows a path‐dependent trajectory. The movement is lead by representatives of former collective farms, or kolkhoz intelligentsia (white‐collar professionals who served in collective farm social infrastructure during Soviet times) engaged in reconstituting volunteer groups based on a modified Soviet institution of the rural ‘culture house’ or Soviet civic centre (SCC). The prevalence of the SCC‐based rural organising model provided opportunities as well as imposed limitations on post‐socialist civic activism. Community development groups were relatively successful in the types of activities in which SCCs were effective as well (such as culture, leisure and sports), while their capacity to deliver social services were marginal. Although this survey reported relatively high levels of engagement by the community groups with local and county governments, their influence remains constrained by the paternalistic, client–patron type of power relationships that prevail in rural areas.

Practice What You Preach? The Role of Rural NGOs in Women's Empowerment

If NGO employees are facilitating change for self-empowerment, such behavior must be modeled for successful transmission, as suggested in self-efficacy models of behavior change. Rural NGOs in India often depend on employees from the local population who are as likely to be marginalized as their clients. This may cause a gap between what the employees may be trained to “preach” and what they “practice,” thereby diminishing their effectiveness. We examine the employees of a successful rural NGO in India to establish if this gap exists. Using three empowerment instruments, we find that employees indeed “walk the talk.”

The Money Mandarins: The Making of a Supranational Economic Order

What role do Chinese popular associations play in the expansion of civil society and democratization? Under Mao few associations were permitted to exist, while today over 200,000 associations are officially recognized. Are they important foundations of civil society, or vehicles for state corporatism and control? In this book leading China specialists examine an interesting range of associations, from business associations to trade unions, to urban homeowners associations, women's groups against domestic violence, and rural NGOs that develop anti-poverty programs. The contributors find different important trends underway in different parts of China's economy and society. Their findings are nuanced, insightful - and often not what might be expected.