Controversies about Religious Organisations within an Evolving Taiwan Civil Society

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-264
Author(s):  
Richard Madsen
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Voluntary Associations ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Relative Independence ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Society Today ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Way

Abstract A staple of political theory is that democracy depends on a vibrant civil society. What are the indicators of such a society? Is it the number of voluntary associations, their relative independence from government, the content of their activities, their systemic relationships with one another—and/or the way the relationships among these variables are evolving over time? In this paper, I place special emphasis on the systemic relationships among civil society organisations and their evolution over time, and I revisit some of the findings from the book Democracy’s Dharma to show how this emphasis might offer a new perspective on the development of Taiwan’s civil society today.

Civil Society in UN Peacebuilding Discourse

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura J. Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Conceptual Domain ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Way

Chapter 5 outlines the ways in which civil society is largely associated with “women” and the “local,” as a spatial and conceptual domain, and how this has implications for how we understand political legitimacy and authority. The author argues that close analysis reveals a shift in the way in which the United Nations as a political entity conceives of civil society over time, from early engagement with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to the more contemporary articulation of civil society as consultant or even implementing partner. Contemporary UN peacebuilding discourse, however, constitutes civil society as a legitimating actor for UN peacebuilding practices, as civil society organizations are the bearers/owners of certain forms of (local) knowledge.

scholarly journals Germany’s Government-Civil Society Development Cooperation Strategy: the dangers of the middle of the road

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-59
Author(s):  
Susan Engel
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Economic Cooperation ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
The Road ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Cooperation Strategy ◽  
Civil Society Development ◽  
The Way

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has been busy since the late 2000s studying the way aid donors manage their relations with development civil society organisations (CSOs). More than studying these relations, they have made some very detailed, managerialist suggestions about how CSOs should be organised and how donor governments should fund and otherwise relate to them. This came out of the debate about aid effectiveness, which was formally aimed at improving both donor and recipient processes. Donors have quietly dropped many of the aspects related to improving their own performance and yet a number have created new interventionist governance frameworks for CSOs. This is the case in Germany, which has a large, vibrant development CSO sector that has traditionally been quite autonomous, even where its received state funding thanks to Germany’s commitment to ‘subsidiarity.’ Yet Germany is otherwise a middle of the road donor and in many ways, these ‘reforms’ are moving its relations with civil society more towards a somewhat more managerialist approach, one that is in fact the norms amongst OECD donors.

From “Voluntary” to “Truly Voluntary” Associations: The Structure of the Chinese Community in French Polynesia, 1865–2005

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Anne-Christine Trémon
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Voluntary Associations ◽  
French Polynesia ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Chinese Community ◽  
Chinese Identity ◽  
Voluntary Membership ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis article presents a historical overview of the Chinese community in French Polynesia, from its initial structuring into associations at the end of the 19th century until the restructuring that occurred at the end of the 20th century. The use of a combination of models brings into relief the correlation between class differentiation and the relative importance of sharing the same surname and ties of affinity. The analysis highlights the link between the community's internal structure and the mode of organization of Chinese associations in the guise of real estate holdings. Until recently, leadership was entrusted to a limited number of wealthy merchants and their families who were shareholders in these holdings. The termination of this system in the 1990s was linked to the change in the mode of membership to the associations and to the wider Chinese community. The shift from compulsory membership to voluntary membership is evident with the emergence of new types of associations aimed at preserving Chinese cultural identity in French Polynesia, but it is also true in the case of clan associations. The way in which modes of affiliation to the associations changed over time reveals a correlative change in the way Chinese identity is expressed today.

scholarly journals Deliberation as a tool to find solutions to overcome the crisis in the European Union

2017 ◽  
pp. 133-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Witkowska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Target Model ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
The Way

A deliberative debate is a process of communication focused on finding good arguments for specific evaluations and solutions to the issues discussed, and addressing important stakeholder issues. The aim of the article is to present the course and results of observations made with regards to the theoretical and scientific discourse of deliberation that took place in September 2016. Participants were academic experts, thinkers and representatives of civil society organisations working in European affairs, as well as doctoral students and other activists. The questions concerned the way to understand the guiding motto of the meeting: More Europe and the way to define and to perceive the crisis in the process of European integration. Deliberation concerned the assessment of the model of European integration and the question whether the current formula is endorsed or contested. In addition, arguments on the best and worst effects of the integration process should be identified, who can challenge the integration process and for what reasons. The purpose of the deliberation was to assess the process of European integration, identify the ground for the criticism thereof, diagnose crisis situations and indicate the desired target model.

scholarly journals Constructing victimhood in divided Germany: The case of the Association of the Victims of Stalinism (1950–1989)

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Relevance ◽  
Historical Injustice ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Divided Germany ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

Taking the Vereinigung der Opfer des Stalinismus (Association of the Victims of Stalinism) as a case study, this article argues that civil society organisations which claim to represent the interests of victims of historical injustice must seek to construct and propagate notions of the political and social relevance of victimhood. They must do so in such a way that victimhood both offers a coherent point of identification for individual victims and speaks to the concerns of the political system on which victims rely for compensation and recognition. By examining the discourse of officials of this organisation over time, it is possible to demonstrate the extent to which victims’ representatives must adapt their conception of victimhood in order to respond to changing circumstances. The article also points to the challenges these organisations face in remaining relevant in the new political contexts.

Nachhaltigkeit in Wald und Gesellschaft trotz «Überalterung» und «Unterjüngung» (Essay)

2013 ◽  
Vol 164 (8) ◽  
pp. 236-239
Author(s):  
Werner Schärer
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Technical Progress ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Care For The Elderly ◽  
Economic Reasoning ◽  
The Right ◽  
Implementation Programme ◽  
Effective Distribution

Sustainability in forest and society despite “overmaturity” and “lack of regeneration” (essay) This essay compares efforts to move towards sustainability in the forests with those in the care for the elderly in Switzerland, and tries to draw conclusions which may promote sustainability. It is wrong, for forests and human populations, to talk of “overmaturity”, as this assumes the primacy of economic reasoning. To guarantee sustainability, the balance between all aspects is crucial. To attain true sustainability, we need binding guidelines and the “right” scale of implementation programme. Civil society organisations have been working for decades – often longer than the state itself – to improve sustainability. In many different areas, good cooperation and effective distribution of tasks between these institutions can be observed. This is important, among other things, because the ever greater speed of technical progress may overwhelm the adaptive capacity of both forests and people, which would influence sustainability in a negative way.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Fröhlich ◽  
Abiodun Williams
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
International Context ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Executive Action ◽  
Trends Over Time ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Way ◽  
Guiding Questions

The Conclusion returns to the guiding questions introduced in the Introduction, looking at the way in which the book’s chapters answered them. As such, it identifies recurring themes, experiences, structures, motives, and trends over time. By summarizing the result of the chapters’ research into the interaction between the Secretaries-General and the Security Council, some lessons are identified on the changing calculus of appointments, the conditions and relevance of the international context, the impact of different personalities in that interaction, the changes in agenda and composition of the Council as well as different formats of interaction and different challenges to be met in the realm of peace and security, administration, and reform, as well as concepts and norms. Taken together, they also illustrate the potential and limitations of UN executive action.

Domestic Colonies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Arneil
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
The State ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Peter Kropotkin

Colonization is generally defined as a process by which states settle and dominate foreign lands or peoples. Thus, modern colonies are assumed to be outside Europe and the colonized non-European. This volume contends such definitions of the colony, the colonized, and colonization need to be fundamentally rethought in light of hundreds of ‘domestic colonies’ proposed and/or created by governments and civil society organizations initially within Europe in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries and then beyond. The three categories of domestic colonies in this book are labour colonies for the idle poor, farm colonies for the mentally ill, and disabled and utopian colonies for racial, religious, and political minorities. All of these domestic colonies were justified by an ideology of domestic colonialism characterized by three principles: segregation, agrarian labour, improvement, through which, in the case of labour and farm colonies, the ‘idle’, ‘irrational’, and/or custom-bound would be transformed into ‘industrious and rational’ citizens while creating revenues for the state to maintain such populations. Utopian colonies needed segregation from society so their members could find freedom, work the land, and challenge the prevailing norms of the society around them. Defended by some of the leading progressive thinkers of the period, including Alexis de Tocqueville, Abraham Lincoln, Peter Kropotkin, Robert Owen, Tommy Douglas, and Booker T. Washington, the turn inward to colony not only provides a new lens with which to understand the scope of colonization and colonialism in modern history but a critically important way to distinguish ‘the colonial’ from ‘the imperial’ in Western political theory and practice.

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