Description
Book LaunchThe academic interest in studying civil society is increasing. This momentum is despite the fact that many civil society actors worldwide are confronted with constraints and repression which can also impede research initiatives. All the more reason to explore ideas for new agendas, where two critical factors appear to be changing political views on the character and role of civil society. One is the significant influence of social media, which is both having a strong impact on, as well as increasing the political importance of, a virtual civic sphere. In addition, conservative-populist forces are growing, becoming key instigators of often anti-democratic, civil society organizations. As a result, civil society is strengthened on the autocratic side, rather than on the democratic side, of the political spectrum.
Against this backdrop, the proposed panel explores new agendas in civil society research. The initiative underpinning this panel resulted from a request by Elgar Publishers to consider creating a volume in a series dedicated to setting out future research agendas, in this case for civil society.
In early 2021, by facilitating webinars amongst its members, ISTR enabled two academic ‘crowd sourcing’ events. In addition to exploring possible research themes, the webinar invited contributions to the envisaged edited volume. These gatherings generated interest from over twenty scholars who are in, or are covering all continents, and actively investigating a range of civil society topics. The anticipated panel will present selected papers by contributing authors as well as discussing results to be found in a path-breaking publication.
Our ‘sourcing’ approach was intentionally designed to break out of a mould of arriving at a centrally conceived, stand-alone research programmes. Over time these valuable efforts to increase this field of knowledge and practice often lead to (normative) biases and gaps alongside compendiums, handbooks and guides, typifying publications where nonprofit organisations feature predominantly. That is, the intention was and is to give those dedicated to this scholarly terrain an open opportunity to argue where next in terms of new knowledge. Another objective was to actively invite younger scholars, especially those in the Global South working on civil society-related research topics.
The panel proposal includes an idea to organise an interactive workshop. Here, several introductory presentations by book authors will kick off and contribute to a lively discussion on the challenges of new civil society research. Confirmed participants are: Jenny Paturyan, Roseanne Mirabella, Mark Sidel, Philine van Overbeeke, Lucas Meijs, Patricia Mendonca and Malika Ouacha.
Central questions to be highlighted are: How is the shifting environment for citizen agency, currently labelled as civic space, affecting a future civil society research agenda? And, more specifically, are the ways in which national and international politics is moving towards an era of autocratization and authoritarianism providing a new grand narrative? What would such an era say about the future of civil society itself?
| Period | 13 Jul 2022 |
|---|---|
| Event title | The 15th International Conference of the International Society for Third-sector Research (ISTR) |
| Event type | Conference |
| Conference number | 15 |
| Location | Montréal, CanadaShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |