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This thesis examines the Fair Trade movement as an international response of civil society to improve basic labor rights for producers. It explains the development of the Fair Trade movement and gives an overview of the organizations that currently comprise the movement. It also highlights some of the contemporary challenges the movement faces. The paper then provides a review of the literature written on global civil society insomuch as it is relevant to the Fair Trade movement. From this information, the paper draws conclusions about the success of the movement achieving its goals in light of its challenges. The paper concludes that the movement has admirable goals, but lacks good implementations and suffers from both undemocratic practice and inadequate representation. Lastly, it suggests policy changes to improve the effectiveness of the movement.

World Social Forum annual events attract hundreds of thousands of global activists and members of Global Civil Society. WSF events coalesce a diverse group of social movements, NGOs, and global activists. Its open space politics is an inclusionary force that is outlined by the principles of the WSF charter. Each event occurs in a location whose contextual and environmental conditions greatly impact the outcomes of the events. Assessing the success of these individual events is multidimensional and is largely determined by their adherence to WSF charter principles. Under investigation are three case studies of events that are held in Porto Alegre, Mumbai, and Nairobi. Success for each event is largely dependent on local factors. The local variables of the state, funding, trade unions, and local civil society all impact outcomes in myriad ways. Porto Alegre is an ideal setting for WSF events but is not the only attractive venue. / Graduate

Communications scholarship faces a convergent crisis. Research on networks includes the role of information networks in supporting social movements, networked civil society, the information society, and new forms of communication. But while communications literature utilizes a variety of approaches to describe the impact of networked communications, a dearth of technical expertise permeates scholarship. Despite the discourse on networks potentially bridging previously distinct disciplines, the lack of a fundamental understanding of communications networks and relationships between technical and socio-political networks remains a consistent gap. This thesis will investigate the extent that opposition to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in Europe constitute a networked public sphere. Through studying the role of civl society and the networked public in the European ACTA debate, the horizontal and vertical dimensions of socio-political and communications technology networks are not only illuminated, but the importance of analyzing the mechanisms through which vertical hierarchies enclose the public sphere become abundantly clear. This research provides the foundation for an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the relationship between information technology and socio-political networks and offers lessons for information policy makers, communications scholars, and networked civil society within the context of European democracy.

After the 1978 economic reform in China, the society is slowly detaching from the control of state. The civil society in China is also growing, the grassroots (local) NGOs increase fast. Along with the globalization, China is unable to avoid the INGOs activities inside the country. This study is going to discuss what¡¦s the effect and function(change)that INGOs would bring to China. For these years, be a part in global society is the most important work for China. That¡¦s why this study takes global civil society as background, and firstly research how INGOs interact and cooperate with the local NGOs in China. Second, observe the interaction mode between these two type NGOs through the framework of advocacy networks. Finally, we would understand the NGOs¡¦ development in China by Corporatism, and we could prove that the local NGOs¡¦ activities are affected by the global civil society and advocacy networks. We could clearly understand what is the effect of INGOs bring to China through these three structures. And what is China¡¦s attitude toward the INGOs. Besides the discussion on theories, this study also uses the statistical analysis to analyze 246 INGOs which have actual work in China. We will discuss their activity project, area, organizational funding, and the related legal regulation. After analyzed these 4 factors, we could find out what¡¦s the role China is playing in those INGOs activities. In the end, from the analysis of state, local NGOs and INGOs interactions in China, this study also discovers that INGOs in different areas would implement different activity project, and the outcome would also be different.

This thesis aims to problematize the assumptions behind the glorification of civil society as a new and progressive actor in politics along with their political and ideological implications. It is argued that the assumptions behind the glorification of civil society are conceptually misleading and politically disabling. The portrayal of &ldquo / civil society&rdquo / or &ldquo / global civil society&rdquo / as a homogenous as well as inherently democratic and peaceful sphere that is opposed to an equally homogenous power-seeking state has emerged as a necessity for attributing emancipatory meanings to the concept. One of the most important implications of this conceptualization has been the taming of politics since the state, which is conventionally understood as the main site for political struggle, has apparently been devalued as a respectable political target to be fought over. Interestingly, the taming of politics through a glorified civil society has become a popular discourse shared and reproduced by both the New Right and certain sections of the Left. The thesis sheds light to the development of such a discourse at the global level as well as in Turkey within the context of the rise and spread of neoliberal globalization.

Entre 1992 e 2005, representantes de 11.921 organizações não governamentais (ONGs) participaram de conferências realizadas pela Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU) e pela Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC). Tendo em vista que, tradicionalmente, apenas os representantes dos Estados-membros dessas duas organizações seriam admitidos, a crescente presença de atores não-governamentais nesses eventos foi considerada uma das evidências empíricas do surgimento de uma sociedade civil global. Contudo, alguns críticos afirmam que a sociedade civil não seria global, mas concentrada geograficamente em alguns países. Nosso objetivo é analisar se, de fato, existe tal concentração e quais suas principais características. Com esse objetivo, analisamos a distribuição geográfica das sedes das ONGs credenciadas para esses eventos, discutindo dois dos principais argumentos contrários à idéia de sociedade civil global: o primeiro afirma que a sociedade civil não é global porque seus atores estão concentrados em países do Norte (gerando um desnível Norte-Sul, com predomínio numérico e político de ONGs do Norte sobre as do Sul); o segundo, defende que a concentração das ONGs espelha as atuais constelações de poder em âmbito internacional (pois as ONGs seriam, predominantemente, de países localizados no eixo Europa-América Anglo-Saxônica). Considerando que todos seríamos parte da sociedade civil global, procuramos constatar de onde são as pessoas e organizações que efetivamente têm participado das discussões e decisões a respeito de questões que dizem respeito a todos (os habitantes do planeta). / Between 1992 and 2005, 11921 representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) participated in conferences held by the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Given that, traditionally, only representatives of Member States of these two organizations would be admitted, the growing presence of \"nongovernmental\" actors in these events was considered one of the empirical evidence of an emerging \"global\" civil society. However, some critics argue that civil society is not global, but geographically concentrated in some countries. Our goal is to examine whether, in fact, exist that concentration and their main characteristics. With this objective, we analyzed the geographic distribution of headquarters of accredited NGOs to conferences, discussing the two main arguments against the idea of global civil society: the first asserts that civil society is not \"global\" because their actors are concentrated in North countries (creating a North-South divide, with numerical and political dominance of NGOs from the North on the South); the second claims that the concentration of NGOs reflects the current constellation of power in the international arena (as the NGOs would be predominantly of countries located in EuropeAmerica Anglo-Saxon). Whereas we would all be part of global civil society, we see where are the people and organizations that have effectively participated in the discussions and decisions about issues that concern all (the inhabitants of the planet).

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[pt] Na era da globalização, a sociedade civil é um ator cada vez mais relevante na política global e, dentre estes, a Rede Transnacional de Movimentos Sociais Via Campesina seria um exemplo dos mais emblemáticos. Esta rede, de composição heterogênea, é formada por movimentos sociais representativos de atores marginalizados em suas respectivas sociedades, unidos no propósito comum de lutar pela implantação de um novo modelo de desenvolvimento que, baseado na Soberania Alimentar, substitua o padrão neoliberal vigente. Esta dissertação visa investigar a capacidade de a Via Campesina influenciar as negociações de agricultura e desenvolvimento em nível internacional. Para tal, elegemos as suas relações com duas das principais instituições internacionais a negociarem o tema da agricultura em nível internacional: a FAO e a OMC. Além deste objetivo principal, temos a intenção de mostrar que a relevância da Via Campesina vai além da sua relação com atores estatais. Com esta intenção, abordamos a relação de influência mútua da rede com as organizações locais que a compõem; a sua interação com ONGs e institutos de pesquisa e a sua participação em fóruns sociais. Neste percurso, avaliamos os antecedentes, motivações e evolução da rede; além de mencionar as suas principais campanhas, dentre as quais, privilegiamos a Campanha Sementes contra a agricultura transgênica. / [en] In the age of globalization, civil society becomes a major player in global politics. We find between these players, the Transnational Network of Social Movements, Via Campesina, which is one of the most emblematic examples. This is an heterogeneous network formed by social movements composed by actors, which are kept apart by their own societies, united by a common purpose of fighting for the implementation of a new model of development based on the idea of food sovereignty which could replace the actual neoliberal model. This essay seeks to investigate the capacity of Via Campesina to influence the agricultural and development negotiations at the international level. For that purpose, we investigate its relationships with two of the main international institutions, which negotiate the agricultural matter at the international level: the FAO and the WTO. Further on, we want to demonstrate that the Via Campesina´s relevance goes beyond its relationship with state players. With this intention, we tackle the relation of mutual influence with the local organizations from witch they are built; its interaction with NGOs and research institutes and its participation in social forums. One way to get to this question is to evaluate the backgrounds, motivations and the network evolutions; we mention, moreover, its main campaigns, among which, we favor the Seeds Campaign against the transgenic agriculture.