Religious life in Taiwan has experienced a great revival since the political relaxation in 1980's; especially the popular religion and new religious movements have been blooming. Temple festivals are growing again; restored or newly established events organized by temples emerge. There is usually one main deity in the centre of the temple cult, but there are many other deities worshipped in a particular temple as well. The temple is often a centre of a town or a village, especially in the countryside. Temples organize or at least support many activities (not only religious ones, but also sport and educational activities etc.) in villages and towns. The thesis introduces temples and their work in the field of belief. At the same time it looks at the ways a temple help people to create a local community, and what is the relationship between the state and temple cults. There is an attempt to see the potential of traditional temple religions to fulfil function similar to function of modern civil society. The thesis also introduces the development of the status of temple cults in Taiwan on the background of political and social changes during the 20th and at the beginning of the 21st century. During this period, the popular religion gradually transforms from a superstition that should be annihilated...

A importância em compreender e fortalecer espaços coletivos de construção de conhecimento e desenvolvimento de ações ambientais para a participação popular e exercício da cidadania, nos levou a escolher como tema de pesquisa as relações entre educação ambiental e organizações da sociedade civil no processo de discussão e ação no campo ambiental. O trabalho de investigação envolveu duas fases: uma aberta e uma focalizada. A fase aberta se deu durante minha inserção como pesquisadora-educadora em um projeto sócio-ambiental, o Água Quente. Este, desenvolve-se desde 2005, por duas associações civis junto a outras organizações da sociedade civil que atuam na bacia hidrográfica do córrego Água Quente, região sul da cidade de São Carlos. Os objetivos foram: fortalecimento de organizações comunitárias locais, formação e capacitação de agentes comunitários e recuperação ambiental. Nesta fase, foi realizada a observação participante e a consulta a materiais produzidos pelo projeto Água Quente, a fim de iniciar um processo de aproximação e compreensão do contexto da ação sócio-educativa, bem como formular perguntas de pesquisa. Consequentemente, a segunda fase buscou respostas para as seguintes indagações: Que questões estão relacionadas à apropriação da temática ambiental por organizações da sociedade civil? Qual o papel da educação ambiental na construção e no fortalecimento da atuação de organizações da sociedade civil em relação ao ambiente local? Os objetivos específicos da fase focalizada foram: conhecer e apresentar a atuação de diferentes organizações da sociedade civil da bacia hidrográfica do córrego Água Quente, cujos representantes participaram do processo sócio-educativo realizado pelo projeto Água Quente; levantar as atividades e discussões sobre meio ambiente já desenvolvidas ou vislumbradas por essas organizações e identificar que relações existem ou podem ser estabelecidas entre a atuação da organização e a temática ambiental; identificar aspectos das ações sócio-educativas realizadas pelas organizações que indiquem aproximações e distanciamentos do campo teórico da educação ambiental. Para isso realizamos com 5 organizações, 2 encontros com cada uma, num total de 10 grupos focais além de consultas a materiais produzidos pelas organizações e pela equipe do projeto Água Quente. A análise dos dados foi feita com base em princípios da análise da conversação. Como resultado, destacamos que a temática ambiental está inserida nas ações sócio-educativas que as organizações desenvolvem. Contudo, a intencionalidade, no que tange às questões ambientais, se mostra pouco presente em algumas ações. A identificação com o campo da educação ambiental não é explicitada, porém há aproximações aos princípios envolvidos nas ações desenvolvidas pelas organizações nesse campo. Por outro lado, há também distanciamentos, especialmente com relação ao que vem sendo produzido, discutido e posto em ação no contexto da América Latina. Sendo assim, consideramos fundamental uma maior aproximação ao campo crítico da Educação Ambiental, para que a apropriação da temática ambiental pelas organizações da sociedade civil se dê de maneira crítica e reflexiva. / The importance of understanding and empower collective spaces of knowledge creation and the development of environmental actions for popular participation and an active citizenship have led us to choose \"the relations between environmental education and civil organizations in discussing process and environmental action\" as a theme for this research. The investigation work involved two stages: a general one and another one more specific. The first stage was during my participation as an educator-researcher in a social and environmental project called \"Água Quente\"(which means \"Hot Water\"). Such project has been developed since 2005 by two civil associations and two civil society organizations which work on Água Quente stream bay, south of São Carlos city. Our goals were: enhancing the power of local communities organizations, focusing on communitarian agents formation and qualification and also on environment recovery. During this stage was done the observation in a participant way and the Água Quente project\'s produced material research, in order to start a process of approach and understanding the social-educational context, and also to formulate research questions. Consequently, the second stage tried to answer the following questions: \"what are the points related to the use of the environmental theme by some civil organizations?\" or \"What is the environmental education role concerning the creation and strengthening of civil society organizations\' action related to local environment?\". Specific goals for the second stage were: recognizing and presenting the action of different civil society organizations at Água Quente stream bay and which participants took part in social and educational process developd by Água Quente project; rising activities and discussions about the environment that had already been developed or thought by these organizations; identifying which relations were there or could be established between the organization action and the environmental subject; identifying the aspects of social and educational actions taken by organizations that reveal approaches or distances to environmental education theoretical field. It took us to have 2 meetings with each one of the 5 organizations, totalizing a work of 10 focal groups, besides some researches concerning the material developed by the organizations and the project team. The data analysis was done based on the analysis of conversations according to some guiding principles. The result is our statement that the environmental theme is inserted in social and educational actions developed by organizations. However, the intentions related to the environmental issues are rarely present in some actions. The environmental field identification is not clear, but there are some approaches to the principles involved in the actions developed by the organizations in this field. On the other hand, there are also some distances from it, especially regarding to what has been produced, discussed and practiced in Latin American context. Therefore, we consider that a better approach to the critical field of Environmental Education is extremely important for the reflexive and critical appropriation of the environmental discussion by civil society organizations.

This study explores cultural productions in one television genre in Chinese mainstream media: dispute resolution shows. By applying the theoretical frameworks of Hall’s encoding and decoding and Habermas’ public spheres, this study mainly answers two research questions: 1) how does mainstream production convey politically-preferred cultural and social values to viewers; and 2) how do audience members exercise their citizenship in decoding televised social values and cultural norms? In a specific examination of Oriental Pearl Live Newsroom, mixed-methods are adopted, including unsupervised learning of the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), content analysis, thematic analysis, focus groups, and interviews. In the findings, the interviewees admitted that they propagated social and cultural values in accordance with the mainstream political ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in order to maintain social stability and state order. However, my interviewees also suggested that they had an ambition and willingness to promote a civil society in China, which requires a counterbalanced power from the audience’s side. The results of the audience analysis generally indicated that they challenged the power of legitimate authorities, including the nation-state, the elite class, and the media. This study identified five online public spheres: 1) Government is the core; 2) Request for rule of law; 3) Media is a paradox; 4) The elite class is not the boss; 5) The grass is always greener (adoration of foreign countries). In general, this study supports conceptualizing audience members as citizens. It demonstrates how audience members deconstruct the dominant interpretations of social values and their attempts to elaborate less-favorable voices in Transitional Chinese society. This conceptualization suggests the importance of audience members in creating diverse public spheres and promoting a civil society.

In this thesis, I consider the trend of increasing backlash against civil society around the world. I focus on Ecuador and Peru, both democratic countries that have placed restrictions on NGOs receiving foreign funding. I examine both countries in terms of changes over time in the regulatory environment for NGOs. I ask: What factors motivated these changes? I analyze the countries with respect to three possible explanations: defending sovereignty against foreign powers, stifling internal dissent, and seeking rents. In answering this question, I draw upon the laws in question, press releases, and news reports as well as interviews with NGO personnel and government regulators, among other sources. I conclude that while there is evidence for the stifling dissent explanation in both countries, there is no evidence for the defending sovereignty explanation in Peru and only circumstantial evidence for it in Ecuador. In Ecuador, there is contradictory evidence for the rent-seeking explanation while there is clearer evidence for it in Peru.

The object of this work is the denominationally neutral country. Work it occurs through "proper understanding" secularization, an understanding of the phe-nomenon of secularization as secularism world in its social structure and social relationships. In the first part follows the concept of the state as intended Swiss reformer John Calvin, while largely draws on the work of the American legal historian John Witte and the background of the Lutheran and Calvinist Refor-mation, mainly explores especially Calvin's understanding of the polity. The second part deals with the Czech environment and through the first Czechoslo-vak president and influential thinker and statesman of the 19th and 20th centu-ries, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk tries to map the transition from theocracy to democracy, or from an absolute to a democratic conception of the state. Secula-rization itself and denominationally neutral state this thesis deals in its third part, dedicated to the life and work mainly largest Czech Protestant philosopher Bozena Komárková when over her eye on civil society gets to the separation of church and state. In conclusion, offers possible solutions, how should the re-lationship of the state to the Church and the Church to the state look like and what should be their role. The target of this work gives to recognize...

L'objectif de notre étude sur le concept de «civil» dans la pensée de Montesquieu consiste à établir, dans un premier temps, le contexte dans lequel, après Adam Smith en particulier, et dans le cadre du processus de la séparation des sciences économiques et des sciences juridiques, le domaine du «civil», plus tard désigné comme «société civile», devient l'objet des sciences économiques, et, en second lieu, à voir comment, en même temps, cette notion de «civil» perd la connotation de «société politique et juridique» (c'est-à-dire « civitas »). Pour aborder cette question, nous nous intéressons tout d'abord à l'accroissement de l'intérêt pour l'histoire de I'Antiquité romaine qui connaît un renouveau avec l'humanisme en Europe. Les interprétations portant sur l'histoire romaine reflètent les intérêts des intellectuels aux prises avec leur propre société contemporaine, et la diversité de ces interprétations nous permet de retracer l'évolution des moyens analytiques employés pour penser la société en général. Dans cette perspective, nous étudions Montesquieu en référence à Machiavel qui a vécu à une période cruciale dans le Nord de l'Italie entre la fin du 15e et le 16e siècle, puis, à Harrington qui a vécu à l'époque de la 1ère révolution anglaise au milieu du 17e siècle et, finalement, à David Hume qui a défendu le régime établi après la Glorieuse révolution en 1688. À partir de ces analyses, nous rendront compte des causes de l'évolution des sciences sociales au cours de ces siècles, qui constituent la période historique dans laquelle s'est établi graduellement le système étatique moderne. / The objective of our study on the concept of "civil" in the thought of Montesquieu consists at first in presenting the context in which, especially after Adam Smith, and in the process of the separation of economical sciences from legal sciences, the sphere of the "civil", la ter called "civil society", becomes the object of economical sciences, and second, in understanding how, at the same time, the notion of "civil" lost the connotation of "political and legal society", that is "civitas". To approach this question, our first concern focuses on the increasing interest on R.oman antiquity which begin as renewal in huamnist thought in Europe. lntepretations of Roman history actually reflect the interests of intellectuals preoccupied with their own contemporary society. Nonetheless the divcrsity of these interpretations helps to understand the evolution of the analytical means used to analyse the society in general. ln this perspective, we compare Montesquieu with Machiavelli who lived in an incisive period in North of ltaly in the 15th, and the begging of the 16th, century, along with Harrington who lived in the time of the Civil War in England in the middle of the 17th century and, fïnally, with David Hume who defended the govemement established after the Glorious Revolution in 1688. From these analyses, we show the causes of the progressive sophistication of the social sciences matching the historical period during which the modern state system has gradually been established.

To explore the complexities of refugee labor market integration in Sweden, the research performed a multi-level analysis of refugee labor market integration: from the perspective of civil society (meso-level) and from that of the refugee (micro-level). Sweden was ideal for this task because historically, it has been Europe’s most generous welfare state and during the height of the crisis, received the highest number of refugees of any European Member State (163,000 or 1,600 per 100,000 people). The research was guided by two primary research questions: First, how have the roles of the state and civil society adjusted over time in relation to the process of integrating refugees, especially since the founding of the first integration policy in 1975? Second, how are resources actually provided by each element of society, and accessed by the refugees themselves? Analytically, the research first performed a historical institutional breakdown, separating Sweden’s integration policy by sociopolitical and economically significant junctures: 1970-1990, 1990-2010, and 2010-present day. Subsequently, seventy first-person, semi-structured interviews were conducted with political-elites, civil society representatives, and refugees from different sending countries, who arrived no earlier than 2000. The findings suggest that while civil society is becoming more systematic in its operations, its utility remains under-utilized. Next, meeting human capital requirements (e.g., country specific and post-secondary education and training) does not guarantee employment. Instead, given the alteration of its labor market, it seems social capital may play a more significant role in determining employment outcomes for refugees. In other words, it seems difficulties in accessing employment for refugees are more attached to institutional constraints than they are human capital itself. Finally, given the visible segregation and low refugee labor market participation, the research supports the assumption that a highly accessible and comprehensive welfare state may not be the most efficient socioeconomic orientation for integrating refugees.

This dissertation offers a single case in-depth analysis of factors precluding civil society from democratizing African polities. Synthesizing existing literature on Rwanda, I first undertake an historical search to trace the origins and qualities of civil society in the colonial era. This effort shows, however, that the central authority—commencing before the inception of the Republic in 1962—consistently organized civil society to buttress its activities, not to challenge them. Next, using ethnographic research, I challenge conventional economic and institutional accounts of civil society’s role in democratization. I show that institutional change and the economic clout of organized groups are marginal and transient in effect, and hence possess considerable limitations to democratize state and non-state-groups relations. I argue that the Genocide and its historical materials, social and economic precariousness, and neo-patrimonial power configurations have erected a prevailing political culture that still conditions how Rwanda’s state-society relations are imagined, realized, and challenged. Conversely, just as that political culture has lengthened the reach of the state into society, limiting the potential autonomy of civil society, it has also been the basis for rebuilding the society, restoring the state’s authority, and enacting major state-building oriented reforms. Consequently, for CSOs to induce a liberal democratic order in domestic politics, subsequent activism will require long-term strategic and organic investment of actors into the dispersed, parochial strands of democracy first, not into ongoing confrontational, yet fruitless, political warfare that hinders social capital formation and that civil society is not yet equipped to win.

China has experienced incredible growth in the number of nongovernmental organizations (NGO) that occupy civil society. These organizations came forth at a time of rapid economic and political change. Instead of being given a supportive legal path for their work, NGOs have had to navigate the supply and demand factors in their specific situation in order to flourish. The demand side factors chiefly consist of matters pertaining to the need an NGO is meeting; and supply side factors pertain to an NGO's ability to create infrastructure to support their organization, including both the space in society to function and the processes necessary to fund their operation. By understanding the supply and demand side factors of the third sector, NGOs are able to achieve effectiveness in a variety of different capacities. In the current regulatory framework, many of these capacities are not entirely legal, but NGOs continue to find ways to make these arrangements work. Intermediary NGOs are a special type of NGO that positions itself to benefit both the donor and the beneficiary and help both overcome some of the challenges presented by the difficult regulatory environment. In doing this, intermediary NGOs fulfill a special role in meeting supply and demand in the third sector and can propose many useful solutions for philanthropy in China today.

Esta pesquisa parte do pressuposto de que a Internet é um dispositivo sociotécnico não apenas indissociável do espaço geográfico, mas primordialmente tecido a partir das relações espaciais que o animam e que dele derivam. Estas relações espaciais e sociotécnicas produzem o incessante efeito de reconfiguração da geografia da Internet, enquanto espaço em movimento. O argumento desta tese é a de que a espacialidade da Internet define-se a partir de três dimensões complementares, a saber: uma dimensão de conectividade, responsável pela constituição do espaço reticular; uma dimensão lógica/informacional, a partir da qual o espaço virtual (ciberespaço) ganha forma; e uma dimensão normativa, encarregada da regulação da produção e usos da Internet. Argumentamos ainda que as relações e expressões espaciais que se formam no processo de configuração dessas dimensões possuem naturezas distintas, de acordo com o lócus de onde se originam os sujeitos, bem como de acordo com o projeto político de Internet que estes promovem e idealizam. O espaço da Internet define-se, desse modo, a partir de geometrias de poder que promovem políticas espaciais verticais ou hierárquicas de um lado e políticas espaciais horizontais ou distribuídas de outro. Considerando os argumentos supracitados, a hipótese central que aportamos é a de que a fricção entre as verticalidades e as horizontalidades socioespaciais, que se desenvolvem no processo de apropriação da aqui apresentada tridimensionalidade da Internet, despertam as territorialidades dos diversos setores da sociedade, dentre as quais as políticas espaciais horizontais promovidas intencionalmente pela sociedade civil possuem relevância no constante refazer das geometrias de poder da Internet. Para testar essa hipótese, empregamos quatro abordagens metodológicas: a análise de documentos e arquivos históricos relacionados ao desenvolvimento das redes digitais; pesquisa on-line para coleta de dados sobre organizações relacionadas ao nosso escopo; trabalho de campo em eventos voltados para a discussão e desenvolvimento de políticas para a Internet; entrevistas com integrantes de organizações civis que promovem ações de normatização, gestão, contestação e apropriação da Internet. Os resultados da pesquisa revelam uma densa presença de organizações civis em cada uma das dimensões investigadas, associada a uma capacidade de articulação entre entidades com habilidades e competências distintas para a construção de uma agenda comum e maior capacidade de incidência. / This research is based on the assumption that the Internet is a sociotechnical device not only inseparable from geographical space, but primarily woven from the spatial relations that animate and derive from it. These spatial and sociotechnical relations produce the incessant effect of reconfiguration of the geography of the Internet, as space in movement. The argument of this thesis is that the spatiality of the Internet is defined from three complementary dimensions, namely: a connectivity dimension, responsible for the constitution of the reticular space; a logical / informational dimension, from which the virtual space (cyberspace) takes shape; and a normative dimension, in charge of the regulation of the production and uses of the Internet. We also argue that the socio-spatial relationships that form in the process of configuring these dimensions have different natures according to the locus from which the actors originate, as well as according to the Internet political project that they promote and idealize. The Internet space is thus defined from power geometries that promote vertical or hierarchical spatial policies on the one hand and horizontal or distributed spatial policies on the other. Considering the aforementioned arguments, the central hypothesis we present is that the friction between the verticalities and the socio-spatial horizontalities that develop in the process of appropriation of the presented three-dimensionality of the Internet, awaken the territorialities of the various sectors of society, among which horizontalities intentionally promoted by civil society have relevance in the constant reconfiguration of the power geometries of the Internet. To test this hypothesis, we used four methodological approaches: the analysis of historical documents and archives related to the development of digital networks; search online for data collection on organizations related to our scope; fieldwork on events aimed at the discussion and development of policies for the Internet; interviews with members of civil organizations that promote standardization, management, contestation and appropriation of the Internet. The results of the research reveal a dense presence of civil organizations in each of the investigated dimensions, associated with a capacity of articulation between entities with distinct abilities and competences for the construction of a common agenda and greater capacity of incidence.