Die Beiträge des vorliegenden Sammelbandes gehen auf die wissenschaftliche Fachtagung „Grenzen der Toleranz. Rechtsextremes Milieu und demokratische Gesellschaft in Brandenburg - Bilanz und Perspektiven" zurück, die im Mai 2009 in Potsdam stattfand. Auf der Tagung hielten verschiedene Wissenschaftler Vorträge, die ihrerseits durch Praktiker/innen mittels „Kommentaren aus der Praxis“ gespiegelt wurden. Die meisten Vorträge der Tagung finden sich in diesem Band nun in überarbeiteter, in der Regel erweiterter und aktualisierter Form wieder. In einem Fall wurde ein Text aufgenommen, der aus einem längeren „Kommentar aus der Praxis“ entstanden ist. Die Beiträge kreisen um das Problem des Rechtsextremismus, seinen Erscheinungsformen und Praktiken in Brandenburg und darüber hinaus, und beleuchten die staatlichen und zivilgesellschaftlichen Gegenmaßnahmen und –strategien. Dabei wird deutlich: Brandenburg hat zwar noch ein Rechtsextremismusproblem - aber auch vielfältige Strategien und Erfahrungen in der erfolgreichen Auseinandersetzung mit diesem Phänomen. / This volume combines contributions to a conference Grenzen der Toleranz. Rechtsextremes Milieu und demokratische Gesellschaft in Brandenburg – Bilanz und Perspektiven („The Limits of Tolerance. Far Right Milieus and Democratic Society in Brandenburg – Results and Perspectives“) held in Potsdam in May 2009. At this conference, several scholars held lectures and were commented by practitioners. The contributions to the book discuss different aspects of the far right movements and its praxis in Brandenburg and beyond, and they introduce and analyze the reactions and counter-activities of the state as well as the civil society. Thus, it becomes obvious: Right wing extremism is still a challenge for democratic society in Brandenburg, but this society has also developed multiple and effective strategies to react.

By their very nature, attempts by civil society organizations to promote democracy abroad involve cooperation and contact across the borders of nation states. The dissemination of the ideas and practices of the promoters is often essential; in the case of Swedish democracy promotion, popular education or folkbildning has been important. This thesis investigates the dissemination of ideas and practices by civil society organizations in Sweden and Estonia in the field of popular education. More specifically, a number of projects run by member organizations of the Swedish study association ABF (Workers’ Educational Association) and member organizations of the Estonian AHL (Open Education Association) are studied. These projects are also part of democracy-promoting activities whose funding comes mainly from Swedish donor agencies. The thesis aims to understand not only what has been spread but also how ideas and practices have been translated to fit the Estonian context. The primary theoretical concept used is therefore translation, even though one aim of the thesis is to systematize the field of study concerning processes of dissemination and to enrich the concept of translation with the aid of previous work on diffusion and socialization. The main contribution of the thesis consists of the in-depth study of cooperation between Swedish and Estonian popular education organizations. It also contributes to the theoretical development of the concept of translation by identifying different phases in this kind of process and important elements of these phases. Popular education is an important part of Swedish democracy promotion and this study also contributes to this rather undertheorized subject, and also to the discussions of transnational civil society cooperation, by demonstrating an analytical framework that can be of use in future research into these issues.

ABSTRACT Poverty, and in particular child poverty, is a serious social problem. Statistics show that the number of children living in poverty has increased over the last ten years. Earlier research shows that there are huge gaps in our knowledge of how the actors in civil society handle child poverty. With this study we hope to help fill this gap. The aim of our study is to look at how four different organisations working in the civil society in Uppsala perceive and handle child poverty. We have chosen to conduct an empirical study of fieldwork interviews. Our informants were selected from organisations in the municipality of Uppsala that were known to us as working with children's needs.   The results show that our informants consider child poverty an overly narrow and one-sided concept and rather see child poverty as a multifaceted social phenomenon. They view poverty as not only a matter of lack of economic resources but also as other welfare deficits – a view which agrees with previous research (Bitterman and Franzén 2008:243). All our informants express and, to a great extent, practice a children's rights perspective (Archard 2009). They construct children as citizens and bearers of rights, with the idea that adults have a common responsibility to supply for children’s needs of care and participation. None of the four organisations have a family poverty approach to the children. Instead they view children as unique individuals with their own needs beyond the family. The selection process is based on trust. There is no means test or strict investigation though the concept of need is an important criterion. All our informants’ organisations position themselves as something other than social services. They see their role as a complement to social services and public welfare. None of our informants express any desire to replace it.   Key Words: child poverty, economic vulnerability, civil society, voluntary work, child rights perspective.

This is volume II in a dissertation in two parts. In addition to the papers found in this volume, the major publication is a book: The nonprofit sector in Sweden (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1997, written together with Tommy Lundström). Our points of departure in the book were that Sweden, within previous international research, often has been described as a country with a small nonprofit sector. Based on a comprehensive set of first-hand empirical data, the first systematic, consolidated account of the Swedish sector, its development, legal situation and current position, is provided, and the previous results are questioned. The two initial texts found in this volume focus on conceptual tools. The first article, The Swedish Nonprofit Sector in International Comparison is based on a critique of the dominant US/economics perspective found in mainstream nonprofit literature. It is argued in the article, that earlier attempts to understand the Swedish nonprofit sector have been biased by a cultural ethnocentrism. The purpose of the article is to broaden the understanding of this part of society by using a socio-economic approach. The second paper, Hate groups and outlaw bikers: part of civil society?, addresses the issue of definitions. The aim of the paper is to test two existing definitions of organizations in civil society. This test is conducted on two extreme forms of organization, the white hate group and the outlaw motorcycle club. It is shown that – according to existing definitions – both of these organizations, in their ideal-typical form, can be regarded as civil society organizations. The final two essays are more explorative and the author has taken the freedom to experiment. In Strategic dilemmas for Swedish popular movement organizations, the object of study is the Swedish popular movements (folkrörelserna) and an experienced sense of crisis in some of the organizations within these movements (PMOs). It is argued that a number of major external shifts have had a profound impact on the traditional Swedish PMOs. Underlying reasons for the reactions of the PMOs are discussed and some interpretations of the effects are presented. In the final essay – Outlaw biking in alternative frames of interpretation – an even more limited and empirically derived phenomenon is taken as point of departure. The study focuses on outlaw biking and approaches this social phenomenon from three different angles with the help of metaphorical images derived from the outlaw literature. The purpose was not to develop a best possible frame for the study of outlaw biking, but rather to lay bare some already existing images of outlaw motorcycle clubs, found in the previous literature. / <p>Utgör jämte: The nonprofit sector in Sweden / Tommy Lundström and Filip Wijkström, diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1998</p>

This paper presents the marketing management of the nonprofit sector as a prerequisite for NGO sustainability. It examines the existing literature on the nonprofit marketing, the current situation of the local NGOs in Kosovo with regards to the application of marketing. The research methodology follows the introduction and presentation of the research objectives. The theoretical background introduces the necessary baseline to analyze empirical findings. The empirical findings and analysis reveal that nonprofit sector in Kosovo does not have a holistic marketing approach. The focus of the research is to emphasize the importance of marketing orientation, segmentation, and planning at nonprofit sector. Moreover, NGOs should create, communicate and deliver values based on customers’ (beneficiaries, volunteers, and donors) needs. As a result of this research, a marketing plan guide was prepared.  The guide aims to educate NGOs in Kosovo about the benefits of having a holistic marketing approach and will serve as basis for further marketing planning.

The major aim of this study is to evaluate the role of Turkish non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the consolidation of democracy in Turkey regarding the characteristics defined by the classical pluralist theories, starting with the ideas of Alexis de Tocqueville, and by contemporary pluralist approaches to civil society. To that end, characteristics of two examples, iHD and KiH-Y&Ccedil / V will be examined using three dimensions: effectiveness, enhancing solidarity and responsibility, and the dimension of inner democracy. As the methodology of the case study, in-depth interview techniques were adapted for capturing the qualities of the organizations in a detailed way. At that level, in-depth interviews from each organization were conducted with members having different positions. In addition to this, all written documents obtained from the organizations were scanned and the relevant ones have been examined for the sake of the study. Since the aim of the study is to understand what part Turkish NGOs play in the consolidation of democracy in Turkey considering the assumptions of classical and contemporary pluralist school in their analysis of voluntary associations and interest groups, this study espoused an associational concept of democracy as the method of work, which is a contemporary concept that underlines the democratic role of free and voluntary associations. In this context, this study tries to discuss the following questions: To what extent are Turkish NGOs independent from the state? To what extent can they have leverage on governmental policies? Do they mitigate conflict through overlapping interests? Do they enhance social trust, tolerance, compromise and a sense of solidarity in society and within their organization? To what extent are they democratic, pluralist and horizontally structured inside their organization and to what extent they are democratic regarding their decision making process? Are they open and inclusive enough in their membership recruitment techniques?

Deliberative democracy has been promoted as a way improving legitimacy and political equality in policy debates. This dissertation seeks to understand how deliberation takes place within the intersection of two unique spaces: dialogue among members of regional civil society groups and communication in online fora. The motivation for this research is based on the notion that existing forms of decision-making have contributed to political inequality, a major issue in areas such as the Caribbean. Accordingly I examine the online discussions of three different civil society groups in the Caribbean. I looked at how certain variables in these fora were related to three of the main dimensions of deliberation, the use of reasoned arguments, reciprocity and reflection. With regard to reasoned arguments I examined how diversity among members, the participation of the moderator and the topic and scope of the conversation were pertinent to a discussion in a regional and multi-national setting. For reciprocity I looked at how variables related to time and the posting structure of a conversation were relevant in an online forum. Finally I looked at the strategies that were employed by participants as part of the communication process in an online forum and how these were related to processes of reflection. To address these questions I used a combination of content analysis and conversation analysis of email conversations and interviews with participants. One set of contributions from this dissertation is methodological through the development of a codebook and the novel application of conversation analysis to online deliberation. Also, the results are significant and can contribute to our understanding of deliberation in a context for which there has been little previous research. For example, I showed that national and occupational diversity can contribute to an increase in the proportion of reasoned arguments used in a conversation as does the presence of the moderator. However, these factors along with the scope and topic of a thread vary in their degree of influence on the use of reasoned arguments by the civil society group in question. I also showed that there are specific communication strategies that participants employ such as preference organization or speaker selection that are related to different forms of reflection evident in a conversation. Finally I observed that the posting structure of a conversation specifically the distribution of emails that participants send becomes less equal as reciprocity increases. This does not augur well for a deliberative ideal that envisions both reciprocity and equal participation. Furthermore, when considering deliberation as a whole, the results indicate that its different parts are not always correlated with each other. None of the lists has more than one significant correlation between the three dimensions of deliberation. In fact, reciprocity and the use of reasoned arguments were never significantly correlated in any of the lists. Together these results point to another main finding of this dissertation which is deliberation as a whole is difficult to observe in practice. Nevertheless I suggest that separately the results for each dimension can be useful from both a design perspective and for policy-makers in general. For example, encouraging the sharing of information and a more active moderator, having the opportunity to discuss regional issues could all help to promote a greater use of reasoned arguments overall. Experimenting with different ways in which group members can get to know each other might help to reduce the disparity between participation and reciprocity. Also encouraging participants to reply inline where possible, creating easier access to the message archives and having a system for collating threads and discussions online could all promote better reflection in the lists. Finally the list might benefit from having members go through an exercise of determining whether or not and in what way decision-making should be part of their discussions. With regard to policy-makers I note that several members reported benefits for policy-makers who themselves were members of the lists. This could stem from listening and learning from the discussions of other members or actually contributing to discussions. The groups also showed the potential to collate many different policy positions around a specific problem, thus assisting policy makers in understanding issues at a regional level.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to conceptualize the idea of a “digital civil society”. During the latest half-century, technological developments in the areas of information and communication have been increasingly ingrained in everyday-life of many people. Not surprisingly, politics have also been affected by these developments. The concept of a global civil society is getting increasingly fashionable, and it is my belief that this global civil society in many ways is related to the technological developments manifested in the digital revolution. From this point of departure, it is my intent to depict the idea of a digital civil society within a conceptual framework substantiated by a number of cases of collective action where the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has been instrumental. By doing this, my intention is to see if, and how, the ICT revolution is altering civil society organization, mobilization, advocacy and action.</p><p>The essay has five parts. First, there is a brief introduction of the subject where the main research issues are put forward. The second part describes the methodology and defines the central concepts; global civil society, globalization and the ICT revolution. This framework, elaborated more thoroughly in part three, will serve as both goal and means for the research as it constitutes the research method as well as a potential basis for further research in the area. In part four, a number of cases of civil society collective action are portrayed and analyzed in connection to the conceptual framework. In some of these cases, ICT is used as a way to support and supplement more traditional “offline” collective action whereas in the second part of this chapter, cases of more pure “online action” are described. With the features and characteristics of these case studies in mind, the aim is to identify tendencies supporting the idea of a possibly emerging digital civil society. In the last chapter, there is a discussion concerning the potential characteristics and outcomes of such a digital civil society. I also present a model describing the logic of the conceptual framework and the processes and concepts which are central to this study.</p><p>My conclusions are meant to create an environment conducive to further research on the subjects I have studied. First, it appears as if the logic of “networking” as power structure within civil society is favourable for organization, participation, communication, mobilization and action. As such, the networked, dynamic and horizontal character of the Internet seems to influence the organizational character of many civil society entities. Secondly, the Internet’s ability to allow for many-to-many communication seems to contribute to a broader and more inclusive way to debate issues of all kinds. Thirdly, ICT in some ways appears to “individualize” collective action, a development possibly related to the individual and isolating character of Internet use itself and the relative anonymity which can be enjoyed online. In sum, these findings suggest that the idea of a digital civil society broadens the base of collective action and, to some extent, reduces the costs of participation.</p>

本文目的在討論台灣自解嚴以來的大眾傳播媒體政策變遷，以政治經濟學的研究取向切入，說明國家、資本與公民社會三者的不同結構組合，如何形塑解嚴後台灣媒體政策的演變。大約以首次政黨輪替為界，可分為三期：在一期，國民黨執政下，國家與資本間的關係仍具侍從主義的色彩，於是公民社會中媒體改革團體選擇與想要脫離政府控制的資本勢力結合，並和訴求雷同的政治議題合流，抗議國家對媒體的壟斷，要求開放、政治力退出媒體經營。在二期，政黨輪替後資本勢力脫離國家控制，資本與國家共同架構了一個新的優勢權力結構，原本應全民共有的媒介使用權，從過去的國家壟斷進入政商互利共生的複雜局面。公民社會及媒改團體對資本邏輯主導的媒體環境不滿，乃轉而訴求國家以公權力介入控制商業力量的浮濫，希望開創媒體公共化的空間。後期，資本勢力越益壟斷與集中，影響力也隨之提升，資本與國家相互競合程度也就越高，而政商結構內的矛盾，反而有利於社會運動對市場導向的權力結構進行結構改革。 有別於過去以新自由主義理論為主的媒體研究（強調市場機制主宰媒體），本文強調，第一，在同時拉長時間軸及報紙、有線電視及無線電視三種媒體的交叉分析下，證明市場導向的政策只是表面的結果，實質上的主因是執政黨為鞏固自身權利；第二，國家、市場與公民三者價值各異的行為者之間互動關係的轉變會影響台灣媒體政策的產出，並非是純粹的市場導向；第三，政黨輪替前後結構的差異使國家、市場以及公民社會有不同的策略經營。 / The main purpose of this study is to discuss the transition of mass media after abolishing martial law through the approach of political economy. This study explains the different structural forms among nation, capital and civil society and how these forms shape the transitions of Taiwanese media policy after abolishing martial law. Considering the first party alternation as watershed, the transition can be divided into three periods. The first period is under the governance of Kuomintang and the relation between nation and capital is still clientelistic. Therefore media reformation groups in the civil society choose to alley with capital powers that try get out of governmental control. They also make use of political issues that are similar to their appeals to protest against governmental monopoly over media and ask political power to withdraw from media administration. In the second period capital power get rid of governmental control after party alternation, and capital and nation construct a new privileged power structure together. The media that should be shared by all citizens transform from national monopoly to the complex situation of mutualism between political and commercial powers. Civil society and media reformation groups are discontent with capital dominant media, therefore they request nation to control the abuse of commercial power through public authority and hope to create civil media spaces. In the last period, as capital power gets more monopolistic and effective, the higher is the co-competition between capital and nation. The contradiction in political-commercial structure turns out to benefit the structural reformation in market orientation structure carried out by social movements. Different from the media studies that focused on New Liberalism in the past which concentrated on market mechanism control over media, this study emphasized on three points. First, based on longer period of time and cross analysis of newspaper, cable television and broadcast television, the study proves that market orientation policy is only surface result and the actual reason is that the ruling party wants to strengthen its own right. Second, the transitions of mutual relations among nation, market and citizens with different aims will affect the output of Taiwanese media policy and make it not purely market orientation. The third, the structural difference between pre-and post-party alternation makes nation, market and civil society design different business strategies.

No description available.