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 thesis aims to illustrate how civil society organizations reflect on and communicate for societal change. The aim is also to broaden the understanding of how norms and logics on social media platforms characterize communication and the discourse about social engagement. With a basis in discourse theory, the particular focus of the study is on identifying discursive themes, and conflicts that exist within these themes. The analysis draws upon critical theories about the power position and technical affordance of social media platforms, as well as perspectives on the political subject - individually and collectively. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with representatives from six environmental organizations, two of which are newer network-based movements. The results show discursive nodal points such as autonomous, individual-based and political.  These partly gain their meaning through social media and technical affordances, which enable lower engagement thresholds, which in turn challenge the organizations’ ideas about long-term engagement. Political engagement is largely associated with online engagement, via social media, at the same time an opposite relationship shows that screen time takes focus from deepened or physical engagement. The results also show that organizations are aware of the power of social media platforms, where hidden algorithms and commercial logic contrast with the organizations’ visions, while at the same time the platforms play an important role for the organizations’ communication.

No description available.

Calls to ensure the attainment of sustainable development across the development spectrum in the world today need one to understand in depth the role played by all stakeholders. For a long time, Civil society organizations (CSOs) have contributed immensely to the realization of the social pillar i.e., social transformation initiatives, family building, cultural value upholding and respect for individual human rights,etc. of sustainable development through the inclusive engagement of all sections of society. A big part of their focus has been on youth following CSOs’ acknowledgment of youth as the leaders of tomorrow. This acknowledgment has also been actualized through CSO efforts such as empowering youth to participate in low-level democratic processes of their organizations and groups. This thesis paper attempts to deepen and expand on how Civil society activism has for a while now concentrated on building society with the approach of ensuring local ownership. The approach led to the inclusion of youth in the development interventions which for a long time now started paying off. The endless objective participation of youth in many social issues like the demand for social accountability today has a big contribution from the work of Civil society Organizations.I argue in the paper that with the increasing regression of democratic practices in the world, the most affected category of society is the youth and mainly those believing in being a part of contributing to social development based on their lived experiences as well as acquired knowledge.

My diploma thesis consists of theoretical and empirical parts. The theoretical part is focused on the definition of migration and integration of migrants, both at the international, national and regional context. A special chapter is devoted to the theory of civic participation of migrants. The concept of civic participation is perceived in relation to the non- governmental organizations. The aim of the empirical part is focused on providing the further insight into the civic participation of Russian minorities in the public life of Czech civil society based on the research of the civil society organizations associating Russian community. Qualitative research is conducted through the structured interviews with representatives of these organizations, which are analyzed by the method of open and selective coding. The research results are presented in the analytical findings with a view to identifying barriers to civic participation of Russian minorities in the Czech Republic as well as the subsequent recommendations to overcome them. Key words: civil society organizations, integration, migrant, migration, minority, participation

This field study is a thematic and feminist institutionalist analysis on how the civil society and grassroot activists in Gauteng province, South Africa, has been affected and mitigated during and after the COVID -19 pandemic in their work against gender-based violence. The data consist of five semi structured interviews with primary sources, divided in the two sub-groups of activists and formal NGO representatives.  The study presents civil society and activist viewpoints on adaptation, feminist movement building as well as shrinking space and crisis within crisis. This qualitative study is a thematic analysis linked to the theoretical framework of feminist institutionalism in the context of South Africa. The results reflect issues of representation, power balances linked to organizational status, accountability, transparency, and democracy. Conclusion of this study is that need for adaptation and to mitigate the crisis within crisis (GBV and COVID -19 pandemic) is predominant for all stakeholders, but the viewpoints on how the pandemic affected the cooperation within the civil society sector varies between the two subgroups. The formal NGO’s viewpoint in this study is that the pandemic strengthened the cooperation within civil society and with institutions. However, the grassroot activist group’s perspective is that the pandemic created a split within the feminist movement. Shrinking democratic space is evidently affecting the grassroot activist group to a larger extent. The formal NGO group articulates an improved dialogue and cooperation with institutions and an enhanced political will to address gender-based violence.  All stakeholders that were interviewed in this study articulates that the context with new emerging crises, such as power-poverty, inflation and food shortage are challenging the possibilities to address the “shadow pandemic” of gender-based violence which is still a predominant human rights and democratic crisis in South Africa. This study contributes to the context analysis around implementation of the national strategic plan on gender-based violence and femicide and informs on challenges on feminist institutionalism in post-pandemic South Africa.

In this thesis, I explore the topic of migration and specifically the case of Calais. Approaching it from a non-state perspective, I focus on the practices of civil society organizations that support people on the move and ask if and how these practices challenge state policies and practices. With the conscious decision to focus on this type of actor, coupled with a reflexivist methodology, I seek to disrupt the dominant narrative constructed by France, the United Kingdom and European Union, and avoid reproducing state- and Eurocentric knowledge in academia. In order to gain an in-depth understanding, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in form of participant observation and semi-structured interviews in Calais between the beginning of April and May 2022. Drawing on additional textual data and engaging with scholarly debates on the concept of solidarity, I adapt the concept of “de-bordering solidarity” to analyse the practices of CSOs embedded within the border zone's local and regional context. I conclude by arguing that they do challenge the state while also highlighting the nuances and contradictions of solidarity practices.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-04-19T12:00:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Helda Oliveira Abumanssur.pdf: 913481 bytes, checksum: 0c826544a4daa4cfe2a9cb40591d912f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-19T12:00:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Helda Oliveira Abumanssur.pdf: 913481 bytes, checksum: 0c826544a4daa4cfe2a9cb40591d912f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-03 / Fundação São Paulo - FUNDASP / The present study was developed based on the assumption that the democratic vitality of a society depends on the diversity, energy and autonomy of its social institutions, and it is important to undertake research in order to increase the knowledge and understanding about its performance and social impacts of its work .The focus was on the entities that work in the promotion and defense of human rights in Brazil, especially those that had their trajectory related to the centers of advice and support to the popular movements that resisted the military dictatorship. The general objective was to identify the specificities and to broaden the understanding of power relations in the management of the organizations studied; and particularly sought to identify and analyze the principles and values that guided the structuring of its management systems; to verify if and how adaptations were made in the same ones during the period of time delimited for this work (military dictatorship until the end of the governments Fernando Henrique Cardoso); and highlight the knowledge they have elaborated in the process, from their practice. To achieve these objectives, interviews were conducted with leaders of five rights-advocacy organizations, whose content were analyzed using the genealogy of power, as proposed by Michel Foucault, a theoretical framework understood as adequate to reflect on the work of entities struggling for justice, to reduce inequalities, and that are against discrimination in social relations. In other words, organizations that want to influence how power is distributed in society / O presente estudo foi desenvolvido a partir do pressuposto de que a vitalidade democrática de uma sociedade depende da diversidade, energia e autonomia de suas instituições sociais, sendo importante empreender pesquisas no sentido de ampliar o conhecimento e compreensão sobre sua atuação e impactos sociais do seu trabalho. Nele, o foco recaiu sobre as entidades que trabalham na promoção e defesa de direitos no Brasil, em especial aquelas que tiveram sua trajetória relacionada aos centros de assessoria e apoio aos movimentos populares que resistiram à ditadura militar. Como objetivo geral, estabeleceu-se o interesse de identificar as especificidades e ampliar a compreensão das relações de poder na gestão das organizações estudadas; e de forma particular, buscou-se: identificar e analisar os princípios e valores que orientaram a estruturação dos seus sistemas de gestão; verificar se e como foram feitas adaptações neles ao longo do período de tempo delimitado para este trabalho (ditadura militar até o fim dos governos Fernando Henrique Cardoso); e ressaltar os conhecimentos que elaboraram no processo, a partir de sua prática. Para alcançar esses objetivos, foram feitas entrevistas com dirigentes de cinco entidades de defesa de direitos, cujo conteúdo foi analisado a partir da genealogia de poder proposta por Michel Foucault, marco teórico entendido como adequado para refletir sobre o trabalho de entidades que lutam por justiça, pela diminuição das desigualdades, e são contra discriminações nas relações sociais. Em outras palavras, as organizações que querem influenciar a forma como o poder se distribui na sociedade

This thesis tries to analyze the role of civil society within the process of democratization in Turkey with special reference to the impact of civil society policies of the EU on the internal operating styles of civil society organizations in Turkey. In this respect, a critical evaluation of the said issue was tried to be put forward in the sense that the extensive discussions on the concept of civil society were examined and gathered with the observations and empirical evidence gained on the subject in order to reach an answer on the very nature of civil society-democracy relationship. In doing this, the purpose was to uncover the reasons behind the recent popularization of the concept as an indispensable precondition of democracy and to question whether certain circumstances exist under which the term may rather harm than enable the process of democratization. Within this framework, the consideration of the civil society policies of the EU implemented in Turkey was seen as all the more necessary because of the fact that the process of Turkey&rsquo / s EU membership has major implications for not only the process of democratization in Turkey, but also on the development of civil society as a significant part of this process. In accordance with the purpose of the study, in order to understand the extent of democratic capacity of civil society organizations in Turkey and the impact of the EU in that sense, a field research was conducted in Ankara, Turkey with the participation of 46 CSOs active mostly in the fields of women, children, disabled, human rights and environment. Through the field research, the main purpose was to understand the dynamics of the internal operating styles of those organizations, their views concerning the relations between CSOs as well as between the CSOs and the state on the one hand, to measure the extent to which their participation to civil society programs of the EU influence their intra-organizational structures on the other. According to the results of the field research, over the experience of 46 participant organizations, an analysis of the extent to which the EU-implemented civil society programs serve for the building of democratic capacity of civil society organizations in Turkey was tried to be made.

Doctor Legum - LLD / The persistence of preventable Maternal Morbidity and Mortality (hereafter MMM), in the developing world, despite ground breaking technological and scientific advances, is unacceptable. There is no cause of death and disability for men between ages 15 and 44 that comes close to the large scale of maternal mortality and morbidity. Thus, the prevalence of high MMM ratios indicates the side-lining of women's rights. Surprisingly, the causal factors of preventable MMM and interventions needed to reverse the pervasively high numbers are now well known. Yet, hundreds of women continue to die daily and to suffer lifelong illnesses while giving birth. In Uganda, despite various regulatory, policy and programmatic strategies, the most recent survey revealed that the maternal mortality ratios were at a staggering 438 per 100,000 live births.