Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / Essa pesquisa investiga a formaÃÃo dos jovens e das jovens na periferia Sul da cidade de Fortaleza (bairro Pedra e adjacÃncias), a partir da aÃÃo da sociedade civil na instÃncia educativa da OrganizaÃÃo NÃo-Governamental (ONG), denominada Centro Cultural- Educativo, de Lazer, InformaÃÃo Trabalho e AÃÃo Social â CELITA. Fundamenta-se em estudos que tecem convergÃncias entre a Teoria da AÃÃo Comunicativa, do pensador alemÃo JÃrgen Habermas e a Pedagogia DialÃgica do educador brasileiro Paulo Freire, privilegiando aproximaÃÃes da realidade social por meio da pesquisa-aÃÃo. Novas demandas e novos sujeitos surgiram no cenÃrio nacional a partir da renovaÃÃo cultural produzida pelo processo de democratizaÃÃo do Brasil. Entre as novas questÃes pautadas pela sociedade civil organizada, principalmente, as ONGs, emergiu a discussÃo crÃtica sobre a tematizaÃÃo social da juventude e a necessidade de superar tradicionais prÃticas autoritÃrias e excludentes nesse segmento social, na busca por trilhar perspectivas embasadas na autonomia, na defesa de direitos e na participaÃÃo social ativa. Conforme os estudos efetivados, tal conjuntura implicou no duplo desafio para as ONGs brasileiras: inovar as ideias e as prÃticas em relaÃÃo à juventude e, concomitantemente, discutir seu processo de reestruturaÃÃo considerando, principalmente, os aspectos relacionados natureza, missÃo e objetivos dessas instituiÃÃes sociais. O Centro Cultural CELITA vivenciou o referido contexto. Esta tese tem como objeto central a construÃÃo do saber de forma processual e intersubjetiva nas interaÃÃes com os sujeitos da pesquisa no cotidiano em foco, para afirmar, que nÃo obstante a fragilidade da estrutura e do funcionamento dessa entidade, ela à uma instituiÃÃo flexÃvel e dinÃmica, que proporciona a produÃÃo de atitudes e valores positivos com relaÃÃo à juventude, contribuindo significativamente, para a formaÃÃo cidadà dos jovens e das jovens envolvidos com suas atividades. AlÃm do mais, estimula na juventude a visÃo crÃtica da sociedade e a participaÃÃo em aÃÃes polÃticas e movimentos sociais, tanto de defesa de direitos, quanto pela melhoria da qualidade de vida no local onde atua. O trabalho do Centro Cultural CELITA possui grande legitimidade na regiÃo onde se insere e por meio das atividades cultural-educativas que desenvolve, vem adquirindo maior reconhecimento no cenÃrio da cidade de Fortaleza como uma entidade voltada para a promoÃÃo das polÃticas pÃblicas para a juventude e defesa da democracia. / This research investigates the education of young men and women on the southern outskirts of Fortaleza (Pedra district and vicinity), through the action of the civil society in the educational sphere of the non-governmental organization (NGO) called Centro Cultural-Educativo, de Lazer, InformaÃÃo, Trabalho e AÃÃo Social â CELITA. It is based on studies that establish convergence between The Theory of Communicative Action, by the German thinker JÃrgen Habermas and the Pedagogia DialÃgica, by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, privileging approaches to social reality through research-action. New demands and new subjects have appeared in the national scenario due to the cultural renewal produced by the democratization process in Brazil. Among the new issues related to the organized civil society, especially, the NGOs, there emerged a critical discussion about the social thematization of the youth, and the need to overcome traditional authoritarian and exclusive practices in this segment of society, in search of pursuing perspectives based on autonomy, defense of rights, and active social participation. According to studies on this issue, such conjuncture implied in a double-folded challenge to Brazilian NGOs: innovate ideas and practices towards the youth, and, concomitantly, discuss their process of restructuring, taking into account, mainly, the aspects related to nature, mission, and objectives of these social institutions. Centro Cultural CELITA has gone through this context. This thesis has as its core object the building of processual and intersubjective knowledge about the interactions with the subjects of the research on the focused reality, to assert that, in spite of the frailty in the structure and operation of this organization, it is a flexible and dynamic institution, that provides for the production of positive attitudes and values for the youth, significantly contributing to the development, as citizens, of the young men and women involved in its activities. Moreover, it stimulates the youth to have a critical view of society and to participate in political actions and social movements in defense of rights as well as in the improvement of the quality of life in the area of its scope. The work of Centro Cultural CELITA possesses great legitimacy in the region where it is inserted, and through the cultural and educative activities it develops, it has increased its acknowledgement in Fortaleza as an organization aimed to the promotion of public policies towards the youth and in defense of democracy.

A prática de voluntariado, embora antiga, tem ganhado espaço de uma forma muito distinta das ações de caridade informais e de matizes religiosas que predominavam há até algumas décadas. Imerso em um complexo processo de institucionalização, o voluntariado ganhou novos valores a partir dos anos 90, relacionados à mudança social e à participação política, ao mesmo tempo em que se distanciou cada vez mais da idéia da caridade e do assistencialismo. Neste trabalho, buscamos entender em que medida o engajamento de indivíduos neste novo modelo de voluntariado, sendo ele uma ação coletiva e focada em mudança social, pode contribuir para uma cultura política mais participativa, a partir da formação da consciência política dos voluntários. Escolhemos como estudo de caso a ONG Teto, presente no Brasil, na América Latina e no Caribe, que atualmente representa bem este novo voluntariado como fenômeno social. Com o foco na questão habitacional e com o objetivo de superar a extrema pobreza, a ONG Teto atrai milhares de jovens universitários como voluntários. Assumimos como referencial as reflexões teóricas dos autores da psicologia política e especialmente o modelo Analítico da Consciência Política de Salvador A. M. Sandoval. Assim, buscamos entender, a partir de entrevistas, as dimensões sociais e psicológicas que constituem a consciência política dos voluntários nessa organização, a disposição deles em agirem de acordo com essa consciência e a relação desta com as atividades sociais que eles exercem na ONG. Como resultados, identificamos que ainda há um forte caráter de caridade e assistencialismo na atividade da ONG, mas com grande potencial de formação política dos jovens voluntários, especialmente a partir das vivências nos assentamentos precários. Por outro lado, identificamos pontos que desfavorecem a constituição de uma consciência política mais crítica e que, portanto, fazem com que aquele potencial não seja explorado de forma eficiente. Esses obstáculos relacionam-se principalmente à falta de posicionamento político da ONG, à falta de orientação política aos voluntários, à ausência de questionamentos mais profundos sobre as questões que buscam combater e também ao desencontro entre o discurso de erradicação da pobreza e as ações propostas / Volunteering is an old practice that nowadays unfolds in very distinct ways from the informal charity and mostly religious forms which used to prevail until some decades ago. As a contemporary society product, volunteering is now immersed in a complex institutionalization process. It has been redefined and gathered new values, related to social change and political participation while gets increasingly distant from charity speech and assistentialism. In this study, we seek to understand how taking part in this new formal volunteering, as a colective action, can contribute to a more participative political culture, from volunteers\' political awareness. NGO Teto is our case study. It is based in Latin America and the Caribbean and best represents the new volunteering as a social phenomenon. Aiming at habitation issues and at overcoming poverty, the NGO has attracted millions of university students. We take as reference the theoretical thoughts of political psychology authors, especially Salvador A. M. Sandoval\'s Analytical Model of Political Consciousness. This way, we have tried to comprehend the social and psycological dimensions that form the volunteers\' political consciousness, their willingness to act in accordance to it and its bonds to the social activities they develop at the NGO. In the analysis, we have found a model of volunteering that is still very close to charity, but with great potential of critical formation, especially as a result of volunteers\' experiences in poor communities. On the other hand, we have found out issues that are obstacles to a more critical political sonsciousness, which consequently turns this potential inexplored efficiently. The obstacles are mostly related to the NGO\'s lack of guidance and political positioning, the absence of deeper questioning about the problems the NGO and volunteers work to solve, as well as the clash between the discourse of poverty eradication and the proposed actions

The aim of this Master´s Thesis is to analyse the way in which non-governmental organizations approach the use of the internet for fundraising. The Master´s Thesis explores attitudes of non-governmental organizations towards this medium as well as the factors that motivate these organizations to use the internet. In order to achieve the aim the author carried out qualitative research based on semi-structured interview attended by representatives of a total of ten selected non-governmental organizations. The results show that non-governmental organizations use the internet for fundraising, however there are considerable gaps in their effectiveness. Online fundraising does not entail a significant financial source. Non-governmental organizations use the internet mainly to build a relationship with their supporters. Online fundraising is therefore seen as a complement to classic fundraising methods that still dominate in case of Czech non-governmental organizations.

Dramatic changes in the environmental patterns represent a threat to human beings and life on this planet. However, due to differences in the social roles and rights between women and men, a gender perspective is essential to understand how these changes in the environment are affecting individuals in their societies. Even though gender is appointed as a relevant factor when reflecting on the relationship human beings and nature, women’s knowledge, perspectives and needs are being overlooked by the Environmental Education research and theory. This research aims at investigating the relevance of a gender perspective in Environmental Education programs in societies where women are the main responsible for the household and childcare. To this end, the activities of two environmental NGOs – one from India and one from Brazil – have been investigated through the case study methodology. As per the methods applied, semi-structure interviews have been carried out with 10 women from both countries. Through gender lenses the formal and informal forces that influence social roles and power dynamics in the referred societies are analyzed. The empirical findings demonstrate that in both Indian and Brazilian societies women are still the main house and children caretakers. Such role implies the responsibility of deciding about energy and water consumption, waste management and other domestic expenditures. Empirical results suggest that when a woman is environmental-aware she has the potential to make more sustainable choices and thus educate other members of the family. However, being the main responsible for the private sphere can deprive women from playing a major role in the public level where key decision about the environment are taken. The present study represents a key contribution to the Environmental Education theory and research as it addresses the poorly explored field of Environmental Education and Gender issues.

Despite deficient institutional practices, political resistance, and lagging public support for European Union (EU) membership, as well as the presence of two existential EU crises—the euro crisis and migration crisis—, the states of Southeast Europe (SEE) continue to adapt their domestic policies, procedures, legislation, norms and values to the EU’s acquis communautaire—Europeanization. The Europeanization literature explains that such processes of adaption are induced by incentives, and informed by the (limited) ability of each state to negotiate its membership requirements. However, given the degree of political and institutional weakness in SEE, in addition to the EU’s current apathetic stance towards enlargement, this dissertation questions the explanatory power of traditional, hierarchical conceptualizations of Europeanization. It in turn investigates the extent to which the EU and Southeast European candidates (SEECs) have employed new, ‘horizontal’ mechanisms of Europeanization that rely on cooperation, learning, and the co-production of outputs to overcome the technical and strategic problems facing the candidates. Very little work has acknowledged Europeanization outside of the traditional top-down-bottom-up dichotomy, and even less has attempted to specify and investigate the impact of these alternative mechanisms of Europeanization. To address this gap in the literature, this study traces incidents of civil servant cooperation (twinning) and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) involvement in Croatia and Serbia, and assesses to what degree these mechanisms have helped Croatia and Serbia comply with the acquis. It argues that while the effectiveness of these mechanisms vary due to a number of factors, they have been vital to the accession processes of Croatia and Serbia. These mechanisms have helped align domestic and EU legislation, improved institutional procedures, fostered inter-ministry cooperation, updated policy frameworks, extended state programs to rural and minority populations, and encouraged more systematic public consultation, all of which have been deemed a necessary part of membership preparations. More broadly, these findings suggest a shift in EU-candidate state relations, and demonstrate that a more diverse set of actors and mechanisms are active in Europeanization and governance processes. In candidate states, and indeed even in some member states with weak institutional capacities, tense political environments, and an uncertain public, mechanisms that rely solely on conditionality have varied in their ability to induce domestic compliance. This dissertation contends that horizontal mechanisms that rely on socialization instead of coercion, may present a worthwhile alternative. / Graduate / crouchgb@uvic.ca

Deconstructing visual representations of the Self and Other in the online media of NGOs, this thesis is grounded in postdevelopment and postcolonial theories. Visual culture and emerging digital technologies are crucial to identity construction, and NGOs are a major purveyor of representations of those in the developing world. Evaluating image use by Canadian based NGOs, this thesis unites theoretical concepts of visual representation with concrete photographic depictions and structured content analysis to investigate multiple and changing development discourses. Considerable literature has focused on the notion of the Self and Other dichotomy especially as it relates to international relations. Positioned in an era of polycentric global governance, NGOs are professionalized groups whose power is often obscured by charitable discourses. Despite the humanitarian and altruistic aims of the NGOs selected for the study, data demonstrates the implications of their image use for development discourse and practices.

Les organisations caritatives religieuses connaissent depuis la fin de l’ère maoïste une croissance importante en Chine. De façon générale, ces organisations complémentent les services de l’État, lequel a réduit sa présence dans la sphère sociale au cours de la période de Réforme et d’ouverture. Face à ces groupes, le Parti communiste chinois est passé d’une attitude répressive à une attitude instrumentale. La présente thèse explore le détail de cette instrumentalisation. Elle constate, grâce à une étude de terrain, l’attitude différenciée du Parti communiste envers les groupes caritatifs religieux, selon que ceux-ci adhèrent à une religion « chinoise » ou « étrangère ».

Depuis les années 1990, des Organisations Non-Gouvernementales (ONG) se sont impliquées de manière croissante dans la définition et la résolution des problèmes sociaux et environnementaux liés aux activités des entreprises. En actant tout au long des chaînes de production globales, ces ONG ont transformé les marchés, où ces entreprises opèrent, en espaces de plus en plus contestés. De nos jours, la littérature disponible sur les agissements des ONG dans des contextes corporatifs catégorise les stratégies d'influence des ONG comme étant soit de confrontation, soit de coopération. Notre recherche vise à amener une vision plus nuancée à ces dichotomies théoriques, notamment nous cherchons à mieux comprendre les possibles approches mixtes entre confrontation et coopération qui peuvent avoir lieu dans une même stratégie d'influence. Empiriquement nous nous sommes focalisés sur différentes stratégies d'influence menées par trois des ONG Environnementales les plus reconnues au monde : le Fonds Mondial pour la Nature, Greenpeace et les Amis de la Terre, au sein d'un même secteur économique, l'agro-industrie du soja. L'étude examine plus particulièrement la progression individuelle de ces stratégies, ainsi que les convergences et divergences entre elles. Notre analyse montre premièrement, que les ONG définissent leurs stratégies d'action en fonction et en interaction avec celles des autres ONG agissant sur le secteur. Les ONG cherchent à intégrer des améliorations soit dans le projet soit dans le procès d'influence collectif. Deuxièmement, nous avons montré que les stratégies d'influence individuelles impliquent souvent une approche hybride entre collaboration et confrontation. Cette approche peut prendre deux formes distinctes : dynamique évolutive (de la confrontation vers la coopération) ou duale (coopération et confrontation simultanée). / Since the 1990s, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have been increasingly involved in defining and solving social and environmental problems related to business activities. Extant literature analysing NGOs mobilization in corporate contexts, commonly characterizes NGOs' influence strategies as either confrontational or collaborative. Our research aims to bring a more nuanced view of these theoretical dichotomies, in particular we seek to better understand the possible mixed approaches, using both confrontation and collaboration, that can take place within one strategy. Empirically we focused on different strategies of influence conducted by three of the world's most recognized Environmental NGOs : World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth (FoE), in the same economic sector, the soybean agribusiness. The study looks specifically at the individual progress of these strategies, as well as the similarities and differences between them. Our analysis shows firstly that NGOs strategies develop in an interrelated and dialectic process, building on each other achievements and shortcomings. Second, we showed that the impact of individual strategies often involve a hybrid approach between collaboration and confrontation. This approach can take two distinct forms : a progressive dynamics (from confrontation to cooperation) or dual one (simultaneous cooperation and confrontation). These initial results contribute globally to the emerging NGO-Business literature, and speak to current attempts that seek to overcome static and dyadic approaches of NGO-Business relations.

This thesis focus on strategic analysis of NGO. The first part describes theoretical strategic tools that are used in the second part to analyse specific organization. The organization is called Junák-svaz skautů a skautek ČR and it is a scout organization of the Czech Republic. It is the biggest Czech organization that provides leisure time activities for children and young people. The aim of this thesis is to analyse its position on the market of leisure activities and to indicate possibilities of its future development.

The goal of this thesis is an analysis of the SAOP civic association. It is divided into two parts; the first delineates a theoretical background, which is then applied to the subject of interest in the second part. The practical part introduces the organization, its goals and activities. Consequently it evaluates the organization's present situation from a strategic and financial point of view. The strategic analysis contains three sub-parts. They are respectively dedicated to an examination of the organization's surroundings (macro and micro environment), to an analysis of its internal workings including resources, and to a synthesis of these two which would produce the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. The financial analysis encompasses an overview of financial resources, fundraising and a draft financial plan for the organization's new project.