<p>Global Civil Society is a spectrum of diverse social actors, which offers an alternative to the making of contemporary politics, and towards social change; it provides us with a new approach to change the existing global order through development rather than confrontation. For this reason, global civil society has recently attracted increased interest in the academic and political discourse and consequently has left the margins and is placed in the centre of contemporary International Relations and political theory.</p><p>Utilizing neo-Gramscian ideas this study examines global civil society’s concept and core features and focuses on its role as well as transformative possibilities as an agent in contemporary world politics. This thesis demonstrates through the findings of our</p><p>case study on "Civil Society Organisations" Response to the Fourth European Union – Latin America and the Caribbean Summit in Vienna 2006” the alternative approach in dealing with political issues and actively working towards those ends.</p><p>This research’s conclusions designate the great potentialities of civil society’s organizations, if carefully managed to transform the contemporary world; as well as the necessity of addressing global civil society in order to understand the role of the social realm in reducing the gap of legitimacy in the contemporary world order.</p>

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This article deals with the growing importance of Non-Governmental Organisations in the South as partners for international development cooperation. It focuses on the innovation potential of NGOs in tackling poverty and in promoting social, economic, and political development in cooperation with donor agencies. It is argued that NGOs face critical challenges when opting for increased professionalism and expansion in size. Many NGOs run the risk of loosing their valuable potentials and advantages in the name of professionalism by transforming themselves into government-like bureaucracies or profit oriented enterprises. Drawing from significant experience in developing countries and with donor agencies, the author offers an ambitious theoretical analysis of NGOs in the south which goes beyond typical approaches of looking at the performance of individuals or merely specific types of NGOs.

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This thesis investigates whether more open trade policymaking processes that include non-governmental entities, by virtue of the divergence of interests represented, lead to a stronger, more legitimate and qualitatively enhanced international trade system. The European Union stands out among major trading powers for its significant and dramatic response to new demands for access and participation. The thesis examines whether improvements in the political opportunity structure for ‘progressive’ Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) result in more legitimate external trade policymaking in the European Union (EU). Legitimacy is assessed along two lines: the way policy is made (procedural legitimacy) and the projected outcomes of policy (substantive legitimacy). The role of NGOs is evaluated in two important cases in the context of World Trade Organization negotiations since 2000. The first concerns the formulation of the formal European Communities’ (EC) position on trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) and access to medicines. The second concerns the EC’s requests for water services liberalization in the context of General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) 2000 negotiations. Through a critical evaluation of the role of NGOs in these cases, the thesis argues that there is clear potential for NGOs to represent citizens’ demands, constitute a basic form of popular representation and hold decision-makers accountable to a broader public. However, they cannot determine policy outcomes in this arena. This thesis challenges a theoretical perspective on public policymaking called Cosmopolitanism. Grounded in democratic and normative theory, it conceives of Global Civil Society, and NGOs in particular, as major conduits for democracy and social justice in global and/or regional governance. The thesis builds upon the insights of Constructivism to advance an alternative account of the significance of NGOs in the EU’s external trade policymaking process. In particular, it argues that epistemes, the deepest level of the ideational world, dominate the external trade policymaking process. NGOs succeed only when their attempts to achieve more democratic, just, equitable and fair external trade policies in the EU conform broadly to the dominant legal/liberal episteme. When they seek to overrule that episteme, they fail, regardless of their formal involvement in the external trade policymaking process.

This thesis investigates whether more open trade policymaking processes that include non-governmental entities, by virtue of the divergence of interests represented, lead to a stronger, more legitimate and qualitatively enhanced international trade system. The European Union stands out among major trading powers for its significant and dramatic response to new demands for access and participation. The thesis examines whether improvements in the political opportunity structure for ‘progressive’ Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) result in more legitimate external trade policymaking in the European Union (EU). Legitimacy is assessed along two lines: the way policy is made (procedural legitimacy) and the projected outcomes of policy (substantive legitimacy). The role of NGOs is evaluated in two important cases in the context of World Trade Organization negotiations since 2000. The first concerns the formulation of the formal European Communities’ (EC) position on trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) and access to medicines. The second concerns the EC’s requests for water services liberalization in the context of General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) 2000 negotiations. Through a critical evaluation of the role of NGOs in these cases, the thesis argues that there is clear potential for NGOs to represent citizens’ demands, constitute a basic form of popular representation and hold decision-makers accountable to a broader public. However, they cannot determine policy outcomes in this arena. This thesis challenges a theoretical perspective on public policymaking called Cosmopolitanism. Grounded in democratic and normative theory, it conceives of Global Civil Society, and NGOs in particular, as major conduits for democracy and social justice in global and/or regional governance. The thesis builds upon the insights of Constructivism to advance an alternative account of the significance of NGOs in the EU’s external trade policymaking process. In particular, it argues that epistemes, the deepest level of the ideational world, dominate the external trade policymaking process. NGOs succeed only when their attempts to achieve more democratic, just, equitable and fair external trade policies in the EU conform broadly to the dominant legal/liberal episteme. When they seek to overrule that episteme, they fail, regardless of their formal involvement in the external trade policymaking process.

Organizational development is a central purpose of evaluation. Disasters and other emergency situations carry with them significant implications for evaluation, given that they are often unanticipated and involve multiple relief efforts on the part of INGOs, governments and international organizations. Two particularly common reasons for INGOs to evaluate disaster relief efforts are 1) accountability to donors and 2) desire to enhance the organization's response capacity. This thesis endeavors briefly to review the state of the evaluation field for disaster relief so as to reflect on how it needs to go forward. The conclusion is that evaluation of disaster relief efforts is alive and well. Though evaluation for accountability seems fairly straightforward, determining just how the evaluation influences the organization and beyond is not. Evaluation use has long been a central thread of discussion in evaluation theory, with the richer idea of evaluation influence only recently taking the stage. Evaluation influence takes the notion of evaluation use a few steps further by offering more complex, subtle, and sometimes unintentional ways that an evaluation might positively better a situation. This study contributes to the very few empirical studies of evaluation influence by looking at one organization.

Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal activities in today’s world and a violation of human rights. Sex trafficking of women from Russia and Ukraine was enabled by the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the incorporation of the new countries into the global economy. At the same time, this social problem generated a series of anti-trafficking campaigns in Russia, Ukraine, and internationally. This research analyzes social responses to the risks of sex trafficking of women from Russia and Ukraine. The analysis is based on sixteen-month multi-sited field research in Russia and Ukraine. I collected data through participant observation, interviewing, and document analysis. The research provides insight into the supply and demand sides of sex-trafficking markets and describes how sex trafficking of women is integrated into the overall organization of the global sex trade. I use institutional ethnography to map out different anti-trafficking institutions (NGOs, governmental offices, international organizations) and examine social relations engendered by anti-trafficking mobilizations. My research analyzes institutional interventions aimed at minimizing the risks to sex trafficking victims. I explore how the institutional actors form transnational regulatory spaces to combat the problem of sex trafficking. Finally, I analyze how female trafficking survivors negotiate their identities in response to the institutional power of anti-trafficking NGOs that assist them.

We have been in the Philippines where we did a research about child labor. We went to a country in South because we wanted to come home with a deeper understanding of how social work can be practiced in a developing country and to get a bigger global perspective. Child labor is a big subject and therefore we made a demarcation in our research to child labor that we could observe in the urban area Manila. To get answers on our research questions we chosen to do a qualitative study with a triangulation of methods. This means that we used different kind of data collection methods such as, interviews, observation and literature studies. To get interviews we contacted an organization that helped us with contacts on the spot. We interviewed both government and non-government organization to get a broader picture of how they are working with child labor. The observation was made all the time since there were children around us every day, begging or wanted to sell some items to us. The literature was more difficult to find because there isn’t any books about the Philippines in Sweden.      What we have found out is that child labor is a big problem in the Philippines, but that it is a country with a lot of big problems for example poverty. The children in child labor come from poor families that need an extra income. The children doesn’t only work a few hours a week, they often work so much that they drop out of school. Except that the children is missing out of their education there is also a lot of risks involving in child labor. We have been researching about the children’s situations and how government and non- government organizations are working with the issue of child labor and it´s negative effects on the child’s development. We found out that both ILO and the Philippine government have programs right now to support the goal of a child labor free Philippines. We also found out that there is a big lack of trust for the government. To analysis our results we have chosen two theories, the ecological model of human development and development of psychopathology. Both theories are Western but they can be applied on the Philippines if you have the context in mind.

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.