Civil society has come to dominate the discourses of development and social change for the last few decades. This thesis is a critical engagement with the liberal ideas of civil society; it specifically explores the politics that surfaces in the civic sphere in the context of caste inequalities through the study of Dalit socio-political organisations that occupy the margins of civil society in India. This ethnography of Dalit politics interrogates the intersections of caste and civil society in current globalised times and spaces through exploration into post-Panther phase of Dalit politics in rural Maharashtra. The focus is on two socio-political movements; one is Manavi Hakk Abhiyan (MHA), a grassroots Dalit organisation with international networks and the other is Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) a national Dalit political party. This study offers insights into the dynamic nature of caste and its vitality in constructing localised form/s of civil society in India. A common running theme in the thesis is Dalit politics of resistance and their struggle to access justice through the state despite the continued denial of justice to Dalits through fragmented institutions of the state. The study, thus, observes how the participation of Dalit movements in claiming democratic citizenship through party politics occurs alongside the marginalisation of Dalit assertion in electoral politics. Looking beyond the state, the thesis charts the relationships between Dalits and the external relational fields within which they operate: it details the vernacular modes of communication in the civic sphere where protests and violence are important modes; the innovative uses of caste and cultural repertoires by Dalit movements in challenging caste hierarchy and forming collective identities of protest; and finally, the context of global associational revolution and engagement of NGOs and INGOs as new associations in Dalit politics of resistance. This thesis contributes to the larger debates on the makings of caste and civil society in India and argues that caste and Dalit movements have a key role in constructing localised forms of civility and civil society that challenge the dynamic hierarchies and exclusions of caste.

The thesis analyses how NGOs define the meaning of civil society in Namibia through their everyday work. Based on 12 months fieldwork at the national umbrella for NGOs the thesis shows that this definition was mainly shaped by NGOs’ administration of the everyday rather than the outcome of ideological debates about how to “do good”. The thesis examines how dominant NGO practices reflect the basic tension between NGOs’ activists claims and the bureaucratic reality of their work and in doing so speaks to debates about NGO agency, accountability and their relevance for development. The thesis shows how organisations use formal criteria in reporting, networking, advocacy, fundraising and branding to continuously redefine what activism ought to be about and how “proper” civic organisations ought to behave. NGOs write reports to enhance their accountability and transparency, but the correct reporting form also delineates what counts as proper civic activism. They present networking as civil society’s main coordinating mechanism, but meetings always call for more coordination and hence additional meetings. Advocacy does not only concern the relations between civic organisations and the government, but NGOs also use these relations to justify surveillance and control within civil society. Competitive fundraising does not blindly follow donors’ demands, rather, through it NGOs create a canon of fundable and thus legitimate projects. Finally, the branding of civic activism is not simply concerned with the promotion of civil society organisations, but is seen as an attempt to create a unified corporate image with a sharp distinction between proper and improper civic activism. Struggles over meaning are therefore shifted into contestations around technicalities. The administration of the everyday in civil society thus becomes the prime means to decide how to “do good”.

The thesis explores international donors’ promotion of civil society in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan since the mid 2000s with a particular focus on how policy changes in the promotion of civil society have influenced Kyrgyz non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their relations with the state. The thesis is based on tenmonths field research, which involved ninety semi-structured interviews with nineteen donors, forty-seven NGOs, six community based organisations, and three representatives of local authorities, together with two small-scale surveys with twenty-five NGO employees and thirty-three NGO leaders. The key finding is that donors’ focus on civil society promotion in Kyrgyzstan has decreased since the mid 2000s rather their agenda now aims at state capacity-building. Donors’ more limited funding to NGOs is targeted toward the promotion of NGOs’ advocacy role and the encouragement of collaborative relations between NGOs and the state. These findings indicate a shift from donors’ civil society promotion in the 1990s where the key stress was on building civil society in Kyrgyzstan from scratch. Consequently, the thesis discusses the return of the state to donor agenda and the interaction between the state, donors, and NGOs in Kyrgyzstan. These changes have impacted the NGOs sector in Kyrgyzstan. The research has revealed that, as a result of these changes, NGOs are becoming more professional and formal. The thesis argues that reduced donor funding has resulted in a stronger competition among NGOs for funds, while increased interaction with the state institutions has also placed pressure on NGOs to become more professional and to increase their institutional capacity. The thesis suggests that relations between the state and NGOs are characterised by apparently contradictory elements in which both cooperation and counterbalance feature. Notwithstanding the prevailing trend toward NGO professionalisation and formalisation, the thesis argues that NGOs also display other features such as voluntarism, philanthropy, and constituency responsiveness. Consequently, the thesis makes a contribution to the literature on civil society in Central Asia by providing a detailed account of the complex and diverse NGO sector in Kyrgyzstan.

The argument of this thesis is that the early success of building DCMR does not mean real consolidation without active non-governmental actors and a dynamic civil society. Drawing attention to the non-state side of civil-military relations is crucial to improving the quality of DCMR. The thesis claims, that the horizontal dimension of the Hungarian CMR has undergone a long and complex learning process. Nevertheless, the civil society component of the Hungarian CMR received less attention and its development was slow and controversial. This process is shown by the case of three types of NGOs (protest, research and educator, and cultural organizations) in Hungary between the late 1980s and 2002. Today tendencies are promising because these organizations are more diverse than earlier and the improving economy could provide additional resources for them. Nevertheless, the state support for improving this activity remained very important but it calls for considering increasingly democratic values. Furthermore, the current status of the defense- and military-related civil society calls for promotion from NATO and the European Union as well. It would be important increasing the attractiveness this field and as a result the civilian participation in it, which could be the basis of the improvement of the quality of democratic civil-military relations.

Thesis advisor: Michael Malec / This essay is based upon the results of an exploratory research project that explores the ways in which twenty-four (24) individuals, who self-identify as African Americans, define community and use those definitions to inform their perceptions and discussions about civic engagement, responsibility, and community memberships, key themes in the decline of community cultural critique. The research focuses on these themes because they are at the heart of the decline of civil society – individuals are becoming atomistic, alienated, and disengaged from social and interpersonal relationships with family members, neighbors and friends. This psychological and physical distancing leads to a lack of participation in community life and institutions and the loss of social and cultural capital. The structural-functionalist and systemic analyses, upon which much of the decline of civil society social commentary is based, incorrectly assume a linear continuum of human and societal development. When in fact social, political, and economic development actually occur at different stages and at times simultaneously. There is a false dichotomy between the macrolevel theories of urban-rural, folk-peasant, organic-mechanical, and instrumental-expressive models often used to explain and, or predict the nature of conditions under which social relationships and institutional dynamics occur. These macrolevel theories appear to ignore or at least minimize the significance of microlevel interactions. Microlevel interactions are formal, informal social and civic transactions that routinely occur in nearly every type of situation or setting. Virtually everyone who participates in society is a member of multiple communities, what is referred to in this study as circles of communities. These multiple communities offer researchers the opportunity to investigate why and how people place themselves in spatial, social, ideological, and experiential relationship or proximity to other community members and institutions. They are also where we are able to locate community despite the pace of change and transformation in contemporary society. The articulation of the decline of civil society as a social problem continues to privilege those with power and influence in American society. Academics, politicians, writers and editors, religious leaders, radio and talk show hosts and many others have been able to gain credibility, implement policies and impose normative standards for civic engagement. These standards are often used to identify insiders and outsiders in society. This research adds the voices of those who have been excluded from the discussion and recognizes them as experts both in terms of their own experiences and important contributors to the current body of social commentary and observations about community and associational living in modern America. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Based on longitudinal qualitative research, the paper analyses manifestations and mechanisms of the repression of activists of the Spanish protest movement 15M, and effects of this repression perceived by activists. To contextualize this, the background of the movement, its goals, and its achievements are described. The movement started in 2011, protesting the social crisis, the consequences of austerity policies, and corruption. It had viable effects on the framing of the current situation, in political attitudes and also, indirectly, on the political system. The Spanish government has responded to movement activities with repression and with new laws that interviewees characterize as a further restriction of the civil right to demonstrate and protest. Findings indicate that the combination of overt and covert repression have effects far beyond the manifest acts of the repression itself.

鄧正健. / "2010年9月". / "2010 nian 9 yue". / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-101). / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Deng Zhengjian. / 緒論 公民社會:一種解殖話語? --- p.1 / Chapter 第一章 --- 後殖民語境下的「公民社會」 --- p.12 / Chapter 第二章 --- 香港「公民社會」概念史:一種描述性話語 --- p.27 / Chapter 第三章 --- 「真正博拉」的政治:七一時期的「公民抗命」論述 --- p.48 / Chapter 第四章 --- 個人理性的選擇:七一時期的「理性公民」論述 --- p.68 / 結論 解殖:一個正待繼續進行的計劃? --- p.82 / 後記 --- p.91 / 參考資料 --- p.92

The relationship between magyarization and Hungarian civil society during the reform era of Hungarian history (1790-1848) is the subject of this dissertation. This thesis examines the cultural and political activities of three liberal oppositional nobles: András Fáy (1786-1864), István Bezerédj (1796-1856) and Ödön Beöthy (1796-1854). These three men were chosen as the basis of this study because of their commitment to a two-pronged approach to politics: they advocated greater cultural magyarization in the multiethnic Hungarian Kingdom and campaigned to extend the protection of the Hungarian constitution to segments of the non-aristocratic portion of the Hungarian population. I argue that magyarization and civil society were closely connected: magyarization unfolded within the confines of civil society, and civil society was meant to guarantee that magyarization would leave room for cultural homogeneity. I locate the success and ambivalence of Fáy, Bezerédj and Beöthy’s efforts to shape Hungarian civil society not in the peculiar mixture of liberal and national elements that characterized their political campaigns, including their magyarization impulses, but in their social position as Magyar nobles transforming a multiethnic and socially-stratified Hungarian population. On a more subtle level, the fact that these three men based their reform efforts on grass-roots transformation and on the interconnectedness between the capital centres and the counties is also a central concern of this thesis. / History

<p>This study attempted to examine the role that selected civil society groups played to promote citizen participation in governance processes.</p>

This thesis will use three case studies to test the existing research on civil society and authoritarian regimes. By using concrete data from Putin’s previous decade in Russia, the post-Mubarak government’s control over transitional Egypt, and the Hun Sen regime in Cambodia, this thesis is an attempt to analyze under what conditions will authoritarian governments not only create, but enforce controls and restrictions against their NGO communities. This thesis expands O’donnell & Schmiiter’s existing theory: Government policy makers will increase restrictions when NGOs and civil society represent too strong of a threat, to include both real and perceived threats. Unfortunately, this thesis cannot conclude on the true power of NGOs, however one does not need to answer this question to examine why governments restrict them.