300298 Global Civil Society and NGOs (BS) (SoSe 2012)

Classical sociology has conventionally been examined within the framework of the nation-state. Today we have to think globally but we also consider the boundaries of the state and the market. The first step is to trace civil society space governed by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), activists, networks, missionaries and movements which can transcend national and capitalist boundaries.

How shall we depict a potential global civil sociology? Today the new stage of globalisation impairs national boundaries by way of financial crises, the environmental crisis, human security, humanitarian actions and human trafficking. In reply to these issues, civil society forms new kinds of organizational entities as NGOs. Therefore, this seminar is based on the concept of civil society and the roles of NGOs in relation to the local/territorial borders/boundaries and globalisation. We firstly revise the history evaluation of the definitions of civil society and the debates on the existence/non-existence of global civil society. The second part of the seminars explores global social movements and their moral dilemmas beyond Western-centred understanding of civil society. We try to understand how civil society penetrates into global governance in relation to classical sovereignty, international institutions and the globalisation of capital market. The third part of the course looks at the relationship between civil society and the institutions from democracy to the human rights. We try to understand the preconditions for empowerment of civil society and reasons for dilemmas of global social movements in different institutional areas as development and humanitarianism so as to trace.

Bibliography

Edwards, Micheal, Civil society, 2. Edition, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2009

Kaldor, Mary, Martin Albrow, Helmut Anheier & Marlies Glasius, (eds.), Global civil society 2006/7, Sage Publications, London, 2007

Anheier, Helmut K., Nonprofit organizations theory, management and policy, Routledge, London & New York, 2005

John Keane, Global civil society? Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003

A more detailed reading list will be published according to specific interests of every individual session.