Contemporary Issues in
Global Civil Society Research
Brenda Gainer
York University, Toronto
and
International Society for Third Sector Research
International Society for
Third Sector Research (ISTR)
• Founded in 1992 as an organization
committed to
• establishing a global community of
scholars and institutions
• dedicated to the Third Sector as a visible,
valued and respected field of study and
application
• that contributes to international
development and human well-being.
How do we do this?
• We promote high quality research
• We enhance the dissemination and
applications of knowledge globally
• Conferences (next international in
Istanbul, July 2010)
• Voluntas, a top-ranked international
journal and working paper series
Global and Regional Research
• Global research infrastructure continues to be
concentrated in western and northern countries
(journals, publishers, academic centres and
graduate degree programs)
• ISTR and Voluntas founded to develop crossnational and global research on civil society
• Also a need for focused research agendas that
reflect the particular preoccupations of specific
regional contexts
• ISTR regional networks and conferences in Latin
America, Africa and Asia
Research Streams
1. Theorizing civil society
2. Practice
3. Social innovation
1. Theory:
Definitions and Descriptions
• American theory (70s and 80s): non-distribution
constraint, public goods, contract failure
• Followed by a period of definitions of structure and
organization (Salamon and Anheier 1992)
• Salamon and Anheier (1998) started to study the sector
in cross-national terms (“social origins” theory)
• Current: focus on other ways of defining the “nonprofit”
sector in specific regions–for example, social economy in
continental and especially Catholic Europe….solidarity
economy in Latin America, or non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) in the Global South
2. Theory:
Boundary Issues
• 1990s/2000s saw explosion of research on
“boundaries”—specifically changing
relationships between civil society and the state
• Shift to study of changing relationships between
civil society and corporations: CSR,
partnerships, etc (loss of independence and
control; erosion of role and responsibilities for
advocacy, “downgrade” to service provision)
3. Theory:
Role and Responsibilities
• Early research: Failure of the market to provide
collective goods and failure of the government to provide
for minorities led to development of nonprofit
organizations to provide both of these
• Current: CSOs as a source of “social capital”
(contributes to trust and stability--Putnam) or
mobilization (contributes to social change--Edwards)
4. Global Governance and Citizenship
• Current: post-national global civil society movements,
new systems of global governance, global issues and
policy debates
1. Practice:
Management and Governance
• Largest category in terms of papers and articles
submitted by academics and practitioners around the
world
• Reflects preoccupation with the “accountability” agenda
and with resource dependency
• Social accounting small but hot—may grow or die
• Governance research moving from an internal
perspective to larger external concerns about inclusion,
participation, representation, appropriation, etc.
• Evaluation also responds to accountability to funders but
increasingly research is being conducted on sector-wide
“impact” studies
2. Practice:
The New Philanthropy Agenda
• One of the largest categories within the
management literature (fundraising)
• Behavioural research growing
• Critical studies are growing
• Social and cultural research agendas are
growing with respect to current issues
(diaspora, religio-politics, civic
participation…)
3. Practice:
Corporate Social Responsibility
• Outgrowth of corporate philanthropy, buyerseller approach to civil society and the postReagan/Thatcher ideology of privatization
• Research polarized between boosters and critics
• The new “partnerships” are the subject of a
great deal of this research
• Also considered in terms of its contribution to the
corporation’s role in global governance systems
Social Innovation:
Is this “civil society?”
•
New trend to looking at ‘social value creation’ as the focus of research
Current trends:
• Focus on systems, processes and outcomes related to social value as
opposed to specific organizational form that defines civil society
•
Social economy (traditionally seen as a specific “regional” variation of the
dominant theoretical model) coming to be viewed as a more appropriate
frame for research as it is based on a conceptualization of sector
convergence and shared values as opposed to a narrower set of structuraloperational features
•
New emergent forms: social enterprises (privately owned, for-profit), hybrid
organizations, mutually-governed inter-sectoral partnerships, horizontal
networks (Aids in Brazil), complexity theory (Dart, Zimmerman)
Summary: 2 Shifts
• Shift to “post-empirical” theory (Taylor
2010) as researchers adopt a normative
approach to social change and social
justice
• Shifting from “multi-national comparison”
to “trans-national collaboration” in terms of
setting the agenda for international and
regional research