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Networks in Opposition: Linking Organizations through Activists in the Polish People's Republic

Maryjane Osa

in Social Movements and Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action

Explores changes in the informal networks of overlapping memberships between opposition organizations in Poland between the 1960s and the 1980s. When civic organizations are subject to severe ... More

Explores changes in the informal networks of overlapping memberships between opposition organizations in Poland between the 1960s and the 1980s. When civic organizations are subject to severe constraints, as in Communist regimes, informal networks are particularly important as alternative sources of resources. There, networks not only operate as micro‐mobilization contexts but also provide the basic infrastructure for civil society. The chapter explicitly takes the time dimension into account, using individual affiliations to chart the evolution of networks over time, and offering an accurate reconstruction of changes in the Polish political system and the emergence of a strong democratization movement.Less

Civic Organizations in the New Media Environment

Chris Wells

in The Civic Organization and the Digital Citizen: Communicating Engagement in a Networked Age

This chapter examines the role that civic organizations have historically played, and continue to play, in American civic engagement. It especially recasts an element of that role that is usually ... More

This chapter examines the role that civic organizations have historically played, and continue to play, in American civic engagement. It especially recasts an element of that role that is usually underappreciated, but may be now coming to the fore: organizations’ capacity as providers of civic information, now buttressed by their work in digital and social media. It shows how citizen members of the early modern society both interacted with organizational communications and often had the opportunity to communicate in various forms that enabled them to define their own membership and influence the meanings and directions of the group. By the late twentieth century, however, this set of communicative practices had largely disappeared, replaced by the centralization of many organizations and increasingly strategic relations with publics. Thus even as the kernels of the actualizing information style were emerging, organizations’ information processes were going in the opposite direction.Less

Civic Traditions in Premodern Italy

Jeff Mielke

in Living on the Edge in Leonardo's Florence: Selected Essays

Robert Putnam in his fifth chapter of Making Democracy Work argued that the origins of civic society in modern Italy can be traced back to the age of communes in the northern and central regions. ... More

Robert Putnam in his fifth chapter of Making Democracy Work argued that the origins of civic society in modern Italy can be traced back to the age of communes in the northern and central regions. These republican regimes were characterised by a high degree of cooperation and collaboration among their members. They were marked by an atmosphere of mutual trust which was crucial for the survival and the achievement of common goals and an egalitarian ethos based upon horizontal social bonds. These regimes also paved the way for other civic organizations. This chapter discusses the civic traditions of premodern Italy. It focuses on the civic organizations and voluntary associations that emerged in pre-Revolutionary Italy. These organizations did not have political agendas nor any significant influence on princes and their administrators. They were only built due to their determination to maintain traditional privileges. It was only in the revolutionary era that Italy underwent a radical overhaul in its political and socioeconomic structures. It was only in this period that tentative efforts were made for the establishment of a civil society. This process was painfully slow and halting in a country whose citizens viewed the state as a “hostile presence because of its identification of the land owners, the tax-collectors, and the carabiniere and because of the paucity of intermediary strata attached to the values of the state”. Even though the associations formed before and after the unification aided in the emergence of a civil society, the assumption of “any simple correlation among voluntary associations, civil society, and liberal democracy is hardly warranted”.Less

Conclusion: The Civic Politics of Risk

Thomas D. Beamish

in Community at Risk: Biodefense and the Collective Search for Security

The Conclusion provides a synoptic comparative account of the book’s findings, arguments, and conclusions. The focus is what an analysis of local civics politics lends to an understanding of risk ... More

The Conclusion provides a synoptic comparative account of the book’s findings, arguments, and conclusions. The focus is what an analysis of local civics politics lends to an understanding of risk disputes. Importantly, the Conclusion, in focusing on the civic politics of risk, shows that common political rhetoric(s) such as claims to democracy, due process, progress, and justice can mean very different things in different civic contexts that hold considerable consequence for understanding what is and is not an acceptable risk. The same terms can mean very different things given social, historical, and material legacies and the civics and discourse that locally predominate. The Conclusion also reiterates the contribution that Community at Risk makes to an impressive stock of knowledge concerning risk management, perception, and dispute, as well as civic politics, organization, and community studies. The Conclusion’s intervention is, however, equal parts new findings and synthesis.Less

Conclusion: Communicating Civic Life to Digital Citizens

Chris Wells

in The Civic Organization and the Digital Citizen: Communicating Engagement in a Networked Age

The book’s final chapter builds on its empirical findings to ask: how do we reconcile a civic-political system fundamentally rooted in institutional bureaucracy with a society whose citizens ... More

The book’s final chapter builds on its empirical findings to ask: how do we reconcile a civic-political system fundamentally rooted in institutional bureaucracy with a society whose citizens increasingly display the characteristics and preferences of networked individualism? Many recent accounts have tended to valorize apparently spontaneous, “leaderless” movements without always accounting for the important aspect of organizing performed by organizations; this leads to the further question of how young citizens can both be inspired by autonomous engagement opportunities but also take part of those opportunities alongside organizational structures that can offer inputs into the political decision-making process. The chapter also describes the book’s contribution to several literatures, and especially its development of the communication dynamics in contemporary engagement.Less

Introduction: Islam in Europe

Jytte Klausen

in The Islamic Challenge: Politics and Religion in Western Europe

The voices in this book belong to parliamentarians, city councilors, doctors and engineers, a few professors, lawyers and social workers, owners of small businesses, translators, and community ... More

The voices in this book belong to parliamentarians, city councilors, doctors and engineers, a few professors, lawyers and social workers, owners of small businesses, translators, and community activists. They are also all Muslims who have decided to become engaged in political and civic organisations or Europe's new Muslim political elite. It is for this reason that they are always in a situation where they have to constantly explain themselves, mostly in order to say who they are not. They are not fundamentalists, not terrorists, and they mostly do not support the introduction of Islamic religious law in Europe, especially the application or even introduction of such to Christians. This book is about who these people are and what they want.Less

Nonprofit Organizations as Immigrant Rights Advocates

Els de Graauw

in Making Immigrant Rights Real: Nonprofits and the Politics of Integration in San Francisco

This chapter studies nonprofit organizations as contemporary agents of the movement for immigrant rights and immigrant integration. Through cross-historical and cross-organizational comparisons with ... More

This chapter studies nonprofit organizations as contemporary agents of the movement for immigrant rights and immigrant integration. Through cross-historical and cross-organizational comparisons with political parties, labor unions, and churches, the chapter draws on how the activism of immigrant-serving nonprofits can be distinguished from that of other types of civic organizations. Contemporary immigrant-serving nonprofits are set apart by the lack of political and financial resources with which they can influence the political process. These constraints, however, do not necessarily prevent immigrant-serving nonprofits from taking an active role in local political affairs. The chapter shows that these nonprofits' expertise on immigrant communities is their most valuable resource, and that city administrative officials are their most common advocacy targets and collaborators.Less

How Do Civic Organizations Mobilize?

in Citizen Speak: The Democratic Imagination in American Life

To begin the search for the democratic imagination, we need to think strategically. Where should we look for citizens who, though they appear to be similar, think and behave differently from one ... More

To begin the search for the democratic imagination, we need to think strategically. Where should we look for citizens who, though they appear to be similar, think and behave differently from one another when it comes to politics? Where, that is, can we find a diverse collection of democratic imaginations to examine and catalog? To assemble groups for political discussions—the central method behind this book—we need some clues about where to find them. This chapter takes stock of what we know about the settings for democratic discourse before we set out in search of the democratic imagination. It offers support for earlier studies suggesting that individual-level education and income are strong predictors of political participation. Involvement in nonpolitical civic organizations, too, makes people more likely to participate in political activity—particularly the active citizenship represented by the measure of difficult political participation.Less

What Makes Women the “Silent Sex” When Their Status Is Low?

Christopher F. Karpowitz and Tali Mendelberg

in The Silent Sex: Gender, Deliberation, and Institutions

This chapter explores how women are the “silent sex,” in a manner of speaking. In the settings that characterize most arenas of politics and public affairs, and in many other formal discussions that ... More

This chapter explores how women are the “silent sex,” in a manner of speaking. In the settings that characterize most arenas of politics and public affairs, and in many other formal discussions that take place in civic organizations, work teams, and other common venues, women are not a majority, and the norm of interaction has masculine characteristics. Numbers and norms of interaction combine to deter women from fully expressing their thoughts. The chapter looks for clues to explain why women overcome the difficulties when they are placed in other circumstances. The evidence presented points toward several aspects of gender as culprits. Most importantly, confidence has much to do with women's relative quiescence.Less

Conceptual Footings of Risk and Governance

Thomas D. Beamish

in Community at Risk: Biodefense and the Collective Search for Security

Chapter 1 explains the theoretical backdrop and analytical framework that organize the book’s analysis. The chapter begins by outlining contemporary conditions in risk society where societal ... More

Chapter 1 explains the theoretical backdrop and analytical framework that organize the book’s analysis. The chapter begins by outlining contemporary conditions in risk society where societal relations among civil society, government, and industry have been transformed in the twenty-first-century United States. In this context, risk and its management at the individual, local, and national levels have become the predominant concerns and bases for “risk dispute.” Chapter 1 also describes how previous scholarship has theorized risk management and risk perception, as well as civic and community engagement and risk dispute. The chapter ends with how Community at Risk contributes to this and related areas of research.Less

Power and Great Culture

Melina Pappademos

in Black Political Activism and the Cuban Republic

This chapter shows how black leaders and civic activists advanced the idea that refinement, patriarchy, and bourgeois respectability should be the basis of Cuban leadership, irrespective of a ... More

This chapter shows how black leaders and civic activists advanced the idea that refinement, patriarchy, and bourgeois respectability should be the basis of Cuban leadership, irrespective of a leader's race. Black civic organizations promoted this ideology and enabled black leaders' public performance of the cultural practices that reinforced their political authority. Dr. Miguel Angel Cespedes, a politician and board member of Union Fraternal, one of the largest black civic organizations in Cuba—and brother of Emilio Cespedes Casado—advocated for the use of education to modernize and uplift aspiring blacks. In November 1914, he proposed to use the club's salons to create a “Popular University,” “in the French tradition [of learned institutions] that today are founded in all nations of great culture.”Less

Combining Services and Organizing: Functional Organizing

Kim Bobo and Marién Casillas Pabellón

in The Worker Center Handbook: A Practical Guide for Starting and Building the New Labor Movement

This chapter explains how worker centers can combine social services and organizing using a model called “functional organizing.” As most worker centers grow and develop, their members want a variety ... More

This chapter explains how worker centers can combine social services and organizing using a model called “functional organizing.” As most worker centers grow and develop, their members want a variety of services and programs. Worker-leaders will often plan programs to meet their needs, while directors looking for funding for growing and building the centers have an easier time finding social service program funds than general support or organizing funds. As a result, many centers have a complex mix of social services and organizing. This chapter looks at Peter Murray’s article, “The Secret of Scale,” in which he discusses the core components of growing large-scale civic organizations and offers suggestions for organizations that want to launch a functional organizing model. It also considers the challenges faced by worker center members and how the organization might create programs to address them and monetize some of the solutions.Less

Jurisdictional disputes

Sally Mayall Brasher

in Hospitals and Charity: Religious Culture and Civic Life in Medieval Northern Italy

Chapter five examines the process of greater secularization in the management of the facilities and attempts by the church officials to reassert control and authority over these groups in the late ... More

Chapter five examines the process of greater secularization in the management of the facilities and attempts by the church officials to reassert control and authority over these groups in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. The endemic conflict between and within cities, and with the institutional church and imperial powers, resulted in a politicization of all civic organizations, but in particular of the administration of the hospital. Institutional mismanagement and even corruption resulted as the pious impulse was politicized. Efforts by the ecclesiastical authorities to combat this degeneration were frustrated by their own inability keep a clean house. At the same time, civic authorities who, increasingly needed the social services offered by the hospital and hoped to profit from the income of the facilities, worked to appropriate control and authority over the institutions.Less

Educating Efficient Citizens in Oakland, California

David A. Gamson

in The Importance of Being Urban: Designing the Progressive School District, 1890-1940

Chapter 3 traces the evolution of the modern city school system as enacted by leaders in Oakland, California. Despite their reputation as quintessential “administrative progressives,” due to their ... More

Chapter 3 traces the evolution of the modern city school system as enacted by leaders in Oakland, California. Despite their reputation as quintessential “administrative progressives,” due to their swift adoption of efficiency-oriented practices after World War I, some Oakland leaders dedicated energy to implementing a series of broad pedagogical initiatives that contravene standard narratives portraying administrators as unimaginative central office bureaucrats. Indeed, teachers implemented remarkably creative instructional practices, some designed to engage students in problem-solving, others implemented to help struggling students return to grade level. The chapter devotes special attention to Superintendent Fred Hunter (1917–28), an aggressive, nationally prominent innovator who asserted that he was “democratizing” his schools and providing equal educational opportunities to meet the needs of all students. In practice, the application of such opportunities meant working with Lewis Terman’s protégé, Virgil Dickson, to spread IQ testing throughout the district while designing curricula to match ability levels, backgrounds, and prospective futures. Hunter’s ascent was facilitated by the local business community, and his tenure paralleled periods of local labor strife, ethnic and racial tensions, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, all of which serve to illustrate the close connections between civic organizations and school politics.Less

Better Cities, Better Citizens: The Political Function of Planning

Timothy Hyde

in Constitutional Modernism: Architecture and Civil Society in Cuba, 1933-1959

This chapter focuses on the political aspect of national planning. It provides an overview of the Patronato Pro-Urbanismo (Pro-Urban Association), a new civic organization. The Patronato initiated an ... More

This chapter focuses on the political aspect of national planning. It provides an overview of the Patronato Pro-Urbanismo (Pro-Urban Association), a new civic organization. The Patronato initiated an appeal for a synthetic program of planning to be instituted under the authority of a national planning law. The group’s manifesto pointed out that nine of the articles of the new constitution either required or presupposed regulatory activities commensurate with the concept of planning. Through professionally diverse and influential membership, the Patronato conducted a systematic publicity campaign in support of national planning, a campaign that explicitly linked planning to civic reform. The Patronato’s prospectus aims to encourage patriotism and to produce, as a correlate to planning, a civic consciousness.Less

Rules and Regulations for Other Secular Organizations and Activities; the Shenzhen Experiments

Karla W. Simon

in Civil Society in China: The Legal Framework from Ancient Times to the "New Reform Era"

This chapter examines the various rules and regulations developed either at the national level or in some localities. These include the local volunteer regulations adopted in various cities beginning ... More

This chapter examines the various rules and regulations developed either at the national level or in some localities. These include the local volunteer regulations adopted in various cities beginning with Guangdong, in 2008 in advance of the Beijing Olympics, and in other cities as well; testing of a documentation system for Community Civic Organizations (CCOs) in various cities and counties beginning in 2002; the 2004 accounting regulations for civil society organizations (CSOs); the attempt to write a charity law, which commenced in 2005; the local experiments with single level registration processes (the agreement signed, for example, with Shenzhen in 2007); and the 2010 Yunnan regulations on foreign organizations.Less