This series in openDemocracy marks the publication of the tenth edition of the Global Civil Society yearbook. For us, the tenth anniversary offers an opportunity to look back over a decade of trying to explain, interpret, conceptualise, describe and measure the phenomenon that we framed as global civil society, and to reflect critically on what we have learned as a result of the research that was undertaken to produce the yearbooks. This anniversary edition was written during 2011 in the midst of a new wave of global civil society mobilisation – the Arab Spring, the occupation of squares all over the world, and, at the same time, the rise of the xenophobic right, accompanied by numerous riots and uprisings.
The question we ask is whether our project is back on course: whether today’s generation of protestors represent the harbingers of a new emancipatory agenda, or whether the opposite is the case, that social fragmentation and polarisation from above as well as from below could usher in an even more dangerous and divided world. Or both?
This week's editor
Europe from the bottom up
European debate
Democratic Wealth
Nuclear non-proliferation
Women and the Arab Spring
oDRussia at journalismfestival .com
Mali - the plot thickens
.jpg)
Remote control war
Stay Informed
Sign-up for a free weekly email
Sign-up for a free weekly email
Advertising notice
openDemocracy on Twitter
Cities in Conflict
Window on the Middle East
openDemocracy on Facebook
Our Authors
Lis Howell On broadcasting
Dan Hancox Revel, Riot and Rebellion
Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
Vron Ware Up in Arms
Jim Gabour Sunday Comics
James Warner Standing Perpendicular, as books do
Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
Mary Kaldor on Human security
Lis Howell On broadcasting
Dan Hancox Revel, Riot and Rebellion
Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
Vron Ware Up in Arms
Jim Gabour Sunday Comics
James Warner Standing Perpendicular, as books do
Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
Mary Kaldor on Human security
To mark the launch of the Global Civil Society Yearbook 2012, the LSE is holding three free events with speakers including Mary Kaldor and others. Contact events@lse.ac.uk or call 020 7956043 about any of the below:
Beyond the Diktat (Tue 1st May, 6.30-8pm)
The Politics of Squares (Wed 2nd May 6-8pm)
Student Event: Tents or Technocrats? Successful Civil Society in the Twentieth Century (Fri 4th May, 1-3pm)
