Join us on Thursday, May 3, at 12:30 pm for a discussion with:

Mark Sidel, Doyle-Bascom Professor of Law and Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Consultant (Asia), International Center for Not-for-Profit Law

“China and International NGOs and Foundations:  The New Framework for Control and Regulation in Intent and Practice”

Abstract: On January 1, 2017, China introduced a new law and framework for monitoring and controlling the work of international NGOs and foundations in China under China’s main public security apparatus. This new system replaced a patchwork of measures on overseas foundations and NGOs in China. After more than a year of implementation of this new framework, some conclusions are now possible on what China intended to accomplish with this new, securitized mechanism, what is happening in practice, and what the future may hold for overseas NGOs and foundations in China.

Discussant: Yang Li, Associate Professor, School of Sociology/China Academy of Social Governance, Center for International NGOs and Foundations, Beijing Normal University, China, and Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Baruch College, CUNY.

Meets in the Sociology Thesis Room, 6112.01

The Civil Society Workshop will co-host a presentation with the European Union Studies Center on Thursday, April 26, at 12:30 pm by:

Nicholas Micinski, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, the Graduate Center, CUNY

“Civil Society and European Union Migration Management”

Abstract: This paper examines the role of civil society in European Union (EU) migration management, particularly during the recent mass influx of refugees and migrants in 2015-17. Based on 80 interviews with project coordinators and program officers in Greece and Italy, Micinski first describes how civil society quickly adapted to respond to the desperate humanitarian situation on the shores of Europe. Second, he identifies the informal coordination mechanisms like site working groups, email chains, Whatsapp chat groups, and individuals’ social capital that emerged during this time period. Micinski concludes that civil society actors played a crucial role in bridging the gaps of migration governance by improvising with new technologies and informal coordination when states and international organizations fell short.

We will meet in room 6112.01, the Sociology Thesis Room

The Civil Society Workshop will meet on Thursday, March 1, at 12:30 pm for a discussion with

Bin Chen, Associate Professor, the Center for Nonprofit Strategy and Management in the Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College, CUNY

“Determinants of the Size and Scope of Lead-Organization Networks for Social Service Delivery: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis Approach”

Abstract: This presentation first provides a brief overview of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Increasingly popular in social science research, QCA is an analytical approach and technique that examines the relationships between conditions (the counterparts of explanatory variables in regression analysis) and an outcome using set theory. This presentation highlights three major ways that distinguish QCA from the multivariate regression-based approach. First, QCA identifies configurations of conditions that contribute to the outcome rather than assuming linear and addictive effects of explanatory variables on the outcome. Second, by examining all logical combinations of conditions against empirical data, QCA enables identification of potentially multiple configurations that lead to the outcome and the absence of the outcome, thus shedding light on alternative pathways (or “recipes”). Third, QCA is best to be used for analyzing medium “N” cases (20 to 100). These three features of QCA are then especially relevant to the following study on lead-organization networks.

A network formed by a lead organization has been a popular mode of delivering publicly funded social services. In a typical lead-organization network, a public or a nonprofit organization receives a prime contract of service delivery from a government agency, partners with other service providers through subcontracting, and then form a community-based network. As a hybrid model of mandated and self-organizing networks, a question remains on how a lead-organization network model can be consequential in terms of a meaningful sharing of resources and subsequently developing and strengthening network capacity. The empirical cases included 27 community-based family preservation networks in an urban county in the West Coast of the United States. Professor Chen employed a fuzzy-set QCA to address a research question: what configurations of necessary and sufficient factors influence the consequential and lack of consequential lead-organization networks for social service delivery? The analysis identifies four configurations of factors that lead to the consequential networks and the other different four configurations of factors associated with the absence of consequential networks.

We will meet in the Sociology Department, room 6112.01

The Civil Society Workshop will meet on Thursday, February 22, at 12:30 pm for a discussion with

Sarah Tansey, Research Manager, Human Rights Funders Network

“International Funding for Human Rights: Who Are the Donors and Where Does the Money Go?“

Abstract: The Human Rights Funders Network (HRFN) is a global network of approximately 1,500 individual grantmakers committed to advancing human rights through effective philanthropy. It was founded in 1994 by a small group of philanthropists and foundation staff who wanted to share their strategies and what they were learning, discuss field-wide trends, and collaborate. In order to inform funding decisions in the field, HRFN and Foundation Center created the Advancing Human Rights: Knowledge Tools for Funders data set and research initiative. Now tracking over $12 billion and over 1000 funders, the Advancing Human Rights initiative maps the evolving state of global human rights funding through dynamic, interactive tools designed to help funders and advocates share knowledge, identify potential partners, and increase their effectiveness. This conversation will cover the full life cycle of the research, from its initial goals and methodology to its current findings to its yet-to-be-determined future, for academics as a research opportunity and as a chance to provide feedback.

We will meet in room 6112.01 at the Department of Sociology!

The Civil Society Workshop will meet on Thursday, April 12, at 12:30 pm for a discussion with

Katherine Chen, Associate Professor, Sociology, City College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

“Bounded Relationality: How Governmental, Human Service, and Advocacy Organizations Create Consumers – and Elicit Relational Work – in the Social Insurance Market”

Abstract: Using observations of US advocacy, human service, and governmental organizations’ talks on social insurance, Professor Chen shows how market exchanges are facilitated by what she calls bounded relationality.  This concept synthesizes (1) Simon’s bounded rationality, which describes how organizations ease people’s difficulties with decision-making and (2) Zelizer’s relational work, which emphasizes how social relations animate market exchanges.  The studied organizations attempted to acculturate older adults and their agents – social workers, health care workers, advocates, and caregivers – to three consumer roles in the neoliberalized market: “information-gathering and processing consumers,” “savvy information-seekers,” and “watchful monitors.”   However, discussions among audiences revealed disjunctures between these expected consumer roles and people’s actions, revealing people’s reliance upon relational work to ease complex decision-making.  Professor Chen argues that markets depend upon bounded relationality in which organizations and social relations help people make complex exchanges.

We will meet in room 6107

The Civil Society Workshop will meet on Wednesday, December 13, at 1 pm for a discussion with

Trang Kelly, PhD Candidate, Social Welfare, CUNY

“How Do Civil Society Organizations Cope with the Durability of Authoritarian Regime in Vietnam?”

Abstract: There is great need for social welfare provision in Vietnam, yet the government tries to control civil society organizations (CSOs) who have directly provided services in meeting the clients’ urgent needs. Based on the 15 in-depth interviews with the 15 senior leaders of leading social service organizations in five Vietnamese cities: Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Can Tho, this study examines the disparity in power and resources between CSOs and government agencies in providing social services for children in Vietnam. International Donors (IDs) also play a role in providing social services. Although as an external sector, IDs indirectly affect the relationship between CSOs and government agencies based on the agenda/proposal requirements. The purpose of the study is (1) to elucidate how social service providers, or CSOs improve service to children within the current service structure, and (2) to learn how CSOs manage their relationships with government entities.

We will meet in room 5401 (Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society)

The Civil Society Workshop will meet on Wednesday, November 29, at 1 pm for a discussion with

Anna Zhelnina, PhD Candidate, Sociology, CUNY

“Emotions of Inaction: Why Does Some Discontent Remain Quiet?”

Abstract:

The role of emotions in social movements and mobilization has been an important focus in recent research. However, emotional mechanisms of producing apathy and non-participation are understudied. This article explores the thinking and feeling processes involved in the production of apolitical attitudes with particular attention to their social and cultural context. I argue that cultural norms of appropriateness and emotional expression can hinder or boost the emotions involved in the mobilizing processes. I reconstruct how cultural norms of valuation and expression of emotions contribute to the production of political apathy among young Russians. Based on 60 interviews with young people in two Russian cities collected during the period of the anti-regime protests in 2011-12, the paper explores the emotional mechanisms that prevented the informed and critical people from joining or even approving of the protests.

You can access and comment the paper here

CSW group members can download the MS Word file here

We will meet in room 5401 (Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society)

The Civil Society Workshop will meet on Wednesday, November 8, at 12.30 for a discussion with

Prof. Heath Brown

“Civil Society against the State: Mobilizing to Undermine Institutions”

Abstract: Civil society is often thought of as working as a partner with government to build state institutions, even when critical of the status quo and sitting public officials. Less attention has been drawn to civil society organizations that work to undermine the state through what I call “parallel politics”. Over the last 30 years in the United States, a conservative movement based on a strongly anti-institutional ideology has sought to overturn the post World War 2 Liberal Consensus. In this paper, I focus on one part of this movement, the Homeschool Movement, which has enabled parents to educate in their homes, in the near term, but has worked in tandem with a largely conservative, libertarian, and Christian conservative project to undermine public institutions, in the long term. Homeschooling policies passed in the 1980s triggered the creation of a vast array of civil society organizations that permitted families to operate in a parallel educational system as well as to lobby for fewer and fewer government restrictions on home-based education. These organizations, many run by women, have established a powerful grassroots foundation onto which later anti-institutional movements, such as the Tea Party, were constructed.

We will meet in room 5401 (Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society)

The Civil Society Workshop will meet on Wednesday, October 25, at 1 pm for a discussion with

Wenjuan Zheng

PhD Candidate, Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center

Civil Society and Social Movements under Authoritarian Regimes: Pro-democracy Social Movements in Hong Kong and Their Unintentional, Paralyzing Effects on Chinese Civil Society

Abstract: Existing scholarship on civil society and social movements tends to agree that social movement can play a more positive role in the growth of civil society. However, most of those studies were conducted in Western settings. The optimism over social movements overlooks the complexity of current institutional environments in East Asia such as China. I argue that instead of promoting civil society, social movements, which directly challenge the legitimacy of Chinese state, could have a wider unintentional effect on civil society. Using a case study of the pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong, I examine various aspects of such unintentional, paralyzing effects of social movements on Chinese civil society. Fearing Hong Kong’s protests might spill over to Mainland China, the Beijing authority adopted multiple strategies to contain the pro-democracy movements within Hong Kong, such as reframing the protests as civil disobedience. Based on media content analysis, interviews, and ethnography of grassroots NGOs in the city of Guangzhou near Hong Kong, my study shows the state has significantly strengthened the control over Guangzhou’s nonprofit sector since 2014. Before that, Hong Kong had functioned as an offshore civil society for China for many years. However, the state now places more restrictions on NGOs, particularly those with ties to Hong Kong. The Chinese Anti-Foreign NGO law also quickly passed by the Congress in early 2016. Ironically, the law has declared Hong Kong NGOs as foreign NGOs, which considerably limits their future activities in mainland China. Using the theory of field, I found three main aspects of the state’s effect on dismantling civil society: interrupting the flow of resources, undermining the legitimacy of people and organizations, and destabilizing the ties between allies. In contrast to Habermas’ argument of the potential role of social movements as agents of revitalizing civil society, I propose social movements could unintentionally set back the development of civil society under authoritarian regimes when civil society there is emerging but fragile.

We will meet in room 5401 (Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society)