Civil Society: Competition of Ideas and Interests
On June 19th Charles Buxton, manager of regional programmes in Central Asia and post-Soviet countries of the International NGO Training & Research Centre — INTRAC, spoke at the HSE on ‘Civil Society at a Crossroads: View from the Development Sector’ at a seminar organized by the HSE Center for Studies of Civil Society and Nonprofit Sector (CSCSNS).
In his presentation Charles Buxton reviewed the specifics and problems of organizations working in the sphere of civil society support as part of international development programmes and spoke about his conclusions and ideas on this topic, which were discussed during the INTRAC conference in December 2011. Charles Buxton’s findings were based on his experience of working in various post-Soviet countries.
Lev Yakobson, First Vice Rector and Academic Supervisor of the HSE Center for Studies of Civil Society and Nonprofit Sector, introduced the speaker and said that Charles Buxton, a renowned expert in non-commercial and non-governmental organizations who has long worked in post-Soviet states, has been invited by the HSE to work at the Summer School on Civil Society.
Charles Buxton started by defining the most pressing problems of the civil society. According to INTRAC, the definition of civil society is the following: ‘...associations that exist outside of the state or market which maintain a degree of autonomy and independence and have the potential to provide alternative views, policies and actions to those promoted by the state and market.’ With this approach, according to Charles Buxton, civil society always acts as an innovator in the social sphere as compared with the state, and moreover, is very different from business in its initial ideas. The civil society, according to the expert, is a space for discussion, with variety of of ideas and interests.
In terms of rating certain institutions as civil society, there are two positions. The first one is exclusionary: the civil society includes only those organizations which actively support democratic processes. According to the inclusionary position, shared by INTRAC, civil society is made up of a huge scope of various associations and different groups which often come into conflict with each other. But there are many organizations which are ready for partnership with other sectors, for example, related to improving services for the most vulnerable sectors of the population.
 |
| Lev Yakobson |
The civil society assists in solving a complex of tasks in the process of social development. Particularly, it promotes economic growth through focusing on unprotected strata and providing services which the state is unable to provide. Civil society promotes democracy through supervising the government’s actions and including the population in the active political process. At the same time, Charles Buxton emphasized that socio-economic NGOs are quite different from political NGOs which promote democratization.
The discussion which took place after the presentation, focused on three topics: the role of NGOs in democratization, the role of international NGOs in civil society development, and the civil society and NGOs in Central Asia.
Lev Yakobson summed up the seminar: ‘The discussion has showed that many questions have no answers. Even 18 or 20 years ago, the situation with the civil society seemed to be clearer. Today there are more questions than answers, and this is probably because the process has turned out to be nonlinear. We have started to understand that democracy is a complex science, and NGOs are very different. But all that only means that the problems of the civil society and nonprofit sector are more interesting to study and it is unlikely that anything similar could be found in any other sphere’.
Andrey Shcherbakov, HSE News Service
Photos by Nikita Benzoruk
Ella Alexandrovna Pamfilova
See also:
Researchers Discuss How the Pandemic Is Changing Civic Activism
In October, HSE University held the 10th Conference of Civil Society Researchers, organized by the Centre for Studies of Civil Society and Nonprofit Sector. The main topic of this anniversary forum was ‘The impact of the crisis on the development of the nonprofit sector and citizen self-organization in Russia: New realities and prospects’. The conference was co-organized by the Association "European University for Volunteering" (EUV) and the United Nations Volunteers Programme (UNV), a long-time partner of the centre.
12th ISTR Conference: HSE Researchers Presented Record Number of Papers
The 12th International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) Conference took place in Stockholm and was entitled ‘The Third Sector in Transition:Accountability, Transparency, and Social Inclusion’. The conference is held biannually and is a major academic event in its field.
76%
of Russians believe that ordinary customers shouldn’t worry about product manufacturing having a negative effect on the environment, people or animals. Instead, they believe that this should be a concern for the state and businesses.
Discuss NGOs the Way We Discuss Mathematics
A conference at HSE on 11th & 12th November discussed the issue of relations between the state and non-profit organisations. In the column ‘An Academic’s View’ HSE Vice-RectorLev Jakobson considers how to approach this problem as subject matter for academic discussion.
42%
of Russians are not currently willing to pay additionally for goods that are produced in line with ethical principles (e.g., respect for the environment, respect for workers' rights, refusal to test cosmetics on animals, etc.).
Evgeny Yasin to Head Council on the Role of Civil Society and Human Rights in Economic Modernization
Evgeny Yasin, Academic Supervisor at HSE, has been named head of the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society Institutions Development and Human Rights. The decision by the Council follows an initiative by Irina Khakamada, who previously headed the council.
88%
of Russians feel responsible for what takes place in the building and surrounding yard where they live.
'Urban Movements and Local Civic Activism are the Most Flourishing and Productive Sides of Contemporary Russian Society'
Christian Frohlich has been a Research Fellow at the Centre for Studies of Civil Society and Non-Profit Sector since 2014. This year he is being fast tracked for tenure in the HSE Faculty of Social Sciences in the School of Sociology. Dr Frohlich has a DPhil in Sociology from Leipzig University, Germany. He spoke to HSE English News about his research into civic activism in Russia and about why he likes living and working in Moscow.
Evgeny Yasin joins the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights
On August 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a directive appointing HSE Academic Supervisor Evgeny Yasin to the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights. His candidacy was proposed by Council head Mikhail Fedotov.
65%
of Russians who know or who at least have heard about public, nonprofit organizations and initiatives in their city, village or settlement, learned about them through ‘word of mouth’.