CiSoNet
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Towards a European Civil Society
(project proposal - full text p 3-10)
"Civil Society" stands for an ambitious project of restructuring society, polity and culture in a way that allows equal chances, democratic participation, individual freedom and societal self-organization under conditions of peace, limited government, social welfare and basic civility. The project of "civil society" evolved from 18th-century Enlightenment thought. While facing fundamental challenges and crises during the 19th and 20th centuries it continues to be one of the most fundamental principles for future developments in Europe and elsewhere. More narrowly, "Civil Society" is applied to describe an ensemble of non-governmental institutions and relations that tend to be non-violent, self-organizing and dynamic.
From the 18th to the 20th civil society largely emerged in local, regional and national frameworks. It is in the second half of the 20th century that in Europe the development of civil society increasingly assumed transnational dimensions. The stabilization and expansion of civil society will in all probability significantly contribute to European integration and enlargement. However, Europeanization should be seen as a long-term, non-teleological process with deep historical roots and an open future, heterogeneous and variable subject to conjunctures, interruptions and even possible reversals.
The rise of cross-border civil society - including a transnational public space - may well be as decisive for the future of European integration as new forms of transnational governance. The process of political and social mobilisation beyond and across national boundaries accelerates. Power is no longer concentrated and arranged hierarchically but dispersed across different levels of governance and dissolved into networks. Not only does this deeply effect the policy-making process and raise new legal issues, among which the ongoing constitutional process is of utmost importance. This also calls for methodological and theoretical innovation. Different disciplines have different approaches to and perspectives on civil society. The European Civil Society Network - CiSoNet - brings them together by linking important research institutions in Europe beyond and across national borders as partners.
Network Aims, Analytical Dimensions
(project proposal - full text p 11-19)
CiSoNet is meant to clarify the normative, analytical and empirical usages of the term, in order to critically refocus the mostly nation-state-centred concept of civil society, to arrive at a common understanding and at a joint agenda which tackles both key problems and short term research goals with a view to the emergence of a European-wide civil society. This research offers opportunities for clarifying the values on which the integration of Europe is or should be based and the questions of European "finalité".
CiSoNet sets out to consider the concept of "civil society" in its transnational dimension and to place it on a solid historical underpinning. CiSoNet will contribute to the exploration of the emerging European civil society as a social and political space and reflect its varying contours. It is one of the particular objectives of CiSoNet to integrate systematic and historical approaches.
CiSoNet will link the study of European societies. The need for perspectives which compare and interrelate historical and current developments in different regions of Europe becomes even more pressing now when the European Union is in the process of extension to Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe.
Networked research on the gradual evolution of a transnational European civil society and its historical roots will enrich our knowledge of the mechanisms of social power and mobilization and its impact on patterns of governance. This helps to understand and solve problems of social participation, particularly the relationship between citizens´ rights and the decisions/interventions of collective actors.
Research Issues
The empirical work of CiSoNet will home in on four fields: Languages of European civil society; resources and dynamics of European civil society; civil society, governance and the European polity; civil society and the economy. With regard to each field, comprehensive reports on the present state of research in Europe will be prepared, promising lines for new research will be identified and new research will be pursued in the form of case studies. Moreover, there will be a large conference on each of these four fields in order to bundle efforts and produce results. At the same time, all these activities are meant to prepare a "Network of Excellence" or an "Integrated Project" on European civil society, citizenship and multiple identities to be proposed under the 6th Framework Programme of the EC.
Languages of European Civil Society
(project proposal - full text p 20)
This core field aims at clarifying the definition(s) of "civil society". Main questions will be: Where and how did the term "civil society" originate, who were its initiators and advocates, how did the term spread in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, how did its usage and meanings change? CiSoNet will compare different definitions of "civil society" in different languages today and it will show how the traditional nation-state-bound concepts of civil society can be modified with a view to examine the nascent transnational civil society in Europe. Lead partner of this work package is the European University Institute (Peter Wagner).
Resources and Dynamics of European Civil Society
(project proposal - full text p 22)
This core field refers to conceptualizing the Europeanization of civil society. Main questions will be: Which kinds of individuals and groups, elites and classes have supported the project of civil society in Europe, how has the social base of civil society changed in the course of its development and transformation, what sort of support does a rising supra-national European civil society need and receive? CiSoNet will demonstrate how and to what extent an emerging civil society in Europe transcends national borders and traditional political loyalties as well as the boundaries of separate social milieus, deeply rooted ethnic cleavages and confessional bonds. It sheds light on the barriers and impediments to the Europeanization of civil society. Lead partners of this work package are the Institute of Sociology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (Pal Tamas) and the Center of Comparative History of Europe, Berlin (Arnd Bauerkämper).
Civil Society, Governance and the European Polity
(project proposal - full text p 24)
This core field covers key aspects of governance in Europe, asking how civil society in Europe has been, is and will be related to the emergence, dissemination, growing influence or decline of specific political norms, institutions and processes of government rule and social regulation on a national as well as supra-national level. Thus, CiSoNet will concentrate on multi-level governance with particular regard to its transformation in the course of European unification and the role of law, courts and constitutions. Lead partner in this work package is the Center for the Study of Democracy , University of Westminster, London ( John Keane).
Civil Society and the Economy
(project proposal - full text p 27)
This core field focuses on how and to what extent the development of a civil society in Europe has been, is and will be bound to the more and more transnational market economy, its proponents and institutions. Since civil societies cannot be clearly separated from social inequality triggered by economic activity und pertaining to inclusion or exclusion CiSoNet will prepare detailed studies of the complex and ambiguous relationship between economic/social inequality and European civil society. Lead partner of this work package is ht Analistas Socio-Políticos Research Center, Madrid (Victor Pérez-Díaz).
Apart from these core areas of research three smaller workshops and additional network meetings will address topics which cannot be studied within the initial two years work period, but will hopefully be covered more thoroughly in a future project within the 6th Framework Programme of the EC. These topics affect first the dynamic distinction between "private" and "public" that underlies the concept of "civil society", second the role of law for the emergence, development und stability of European civil society and third the cultural and identity dimensions of civil society (infra proposal p 30).
All in all, CiSoNet will be an important step towards the emergence of a European Research Area on problems of civil society and governance.