Knowledge & Change Spotlight: Unusual Suspects

Civil Society: Old issues, New Actors and Unusual Suspects

Tags: Africa , Latin America , Worldwide , Civil Society Building , Civil Society in West Asia
Additional tags: Civil society building trends and issues

The 'spotlight' session series provides a daily preview of key events of our upcoming Knowledge Dialogue. Today, we highlight a discussion session on civil society trends, new actors and unusual suspects - co-hosted by the Hivos/ISS Civil Society Building knowledge programme and the Hivos/UvA 'Civil Society in West Asia' programme.

In the area of civil society building, there is an increased tendency to focus on civil society beyond NGOs and also beyond the traditional ‘associational ecosystem’. The panorama of relevant social actors is shifting rather quickly and the relevance seems to shift beyond “organizations” towards more citizen’s-centered activism. We also see a transition from a more actor-based view of civil society building towards a more identity-based view, which offers new opportunities but also is a source of uncertainty for many ‘traditional’ civil society actors. Which tendencies have been spotted by the “Civil Society Building” programme in Latin America and Africa and the “Civil Society in West Asia” programme. (view the latest publications of the Hivos Knowledge Programmes here). What are the implications and how should we deal with these from different perspectives?

The session will be chaired by Steven Heydemann from the US Institute of Peace and Ria Brouwers from ISS. She is the co-chair of the Civil Society Building Knowledge programme. Panelists will include Juan Tiney from the Guatemalan organization CONIC, Marlies Glacius from the University of Amsterdam, Salam Kawakibi from the Arab Reform Initiative and Zaheera Jinnah from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. The panel will reflect on key issues and questions and discuss these with the audience

Time: Thursday 30 September, 11.15-12.45. To participate in the Knowledge Dialogue, you can register here