Call for Papers

In recent decades, civil society organizations have notably shifted to both local communities – in neighborhoods, cities, and regions – and the global scale – through supranational umbrella organizations, INGOs, and transnational social movements. On one hand, in the light of public health or climate-related turmoils, local initiatives in which citizens act directly upon their urban environment have attracted renewed attention. This became a focus of research on resilience (Klinenberg, 2018), Grand Challenges (Montgomery & Dacin, 2020; Brandtner, 2022) and social movements (Bringel & McKenna, 2020; Domaradzka & Hamel forthcoming). On the other, the numbers of transnationally or even globally oriented CSOs have been growing exponentially, giving a transnational dimension to civil society (Meyer et al., 1997; Bromley, 2020, Brass et al., 2018). However, both the local and global organizations recognize the importance of places and communities as a context of social control, connection, and mobilization.
 
Uneven socio-economic and demographic developments and related shifts in the distribution of power fuels interest in these “new geographies” (Massey, 2008). As scholars of civil society, we see the need to look more closely at the interplay of spatial and organizational dimension and its potential impact on the wider civic sphere. We therefore ask how the interplay between spaces and places shapes how we organize activities and ideals of civic action. And vice-versa: how are these spaces and places shaped by the organization of activities and ideals?
 
The localization of civil society around the world raises several intriguing issues from the point of view of organization theory, CSOs, space, and territoriality, with a particular emphasis on local organizing and global communities. Despite the ongoing development of digital platforms, civil society organizations are inherently tied to the communities in which they organize (see Brandtner & Powell, 2022 and the related Global Perspectives special collection). These communities are often the source of accountability, donations, and volunteers; they are recruiting grounds and often define the issues, causes, and service demands that drive CSOs (Vermeulen, Minkoff, & van der Meer, 2014; Diani, 2015). Unsurprisingly, the strategic behaviors of and institutional pressures on CSOs are, like for other organizations, often a direct result of their embeddedness in spaces and communities (Marquis & Battiliana, 2009).
 
We are interested in analyzing both local and global interaction and cooperation within civil society as an arena of complex institutional and organizational processes. The nature and meaning of the relationship between locally focused organizations and global/state/local institutions should be further disputed in the context of contemporary societal challenges, including the ongoing refugee crises or health and climate-related emergencies. Indeed, many studies of urban mobilization and citizen or community initiatives testify that they risk being reappropriated or even co-opted by public agencies (Douglas, 2020; Black & Richards, 2020). At the same time, communities can be seen as ‘spaces of resistance’ contributing to reinventing the relationship among residents and proposing alternative forms of organizing and distributing power (Bach & McClintock, 2020; Tornaghi & Certom, 2019). Thus calling for a need to investigate the dynamics and mechanisms of local and transnational organizing, navigating institutional and community-driven pressure in this sphere from an organizational perspective (Drori, Höllerer, & Walgenbach, 2014).
 
Yet, despite the shifting loci of organization, our prevailing understandings of civil society are still rooted in contrast to national governments and markets. The focus on the spaces and places of organizing invites new theoretical perspectives, as most foundational theories of civil society are anchored on the study of national differences. Here, we encourage focus on communities (both local and global) rather than nations, on grassroots connections that form new constituencies, where the space-based ideas (like ‘right to the city’) define the organizations’ practices.
 
We invite scholars to address a broad range of theoretical, empirical, and methodological aspects of organizing within and through civil societies’ spaces and places. The issues we are interested in include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In what ways are CSOs embedded in relationships, competition, and collaboration within local and global communities? How are place-based and epistemic translocal communities created and sustained through civil society organizations?

• How have global influences and moral entrepreneurs shaped local organizing and narratives of community around the world? What drives and alters the globalization and glocalization of mobilization frames as well as models of organizing in civil society?

• What can we learn in this context about homogeneity and heterogeneity among CSOs in particular and organizations in general through the lens of international comparison? What new understandings of civil society organizations and their institutional context do such comparisons afford us?

• What are the causes, dynamics, and consequences of cross-sector collaborations between CSOs and urban planners, local administrations, neighborhood associations, and other space-based organizations in the public and private realm? Can we observe ‘glocalization’ of CSOs activities as a reaction to globalization?

• Which specific organizing forms can be found among grassroots’ movements, neighborhood initiatives and other community groups, and how do these forms of organizing shape (perceptions of) communities and neighborhoods?

• How do the internet and digital platforms influence civil society actors’ connectedness with local interests, needs and political opportunities?

The sub-theme is designed to draw the interest of scholars working on the local (grassroots, urban, neighborhood-level, etc.) and the transnational dimension of civil society organizing, as well as the connections in between. We are open to work of any methodological or theoretical tradition, but are particularly interested in research that creatively spans local and translocal levels of analysis.
 

References

• Bach, C.E., & McClintock, N. (2021): “Reclaiming the city one plot at a time? DIY garden projects, radical democracy, and the politics of spatial appropriation.” Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 39 (5), 859–878.
• Black, K.J., & Richards, M. (2020): “Eco-gentrification and who benefits from urban green amenities: NYC’s High Line.” Landscape and Urban Planning, 204, 103900.
• Brandtner, C. (2022): “Green American City: Civic Capacity and the Distributed Adoption of Urban Innovations.” American Journal of Sociology, 128 (3).
• Brandtner, C., & Dunning, C. (2020): “Nonprofits as urban infrastructure.” In: W.W. Powell & P. Bromley (eds.): The Nonprofit Sector. A Research Handbook. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 271–291.
• Brandtner, C., & Powell, W.W. (2022): “Capturing the Civic Lives of Cities: An Organizational, Place-Based Perspective on Civil Society in Global Cities.” Global Perspectives, 3 (1), 627–679.
• Brass, J.N., Longhofer, W., Robinson, R.S., & Schnable, A. (2018): “NGOs and international development: A review of thirty-five years of scholarship.” World Development, 112, December, 136–149.
• Bringel, B., & McKenna, E. (2020): “Social movements in a global context: History, content, and form.” In: W.W. Powell & P. Bromley (eds.): The Nonprofit Sector. A Research Handbook. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 631–647.
• Diani, M. (2015): The Cement of Civil Society. Studying Networks in Localities. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Domaradzka, A. (2018): “Urban social movements and the right to the city: An introduction to the special issue on urban mobilization.” Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 29 (4), 607–620.
• Domaradzka, A., & Hamel, P. (forthcoming): Handbook of Urban Social Movements. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Douglas, G.C.C. (2018): The Help-Yourself City: Legitimacy and Inequality in DIY Urbanism. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
• Drori, G.S., Höllerer, M.A., & Walgenbach, P. (2014): “Unpacking the glocalization of organization: From term, to theory, to analysis.” European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 1 (1), 85–99.
• Marquis, C., & Battilana, J. (2009): “Acting globally but thinking locally? The enduring influence of local communities on organizations.” Research in Organizational Behavior, 29, 283–302.
• Massey, D.S. (ed.) (2008): New Faces in New Places: The Changing Geography of American Immigration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
• Mayer, M. (2003): “The onward sweep of social capital: causes and consequences for understanding cities, communities and urban movements.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 27 (1), 110–132.
• Meyer, J.W., Boli, J., Thomas, G.M., & Ramirez, F.O. (1997): “World society and the nation-state.” American Journal of Sociology, 103 (1), 144–181.
• Montgomery, A.W., & Dacin, M.T. (2020): “Water wars in Detroit: Custodianship and the work of institutional renewal.” Academy of Management Journal, 63 (5), 1455–1484.
• Tornaghi, C., & Certomà, C. (eds.) (2019): Urban Gardening as Politics. London: Routledge.
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