The Power and Limits of NGOs

The Power and Limits of NGOs
Author: Sarah Elizabeth Mendelson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780231124904

This text assesses the impact of non-governmental organizations' efforts to build democratic institutions in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Case studies provide a portrait of the mechanisms by which ideas commonly associated with democratic states have evolved in formerly communist states.

The Power and Limits of NGOs

The Power and Limits of NGOs
Author: Sarah Elizabeth Mendelson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231124910

This text assesses the impact of non-governmental organizations' efforts to build democratic institutions in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Case studies provide a portrait of the mechanisms by which ideas commonly associated with democratic states have evolved in formerly communist states.

NGOs as Newsmakers

NGOs as Newsmakers
Author: Matthew Powers
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0231545754

As traditional news outlets’ international coverage has waned, several prominent nongovernmental organizations have taken on a growing number of seemingly journalistic functions. Groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Médecins Sans Frontières send reporters to gather information and provide analysis and assign photographers and videographers to boost the visibility of their work. Digital technologies and social media have increased the potential for NGOs to communicate directly with the public, bypassing traditional gatekeepers. But have these efforts changed and expanded traditional news practices and coverage—and are there consequences to blurring the lines between reporting and advocacy? In NGOs as Newsmakers, Matthew Powers analyzes the growing role NGOs play in shaping—and sometimes directly producing—international news. Drawing on interviews, observations, and content analysis, he charts the dramatic growth in NGO news-making efforts, examines whether these efforts increase the organizations' chances of garnering news coverage, and analyzes the effects of digital technologies on publicity strategies. Although the contemporary media environment offers NGOs greater opportunities to shape the news, Powers finds, it also subjects them to news-media norms. While advocacy groups can and do provide coverage of otherwise ignored places and topics, they are still dependent on traditional media and political elites and influenced by the expectations of donors, officials, journalists, and NGOs themselves. Through an unprecedented glimpse into NGOs’ newsmaking efforts, Powers portrays the possibilities and limits of NGOs as newsmakers amid the transformations of international news, with important implications for the intersections of journalism and advocacy.

Of Limits and Growth

Of Limits and Growth
Author: Stephen Macekura
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2015-07-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107072611

Of Limits and Growth offers new perspectives on environmentalism, post-1945 international history, and the origins of sustainability.

Global Governance and NGO Participation

Global Governance and NGO Participation
Author: Charlotte Dany
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2013
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0415531365

This book assesses the structural power mechanisms that shape global ICT governance and analyses the impact of NGOs on communication rights, intellectual property rights, financing, and Internet governance.

Can NGOs Make a Difference?

Can NGOs Make a Difference?
Author: Anthony J. Bebbington
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
Total Pages: 510
Release: 2013-04-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1848136218

Can non-governmental organisations contribute to more socially just, alternative forms of development? Or are they destined to work at the margins of dominant development models determined by others? Addressing this question, this book brings together leading international voices from academia, NGOs and the social movements. It provides a comprehensive update to the NGO literature and a range of critical new directions to thinking and acting around the challenge of development alternatives. The book's originality comes from the wide-range of new case-study material it presents, the conceptual approaches it offers for thinking about development alternatives, and the practical suggestions for NGOs. At the heart of this book is the argument that NGOs can and must re-engage with the project of seeking alternative development futures for the world's poorest and more marginal. This will require clearer analysis of the contemporary problems of uneven development, and a clear understanding of the types of alliances NGOs need to construct with other actors in civil society if they are to mount a credible challenge to disempowering processes of economic, social and political development.

Beyond NGO-ization

Beyond NGO-ization
Author: Kerstin Jacobsson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2016-04-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317174615

The celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall provoked a debate on the outcomes of the transition process in the post-communist countries, including a debate on the functioning of civil society. This provided a good opportunity for researchers to collect new data and revise the discourse on collective action and the dynamics of civil society in these countries. Jacobsson and Saxonberg's collection of essays looks at social movements, and their forms of mobilization and organization, as well as action repertoires in relation to the social context, and their success or failure. The book meets an important need in the discourse on post-communist social movements by going beyond the usual discourse about the weak and non-participatory civil society in the post-communist context. This book gives a nuanced and updated view of social movements in post-communist Europe, by looking at the cases of relatively successful mobilization, by examining groups that have often been neglected in the discourse on social movements and civil society (including animal-rights groups, racist movements and non-feminist family organizations), and by giving a deeper analysis of the different strategies that civil society organizations and groups can use. Rather than expecting social movements in post-communist Europe to follow the same patterns and operate in the same fashion as in Western Europe, this volume shows that a wider view of contentious action is needed in order to understand the variety of strategies employed by collective actors operating in this context.

Funding Civil Society

Funding Civil Society
Author: Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2006
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780804754439

This book investigates the impact of Western democracy assistance programs on the development of Russian women's and soldiers' rights NGOs in Russia. It argues that the normative content of assistance programs as well as the character of regional political environments fundamentally shape the influence of such programs.

NGOs, Civil Society, and the Public Sphere

NGOs, Civil Society, and the Public Sphere
Author: Sabine Lang
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2013
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1107024994

This book investigates how nongovernmental organizations can become stronger advocates for citizens and better representatives of their interests. Sabine Lang analyzes the choices that NGOs face in their work for policy change between working in institutional settings and practicing public advocacy that incorporates constituents' voices.