LSE/UCLA to Release Study of Influence of International Citizen and Non-Profit Advocacy Organizations; Results to be Released Feb. 11 at Aspen Institute's Book Launch for 'Global Civil Society 2003 Yearbook' 2/9/2004
From: Laurie Spivak, 310-866-3830 (cell) or spivak@sppsr.ucla.edu, Winnifred Levy, 202-736-5814, winnifred.levy@aspeninst.org, both for London School of Economics WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 -- In 2003, global civil society saw its biggest mobilization yet. In the six months between October 2002 and March 2003, there were daily demonstrations against the growing tensions in the Middle East, and on February 15, 2003 millions of people marched in more than 800 cities around the world in an effort to participate in and influence global developments. However, it was also civil society's biggest defeat. The United States and its coalition of the willing ignored these global protests and went to war. This defining event of 2003 symbolizes the condition of global civil society: millions participate through demonstrating, volunteering, communicating and giving, but the values of tolerance, respect of others and nonviolence that are associated with global civil society are still fragile, sometimes ignored, and perhaps more than ever under threat. The concept of a global civil society only achieved widespread circulation in the 1990s, at the same time global society was transformed by a communications revolution, which for the first time created a sense of community outside the nation state. Today GCS has become an important and unpredictable factor in international dialogue. It is a force inextricably linked with the process of globalization. "However, a regressive form of globalization has emerged," says Mary Kaldor, professor at the London School of Economics, "that favors globalization only if it strengthens national positions, and if it is likely to benefit key political stakeholders-and irrespective of the negative consequences for others." This perspective is challenged by the manifestation of global civil society that includes social forums, transnational networks of activists, and nongovernmental organizations. According to UCLA Professor Helmut Anheier, "they are a source of dissent and innovation, a counter-veiling force to 'big government' and 'big corporations alike'." The Global Civil Society 2003 yearbook, produced jointly by the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at London School of Economics, and the Center for Civil Society at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been described as the standard work on this topic and as being indispensable to both activists and social scientists. This remarkable Yearbook, the third of an annual publication, is the outcome of an on-going collaborative effort that involves hundreds of scholars, practitioners and activists from around the world. On Wednesday, Feb. 11, from 4:30-6:30 p.m., the UCLA Center for Civil Society, the London School of Economics Centre for the Study of Global Governance, the LSE Foundation and Centennial Fund, and Oxford University Press (OUP) will launch Global Civil Society 2003 at the Aspen Institute, One Dupont Circle, N.W., Suite 700, Washington, D.C. Speakers at the event include Alan Abramson, director of the Aspen Institute's Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program and the book's editors Professor Mary Kaldor, director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance and Helmut Anheier, director of the Center for Civil Society. The evening's discussion will be around global civil society and regressive globalism. In the opening chapter of the 2003 Yearbook, the editors ask whether global civil society can be a credible counterforce to regressive globalism. Building around this theme, the Yearbook includes chapters on the rise of regressive globalization; social forums and the anti-war movement; the global transformation of the social sciences; analyzing global inequality; trade and the anti-capitalist movement; civil society and chemical and biological weapons; the global movement to end violence against women; religious and nationalist militant groups; trans-national peasant and farmer movements and networks; the legal environment of civil society; a geographical mapping of global civil society, and a chronology of major events and developments. -- For more information about Global Civil Society 2001 go to: http://www.lse.ac.uk/depts/global/yearbook. Media may also call Oxford University Press at 800-451-7556. -- The Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program (NSPP) supports research and dialogue to improve understanding of nonprofit activities and develop creative options for addressing critical public policy and management issues affecting nonprofit organizations and philanthropy. --- The Aspen Institute is an international non-profit organization founded in 1950. Its mission is to foster enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues. Through seminars, policy programs, conferences and leadership development initiatives, the Institute and its international partners seek to promote the pursuit of common ground and deeper understanding in a nonpartisan and non-ideological setting. The Institute is headquartered in Washington, DC, and has campuses in Aspen, Colorado, and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Its international network includes partner Aspen Institutes in Berlin, Rome, Lyon and Tokyo, and leadership programs in Africa. | |