Transnational Movements in Shrinking Spaces for Civic Society: Ideas, Resources, People

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Today, nationalist rhetoric is increasingly pitted against the concept of liberal democracy in many places across the world, diminishing the civic space where promotion of human rights and democratic values is possible (Carothers & Brechenmacher, 2014; Glasius et al., 2020). The phenomenon has received a lot of scholarly attention, exploring various ways in which authoritarian states (attempt to) regulate civil society and the various ways in which organizations respond to these repressive environments.
For instance, it has been demonstrated that governments manage access to material and symbolic resources through legal restrictions and other forms of oppression, pushing some (contentious) activists/organizations out of the legitimate political arena and bringing (loyal) others in (e.g. Bogdanova et al. 2018). Such oppression is often directed at international cooperation, cutting off exchanges of funding and ideas (Toepler et al., 2020), and labelling such cooperation as “foreign influence”. Under such conditions, organizational responses range from compliance to resistance, from negotiation to manipulation (e.g. Herrold 2016; Hsu 2010; Kravchenko et al. 2020; Moser & Skripchenko, 2018; Shieh & Deng 2011).
Despite the attention the shrinking space for civil society has received in recent scholarship, we still lack more nuanced conceptualizations of this phenomenon as regards its scope and mechanisms, in particular from transnational perspective. With this panel we aim to contribute to the ongoing discussions by exploring three conceptual dimensions that bear relevance for the broader theorization of the topic. More specifically, we will explore the shrinking space for civil society as taking place at the interface of three intersecting movements, namely those of ideas, resources and people.
Firstly, we understand movement of ideas as the diffusion of restrictive and repressive policies against civil society among different countries, and the local effects and responses to these restrictions. Ulla Pape, Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) examines success and failure of such policies in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
Secondly, we interpret movement of resources as transnational funding of civil society’s work for human rights and democracy. Zhanna Kravchenko, Noomi Weinryb (Södertörn University, Sweden) and Emil Edenborg (Stockholm University, Sweden) explore the complex relationship of accountability that emerged between civil society organizations and their funders as the oppressive regime in Russia escalated during the recent decade.
Thirdly, we conceptualize movement of people as the relocation of activists/organizations, networks outside of the authoritarian regime. Vera Syrakvash (Polish Academy of Science, Poland) explores the idea of shifting (rather than shrinking) civic space created by Belarusian civil society activists through transnational networks of solidarity.
In the panel, chaired by Annette Zimmer (Muenster University, Germany) the interpretation of the three movements will entail the above mentioned operationalizations, but we hope that future scholarship can further enhance these dimensions of civil society organizing in the face of repression.

References

Anheier, H. K., Lang, M., & Toepler, S. (2019). Civil society in times of change: shrinking, changing and expanding spaces and the need for new regulatory approaches. Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, 13(2019-8), 1–27.
Bogdanova, E., Cook, L., & Kulmala, M. (2018). The carrot or the stick? Constraints and opportunities of Russia’s CSO Policy. Europe-Asia Studies, 70(4), 501–513.
Carothers, T., & Brechenmacher, S. (2014). Closing space: Democracy and human rights support under fire. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Glasius, M., Schalk, J. and De Lange, M. (2020). Illiberal Norm Diffusion: How Do Governments Learn to Restrict Nongovernmental Organizations? International Studies Quarterly, 64 (2), 453–46.
Herrold, C. E. (2016). NGO policy in pre-and post-Mubarak Egypt: Effects on NGOs’ roles in democracy promotion. Nonprofit Policy Forum, 7(2), 189–212.
Hsu, C. (2010). Beyond civil society: An organizational perspective on state-NGO relations in the People’s Republic of China. Journal of Civil Society, 6(3), 259–277.
Kravchenko, Zhanna, Kings, Lisa & Jezierska, Katarzyna (red.) (2022). Resourceful civil society: navigating the changing landscapes of civil society organizations. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan
Moser, E., & Skripchenko, A. (2018). Russian NGOs and their struggle for legitimacy in the face of the ‘foreign agents’ law: Surviving in small ecologies. Europe-Asia Studies, 70(4), 591–614.
Shieh, S., & Deng, G. (2011). An emerging civil society: The impact of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake on grass-roots associations in China. The China Journal, 65, 181–194
Toepler, S., Zimmer, A., Fröhlich, C. & Obuch, K. (2020). The changing space for NGOs: Civil society in authoritarian and hybrid regimes, Voluntas, 31: 649–66.

Sub Unit

• Third Sector organizations and civil society under different political regimes and contexts: role and regulations

Moderator

• Annette Zimmer, Münster University

Individual Presentations

• Diffusion of Civil Society Restrictions and Local (Counter-)Action. The Cases of NGO Legislation in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan - Ulla Pape, University of Greifswald

• Accounting for Transnational Cooperation in an Authoritarian Context: Swedish Funding for Promotion of Women’s and LGBTQI+ Rights in Russia 2012-2022 - Emil Edenborg, Stockholm University; Zhanna Kravchenko, Södertörn University; Noomi Weinryb, Södertörn University

• Rethinking the Shift in the Civic Space in Belarus from the Feminist Perspective - Vera Syrakvash