Worldcafe - How to build a European Civil Society Research Network?

Session Submission Type: Innovative content or format

Abstract

While North America Civil Society Research is well connected and monitored – metanalyses from Bernard Enjolras show that most Journals and Research article about civil society research is centralized in the North American context - research on European civil society is still lacking a sufficient platform and network.
A main obstacle to this can be seen in the language barrier that is posed by the more than 24 languages that are currently recognised as official and working languages in the European Union. But there is also a data deficit that can be explained by the fact that the civil society sector is still not seen as a genuine social area by politics, scholars and the general public, and hence is not systematically taken into account, which often prevents its place in the official statistical survey system in many European countries. While there are components and aspects of civil society that are monitored – such as volunteering rates or numbers of sports associations – a holistic approach is still missing (Strachwitz et al 2020:100). In addition, the existing empirical civil society research often cannot be compared systematically due to different research designs - which subsequently lead to considerably different results when it comes for example to the numbers of donations (Schulz-Sandhof 2017) - or because of the limited applicability of theories derived from Anglo-Saxon approaches to European contexts.
Based on the EU-ERASMUS project Eurasso: Towards a knowledge programme on civil society organisations in Europe, the participative workshop strives to set the foundation stone for a European Civil Society Research Network. We invite the participants to join the Mapping of Research Institutions and to discuss topics like: ‘What kind of Platform is needed’ and ‘What kind of structure of subtopics is required to cover civil society research’ (Donation, Volunteering, Civil Rights etc.)?
Ultimately, the workshop seeks to create an open, inclusive pan-European space --- the kind required for people to begin the process of establishing the connections that will power European civil society research into a new era of collaboration and insight.

References

Moderation:
Claire Breschard
Siri Hummel
Anna Domaradzka
John MacManus

Sub Unit

• Other Third Sector related topics

Discussants

• Amira Azaiez, French Institute for Civil Society Organisations

• Siri Hummel, Maecenata Institute

• Anna Domaradzka, University of Warsaw

• John MacManus, phd at Maecenata Institute