′This fifth Global Civil Society Yearbook continues the intellectual shaping of an emerging global civil society. As the Global Call for Action on Poverty, G-Cap, makes its voice heard under the whiteband symbol, this analysis of current issues of migration, climate change and UN reform, with a focus on gender and social movements, provides a timely intellectual resource to strengthen shared commitments′ - Mary Robinson ′These annual volumes have themselves become an occasion for enacting global civil society: each Yearbook is a project that involves hundreds of people around the world in various ways... and they often fight it out around divergent understandings of critical issues. This volume enters the extreme zones we face today - the growing injustices which increasingly are only addressed by global civil society actors, but also the powerful innovations brought about by new technologies that can construct whole new global spaces for global civil society′ - Saskia Sassen ′It is increasingly difficult to recall memorable analyses of international social movements before GCS. But after half a decade each annual issue is not only a magnum opus but is also definitive, distinctive & comparative. The study of global civil society can never be the same!′ - Timothy M Shaw, Professor of Commonwealth Governance & Development & Director, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London The annual Global Civil Society Yearbooks provide an indispensable guide to global civil society or civic participation and action around the world. Each yearbook includes commissioned contributions from leading commentators across the social sciences on the latest issues and developments. Each yearbook also explores and presents the latest approaches to measuring and analyzing global civil society and provides a chronology of key global civil society events in the year. The 2005/6 Yearbook explores the role of gender in global civil society and investigates the core issues of labour migration, climate change and UN reform. In part three, contributions consider the impact of social forums and wireless technology, as well as reviewing the discussion of networks from the 2004/5 Yearbook. Illustrated throughout with summaries, maps, figures, tables and photographs and encompassing regular features such as updates on previous editions and the annual data reports, the Global Civil Society Yearbook remains the standard work on all aspects of contemporary global civil society for activists, practitioners, students and academics alike. It is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the key actors, forms and manifestations of global civil society around the world today.

The annual Global Civil Society Yearbooks provide an indispensable guide to global civil society or civic participation and action around the world. The 2007/8 Yearbook focuses on the potentially powerful relationship between communication and democracy promotion. The Global Civil Society Yearbook remains the standard work on all aspects of contemporary global civil society for activists, practitioners, students and academics alike.

Sovereignty, Democracy, and Global Civil Society explores the growing power of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by analyzing a microcosm of contemporary global state-society relations at UN World Conferences. The intense interactions between states and NGOs at conferences on the environment, human rights, women's issues, and other topics confirm the emergence of a new transnational democratic sphere of activity. Employing both regional and global case studies, the book charts noticeable growth in the ability of NGOs to build networks among themselves and effect change within UN processes. Using a multidimensional understanding of state sovereignty, the authors find that states use sovereignty to shelter not only material interests but also cultural identity in the face of external pressure. This book is unique in its analysis of NGO activities at the international level as well as the complexity of nation-states' responses to their new companions in global governance.

'This fifth Global Civil Society Yearbook continues the intellectual shaping of an emerging global civil society. As the Global Call for Action on Poverty, G-Cap, makes its voice heard under the whiteband symbol, this analysis of current issues of migration, climate change and UN reform, with a focus on gender and social movements, provides a timely intellectual resource to strengthen shared commitments' - Mary Robinson 'These annual volumes have themselves become an occasion for enacting global civil society: each Yearbook is a project that involves hundreds of people around the world in various ways... and they often fight it out around divergent understandings of critical issues. This volume enters the extreme zones we face today - the growing injustices which increasingly are only addressed by global civil society actors, but also the powerful innovations brought about by new technologies that can construct whole new global spaces for global civil society' - Saskia Sassen 'It is increasingly difficult to recall memorable analyses of international social movements before GCS. But after half a decade each annual issue is not only a magnum opus but is also definitive, distinctive & comparative. The study of global civil society can never be the same!' - Timothy M Shaw, Professor of Commonwealth Governance & Development & Director, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London The annual Global Civil Society Yearbooks provide an indispensable guide to global civil society or civic participation and action around the world. Each yearbook includes commissioned contributions from leading commentators across the social sciences on the latest issues and developments. Each yearbook also explores and presents the latest approaches to measuring and analyzing global civil society and provides a chronology of key global civil society events in the year. The 2005/6 Yearbook explores the role of gender in global civil society and investigates the core issues of labour migration, climate change and UN reform. In part three, contributions consider the impact of social forums and wireless technology, as well as reviewing the discussion of networks from the 2004/5 Yearbook. Illustrated throughout with summaries, maps, figures, tables and photographs and encompassing regular features such as updates on previous editions and the annual data reports, the Global Civil Society Yearbook remains the standard work on all aspects of contemporary global civil society for activists, practitioners, students and academics alike. It is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the key actors, forms and manifestations of global civil society around the world today.

′Even though current public interest and engagement in issues of global violence are the results of terribly tragic and disturbing events, it is good that these matters are receiving widespread attention. I argue for a wider use of our voice in the working of global civil society - to be distinguished from military initiatives and strategic activities of governments. The Global Civil Society Yearbook can make a substantial contribution to the expression of public voice without border′ - Amartya Sen Suicide bombings, collateral damage, kidnappings and air strikes pepper the lexicon of twenty-first century politics. Global Civil Society 2006/7 explores the complex relationship between violence, civil society and legitimacy in a unique dialogue that crosses political, cultural and religious boundaries. Is the use of violence by non-state actors ever justified? How is violence transmitted from the private to the public sphere? Why is terror and ′the war on terror′ catalysing rather than suppressing violence? Do Western and Islamic traditions of thought offer any solutions? This edition of the Yearbook also includes new research on economic and social rights, the politics of water, and football. Chapters include: - Not Even a Tree: Can Violence be Justified in a Global Era? Mary Kaldor and Heba Raouf Ezzat - Bringing Violence ′Back Home′ Jenny Pearce - Pipe dream or Panacea? Global Civil Society and Economic and Social Rights Marlies Glasius - War and Peace: the Role of Global Civil Society Mary Kaldor, Denisa Kostovicova, and Yahia Said - Water: a Global Contestation Willemijn Dicke, Patrick Bond, Fadia Daibes-Murad, Sanjeev Khagram, Alessandro Palmieri, Carlos Vainer, Zoë Wilson and Patricia Wouters - The Church, the Mosque and Global Civil Society Mark Juergensmeyer - The Odd Couple: Football and Global Civil Society David Goldblatt

For many commentators, global civil society is revolutionising our approach to global politics, as new non-state-based and border-free expressions of political community challenge territorial sovereignty as the exclusive basis for political community and identity. This challenge 'from below' to the nation-state system is increasingly seen as promising nothing less than a reconstruction, or a re-imagination, of world politics itself. Whether in terms of the democratisation of the institutions of global governance, the spread of human rights across the world, or the emergence of a global citizenry in a worldwide public sphere, global civil society is understood by many to provide the agency necessary for these hoped-for transformations. Global Civil Society asks whether this idea is such a qualitatively new phenomenon after all; whether the transformation of the nation-state system is actually within its reach; and what some of the drawbacks might be.

The Global Civil Society Yearbook is the standard work on all aspects of contemporary global civil society for activists, practitioners, students and academics alike.