Civic Space: Shrinking from the outside in?

Restrictions on NGOs and others promoting civil liberties have caused alarm about «shrinking civic space» perpetrated by their domestic regimes. Yet because most camps in the world’s civil societies are left unmolested (indeed many are growing) and because non-domestic sources of constraint often pl...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: David SOGGE
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad de Zaragoza, Cátedra de Solidaridad y Ciudadanía Global 2020-05-01
Series:Revista Iberoamericana de Estudios de Desarrollo
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ried.unizar.es/index.php/revista/article/viewFile/439/pdf
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Restrictions on NGOs and others promoting civil liberties have caused alarm about «shrinking civic space» perpetrated by their domestic regimes. Yet because most camps in the world’s civil societies are left unmolested (indeed many are growing) and because non-domestic sources of constraint often play decisive roles, there are reasons to re-think the issues and ask how, and for whom, civil spaces are shaped. This exploratory article draws attention to forces set in motion from central, transnational levels that affect civic spaces: securitization; constraints on organized labour; marketization; transnational non-state actors; citizen disengagement driven by state retrenchment; and social media. As problematized in most policy, activist and scholarly writings, outside forces affecting civic space for emancipatory camps are often ignored, despite their being more susceptible to counteraction from outside than are repressive regimes. These issues await deeper investigation and discussion.
ISSN:2254-2035
2254-2035