Contested Civic Spaces: A European Perspective

For some years, we have observed a broad public discussion over the shrinking civic space. While the focus has generally been on countries with authoritarian governance systems, it has more recently become apparent that the issue is neither restricted to these countries nor indeed to countries with weak or non-existing democracies. It has been demonstrated that the space in which civil society actors and individual citizens may contribute to public affairs is undergoing fundamental changes in Europe. While in some areas, the clout of civic initiative is larger today than ever before, in others, civic action is highly disputed and governments are attempting to crowd out non-governmental actors from the public sphere.

This edited volume examines the wellbeing of civil society in the Europe and its riparian states. Presented by experts from 12 European countries the book presents insights in the latest developments of civil society and aspect like the shifting interaction between the state, market and civil society or the influence of populist movements on civil society and tackles the question wether there is a shrinking civic space in Europe. It addresses policy and decision makers, civil society academics and actors in the field, as well as the public.

Siri Hummel is Deputy Director of the Maecenata Institute for Philanthropy and Civil Society and is a political scientist and communications expert. Her research focuses are democracy and civil society, as well as equality in civil society and foundation research. She is also a lecturer for the programme“Nonprofit Management and Public Governance” at the Berlin School of Economics and Law.

Rupert Graf Strachwitz is a political scientist, lecturer at several universities, chairman of the Maecenata Foundation’s board and Director of the Maecenata Institute. He studied political science, history and the history of art at the Colgate University (USA) and at the University of Munich. He completed his PHD at the University of Munster. After various jobs in Germany and abroad, he founded the Maecenata Management GmbH in Munich in 1989 as a specialist advisory and service provider for the non-profit sector and was head of the organisation until 2011.