Bringing Society Back In: Civil Society, Social Capital and the Third Sector

The Multi-Functionality of Professional and Business Associations in a Transitional Context: Empirical Evidence from Russia

“…Compared to findings from a study on the functions performed by nonprofits in Austria and the Czech Republic, Russian PBAs are significantly more inclined to perform all three functions simultaneously, given that only 10 % of NPOs in Austria and 17 % of those in the Czech Republic contribute to all three functions simultaneously, whereas a large number of Austrian NPOs (59 %) and a significant number of Czech NPOs (40 %) are specialized in one function only (Neumayr and Schneider 2008). This difference could be explained by the specific type of NPO represented by associations, where multi-facetedness is one of its distinctive features (Edwards and Foley 2001;Zimmer and Freise 2008;Zimmer 2007). Our findings demonstrate that the majority of PBAs in the sample are multi-functional, proving the multi-tasking nature of associations empirically and further confirming applicability of the undertaken theoretical approach in the transitional context.…”

“…A further confirmation to this was given by Ljubownikow (2011, 11), who claimed that "contemporary Russian civil society embeds within itself aspects of both statist and liberal facets of civil society arrangements". Given that NPOs play a wide range of societal roles, contributing simultaneously to economic, political and social domains, multi-tasking and multi-functionalism refer to their most distinctive characteristics (Edwards and Foley 2001;Zimmer and Freise 2008). Since nonprofit studies cut across the confines of a single discipline, there are a number of difficulties that researchers face examining functions performed by NPOs.…”

“…Moreover, due to the common discursive practices and semantic similarities, the types of organizations representing organized civil society are connected to the corresponding functions by arrows. The underlying assumption of this concept is that NPOs are multifunctional (Edwards and Foley 2001;Zimmer and Freise 2008;Zimmer 2007) and contribute simultaneously to up to three different functional subsystems but to varying degrees (Neumayr et al 2009). …”

Responsive governance and complex urban settings: Responding to change in an urban policy arena - Brisbane (QLD) Australia and Portland (OR) USA

“…These authors point out the need for government networks in liberal democratic societies to have 'democratic anchorage', however the voting public is typically treated as an external variable to the governance arrangements (Sørensen and Torfing 2005, Zimmer et al 2008, Skelcher et al 2011). …”

“…Some authors have a particular focus on using cross-sector-legitimacy to critique the cross-sector-performance frame. They call for society to play a stronger role in public governance either in general (Zimmer et al 2008), or by strengthening the role played by political representatives (Sørensen and Torfing 2005). Shefter (2007) however notes that an increase in public engagement can increase the power of the state rather than constrain it in some circumstances.…”