Civil society - Part 12

posted by julia on 2007/04/04 00:11

[ Civil society ]

In January I gave a brief summary of the last kakanien-Emergenzen-workshop on "Self-Representation" I attended in Vienna. The papers of all Emergenzen-workshops organised by the kakanien project can be downloaded here. My paper (= an amended version of my presentation at the workshop in Vienna) deals with Self-representation of civil society organisations in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina (pdf, in German language). Here is the abstract:

The post-war period in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo are characterised by a spectacular "NGO boom", supported by the presence of international donors, which had huge amounts to spend for "democratisation" and "civil-society building".

While most of these organisations stopped to exist after one or two projects, there are still a few hundred active civil society organisations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. As the competition for donor money, for public attention, and for members is getting more and more challenging, civil society organisations are developing creative means of self-representation, increasingly using the internet, newsletters, and blogs for information and protest campaigns.

In this study I analyse the websites of 32 civil society organisations which are active in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The language and symbols used by civil society organisations reveal how they try to anticipate the expectations of their "followers" - and how they try to attract international donors, which significantly shape the self-representation, thus the perception, of civil society in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.


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This weblog is a forum for discussion on the political and social processes linked to EU integration in the Western Balkans. We would also like to use this space to create a virtual network of researchers on this topic. You are most welcome to contribute to this weblog with comments, postings, links, or photos. Please use the "add comment" function at the end of each posting!
All photos by the Photo Arts Collective of Kosovo. First photo by Burim Myftiu (Swimming olympiade in Klina). Second photo by Mimoza. Third photo by Dashmir Izairi.
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