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Introduction: Civil Society and Multiple Transitions - Meanings, Actors and Effects

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Civil Society and Transitions in the Western Balkans

Part of the book series: New Perspectives on South-East Europe Series ((NPSE))

Abstract

The overthrow of Communism by people’s revolutions in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union in the late 1980s testified to the power of civil society against the totalitarian Communist state.1 The result of the demonstrable political power of the people was an intellectual rediscovery of the concept of civil society, alongside its escape from the constraints of national borders and its reconceptualisation as a global civil society. At the same time, a triple transition from Communism, as Offe described it famously, constituted by political and economic liberalisation, alongside in many cases from the Balkans to the Caucasus, violent reconstitution of nation states,2 shed light on the complexity of political change, and, with it, on multiple functions of civil society. Furthermore, the process has been transnationalised both within the scope of progressive and regressive globalisation. Civil society actors, especially in post-conflict zones the world over, have been intertwined in multidimensional partnerships, including international organisations, international NGOs (INGOs), international financial institutions, foreign governments as well as national and multilateral development agencies, and so on. Meanwhile, other segments of local civil societies have also linked up with global networks, often either as purveyors of illiberal identities or as partners in global criminal enterprise.

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Notes

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Authors
  1. Denisa Kostovicova
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  2. Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

    Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic (Senior Research Fellow) (Senior Research Fellow)

  2. European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

    James Ker-Lindsay (Senior Research Fellow) (Senior Research Fellow)

  3. Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

    Denisa Kostovicova (Senior Lecturer in Global Politics) (Senior Lecturer in Global Politics)

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© 2013 Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic

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Kostovicova, D., Bojicic-Dzelilovic, V. (2013). Introduction: Civil Society and Multiple Transitions - Meanings, Actors and Effects. In: Bojicic-Dzelilovic, V., Ker-Lindsay, J., Kostovicova, D. (eds) Civil Society and Transitions in the Western Balkans. New Perspectives on South-East Europe Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137296252_1

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