History of the European Identity

History of the European Identity Introduction: Although the concept of collective identity is a post-colonial phenomenon, a few nations would describe themselves under a collective identity before the modern times of the 19th Century. In fact, Europe is historically unique in terms that it has been the people living in the continent of Europe who have persistently described themselves as Europeans since the 17th Century (Pagden, 2002). Indeed, European Union emerged as the most important attempt for creating a supranational entity in the Continent and the best example of a Pan-European common identity as even the words Europe and the European Union are being used as synonyms by millions of people every day. Nevertheless, an uncertainty of a common identity has always been the case for Europeans throughout history and the physical as well as social borders of Europe has never been distinctly known for centuries which are full of wars, tensions, competition and blood. Today, the same problem continues to exist and many believe that it is the major factor blocking the efforts for achieving a fully integrated Europe, as the definition and frontiers of a common European identity is still unknown. Indeed, one of the most important issues of the European integration from a socio-political perspective is the vague concept of a common European identity including prospects of European Union Citizenship. Although a common European identity had been long around for centuries, these are fairly new issues in relevance to the half a century long history of todays European Union. However, I believe how the common European identity is defined is very important for the future steps of the integration process, as nowadays the EU is undergoing transformation towards a political union with an aim to become a global actor in the international political arena. What shall be the elements of a common European identity, how shall it be formulized if it is to become a suc cessful construct which would define Europe correctly to end the efforts that lasted for such a long time? I believe a triumphant common European identity must include the concrete and symbolic realities and it must be rooted to the diversity of cultures which had been created by the long history of Europe (DAppollonia, 2002). Otherwise, if it remains as a form of thin identity suggested by Habermas (2006), the problems and uncertainties of European identity as well as the poorly functioning European Union citizenship is most likely to exist in the Unions foreseeable future. In fact, a common European identity can only be successfully constructed by taking into account all the ambiguities, contradictions and developments in form of a unity in diversity principle which can be applied to the reality of Europe rather than building a shallow and artificial construct as it seems to be today. Theoretically, a united Europe in political terms is made possible if a united Europe in cultural terms is established through formulating a collective common identity which may only be conceived as a coll ection of multiple and complex values created by complicated dynamics of Europes long history. Nevertheless, a united Europe in cultural terms shall not mean a homogenous and strictly ordered European society; rather the European identity shall celebrate Europes long tradition of diversity. Another important question is how should European Union citizenship be defined and what should be the frontiers of cultural implications of such a political formulation. Considering the wide cultural diversity and long history that the individual members of the European Union had share in the European continent, a collective identity may prove to be far too complex to construct, so one may argue that a common European identity is still an illusion. Although Europeans have a successfully formed a common economic and increasingly political union, they are still far away from the desired level of cultural unity and a common identity which seems to be an alarming factor for the next stages of the European integration. Nonetheless, European Union citizenship is an area open to developments and it might be used as a critically important tool by the European Union leaders to accumulate a common European identity, only if it is formulized correctly. The critical point on the debate of Europe an Union citizenship is that the dominant Classical Model of Citizenship is based on the structures of nation-state and that is why this model cannot be applied to the European Union, as it is a whole different level of organization. On the other hand, Post-National citizenship is a modern approach to the issue of European identity and it is suitable to Europe in order to reach its goals of unification and deepening through building a stronger common identity in the 21st Century. This paper is organized in several sections. European identity from a historical perspective is analyzed in the first part; the current status of European identity and the issue of national identities in contrast to the common European identity is discussed in the following part; a new European identity and suggestions for a new formulation is given in the third part; a brief history of European Union efforts and progress on building a common identity is examined in the fourth part; and finally the aspects of European Union Citizenship is discussed in the fifth part of this paper. After all, this paper argues that a common identity in form of a collective European identity is clearly necessary for the Union at this stage of integration, and it is a crucial element for the future of the European integration project especially as our world is getting smaller as well as more fragmented simultaneously due to the complex dynamics of international relations every day at the age of globalization. European Citizenship is very much connected to the issue of European identity and it is the key to achieving such a strong common European identity when it is formulized as a Post-National phenomenon. The Europeans must derive their power from the diversity of their cultures by building a thick identity for Europe rather than a thin identity which consists of merely political rights; yet the Europeans shall not overlook the uniqueness of the Continent and the similarities they share in comparison to the rest of the world emphasized by the Unity in Diversity principle. Today, it is time for the Europeans to unite under one roof in socio-political terms, complete the long standing task of defining the boundaries of the European civilization by establishing a common and collective European identity in order to carry on the progress of the European integration project in a globalized world. Nonetheless, the question of possibilities of the Europeans to achieve such a high level of cultural as well as political unity remains a question and it is subject to a whole different level of research. However, often seen as a regional product of globalization itself, I believe the European integration project cannot progress any further without achieving a common European identity which is more critical than ever today in order to overcome the challenges of globalization in the 21st Century. Identity has always been a problematic concept because it is uncertain, fluid and highly flexible. Identity is the way to define ones self and to differentiate from the others. If taken literally, identity means equal, identical. Identity is not static but dynamic, and it can be defined in different ways in different circumstances. Identity is construct, which cannot be constructed immediately but only in time. It is not a fixed, constant and pre-given entity; while identity formation is heavily dependent on how one is perceived by the others. Identification implies belonging or membership, in turn which implies the exclusion of non-members (Bretherton Vogler,1999: 236).In other words, the sole purpose of identity is to separate self from the others in a sense. Moreover, identities are multiple in nature, or even kaleidoscopic. A person may have a single identity, but it will be made up of many levels of loyalty and identification (Von Benda-Beckmann Verkuyten, 1995: 18). Meanwhile , identities change, because they are based on perceptions, which themselves change over time and environment; as it is possible to identify ones self with more than one thing at a time such as class and gender, or religion and age. Therefore there are various elements of ones identity and these various elements in an identity may well be contradictory (Von Benda-Beckmann Verkuyten, 1995: 12). On the other hand, a collective identity means the attitudes, which all members of that group have in common in their thoughts and behavior; which differentiates them from the other (Munch, 2001: 137). Collective identities can provide existential meaning for people, thus they are primary means of unity in a society which give additional stability especially during periods of upheaval. Collective identities can generate a degree of continuity between individuals and their social environment, and can confer social recognition and approval (Von Benda-Beckmann Verkuyten, 1995: 24). Therefore, collective identities are defined mainly by culture from a historical point of view rather than biological genes, ethnicity, nationalism or simple political rights. Finally, It they are used to construct community and feelings of cohesion and holism, a concept to give the impression that all individuals are equal in the imagined community (Strath, 2002: 387). From the perspective of political scie nce; there are two types of political identities: a civic identity and a cultural identity. The cultural definition of political identity entails a sense of belonging of an individual towards a particular group which can mostly defined by its uniform cultural or ethnic values. On the other hand, the civic definition of political identity involves with the identification of an individual mostly in form of citizenry with a political structure, which includes political institutions, rights, duties and rules (Bruter, 2004: 26). Therefore, a cultural European identity implies a reference to Europe as a continent, a civilization and a cultural entity whereas a civic European identity implies a reference to the political and institutional aspects of European Union identity largely in the form of EU citizenship. Europe has always been more of a mental construct than a geographical or social entity (Lowenthal, 2000: 314). Europe has no natural frontiers both in geographic and sociological terms. Therefore it had never been easy to acquire a singular definition of European identity because the borders of Europe had always been dynamic, and no one knew where Europe started and Europe ended (Pagden, 2002). A European identity is an abstraction and a fiction without essential proportions (Strath, 2002: 387). The concept of a European identity is an idea expressing artificial notions of unity rather than an identity of equality. In this sense, the concept of European identity is inscribed in a long history of political reflection on the concept of Europe. From the perspective of history, Europe has been united as a singular entity in various settings for a number of times in its past such as the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Napoleonic Empire, and arguably the Nazi Third Reich. Identity was only conceptualized as a macro-level collective phenomenon by the intellectual elites of Europe; on the other hand, for the rural masses of Europe, identity was a local term associated with the micro-level, rarely the nation and never an incident as large as the continent of Europe (Pagden, 2002). In different period of history, a common European identity had been defined on different basis. In the Middle Ages, Christianity was the main defining characteristic of European identity, whereas in modern times, the emergence of the nation state, periods of nationalism and afterwards democracy and secularism has been the common characteristic of the Europeans. Meanwhile, Christianity lost its dominance yet it arguably remained as one of the important components of European identity. Today, the European Union similar to the continent of Europe can be characterized by overlapping and unclear boundaries. From a geographical perspective, the EU has fuzzy boundaries due to the ongoing enlargement processes since the 1970s (Risse, 2003: 490). Although the geographical borders of Europe are not objectively defined particularly in the east, a state without a geographical relevance to the European continent cannot become a part of the European Union, even if it shares the EUs collective values and norms. Moreover what adds to the uncertainty of Europes borders is that boundaries of the EU may change according to different policy fields such as the Schengen includes the non EU member Norway but at the same time it does not include the EU member state the United Kingdom. Therefore, first of all the lack of solid geographical boundaries weakens efforts of the EU to be seen as a singular entity by its own people (Castano, 2004). On the contrary, diversity shall be the main c haracteristic of European identity from a cultural point of view. Religious and cultural heritages including Roman law, political democracy, parliamentary institutions, Renaissance humanism, rationalism, romanticism characterize the common identity of the Europeans (Smith, 1992). On the other hand, there are undeniable socioeconomic, cultural, national and ethnic differences among the member states of the European Union. Nevertheless, this reality is reflected in the motto of the Union which is unity in diversity from a positive point of view. A collective political culture is an important feature of the common European identity. The Greeks gave Europe the science and philosophy and the Romans gave it the idea of single continent and unity which created Europes strong cultural and political origins. The diverse and multiple cultures of the ancient Europe shared a single identity as they were brought together under a common system of Roman law. The people of Europe also shared a common language, Latin, and after Europe slowly converted to Christianity they acquired a common religion. Christianity has been a crucial part of the European identity and it played a key role to create its internal cohesion and to designate its relationship with the rest of the world. Further references are made to Europes identity besides its heritage of classical Graeco-Roman civilization and Christianity; such as the ideas of the Enlightenment, Science, Reason, Progress, Industrialization, Democracy and Individualization as the core elements of this claimed European legacy (Wintle, 1996: 13-16). Hellenism, Romanticism, welfare society and cross-fertilization of diversity can be added to this list (Garcias, 1993: 7-9), while one may argue that Europes core values include its commitments to an undivided continent, to individual freedom, and to the universalism of humanity (Havel, 1996). However, this unity never reached to the point of sharing a common European culture. A single body of citizenry or a common cultural identity could not be reached even in the peak of Europes history of unity. When the differences within Europe are emphasized, they are often in the form of unity in diversity; religious differences such as Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christianity, and linguistic differences including Romance, Germanic and Slavic languages are obvious; yet they are seen as correlated, Catholic–Romance, Protestant–Germanic, Orthodox–Slavic, and essentially are underlying the major ethnic cleavages and conflicts in the history of Europe. Anthony Smith is among the scholars who are skeptical of the possibility of a common European identity because they could not find a common culture across the European continent, and even more critically they claim that Europe lacks of a shared set of myths, experience and symbols; these elements which they find crucial to create post-national identity (Smith, 1992: 72-73). Furthermore, Europe lacks of a shared historical and cultural content as which is the largest source of division among Europeans. Other obstacles to a common European identity include linguistic diversity and its tripartite religious division. In fact, a major difference among EU countries is the persistence of linguistic diversity, even though in practical level English has become the dominant language in Europe. Language does not only have an instrumental but also an emotional dimension and peoples sense of nationality is often tied up with their mother tongue (Guibernau, 2001: 192). On the other side of the debate, scholars such as Michael Wintle are more optimistic on the possibility of creating a European identity. Indeed, the existence of the EU identity in the form of converging education standards, educational exchanges, and the organization of a European civil society is already established in most parts of Europe. Wintle argues that a European identity was previously already created during the high Middle Age (Wintle, 1996: 19-22), and it can be easily established today considering the forces of globalization. For now, the major success of the EU in fostering its identity has been limited with the increasing free movement of people across European borders, which has accelerated since the 1985 and formalized in 1990 Schengen accords parallelly correlated with the rising impact of globalization. Increased interaction among peoples of Europe would also encourage cultural exchanges and this could foster a stronger sense of a shared community. Education and hi gh culture shall play a key role in European Unions cultural policy, because these two factors have an important effect on the creation of the EU identity. Education is obviously one of the crucial dimensions in any attempt to develop the future identity of the EU or at least more understanding and convergence among Europeans; high culture unites Europeans against the low culture which separates them. After all, the development of the EU identity will be the outcome of a long process in which bottom-up as well as top-down initiatives are likely to be employed (Guibernau, 2001: 183-184). The idea of Europe as well as the identity of Europeans are constructed over time with processes of contention and bargaining. Gerard Delanty argues that a European Culture is not an entity with cohesion and fixed boundaries, but a floppy concept, with no clear borders and with internal opposition and contradictions, discursively shaped in contentious social bargaining processes (Delanty, 1995; 1999). In other words, the images of Europe do not exist as a natural phenomenon but are discursively shaped by internal as well as external forces (Strath, 2002). A basic step in the process of creating a collective identity is to defining itself in relation to the other. Central to ones identifications are images of others. Likewise any identity, European identity necessarily contains a demarcation from the non-European. This is natural to all distinctions, and they are both inclusive and exclusive. The boundaries of Europe can only be drawn and the identity of Europe can only be realized in the mirror of others. Indeed, Europe does not exist without non-Europe and that non-Europe does not exist without Europe. Many centuries ago, the Europeans defined people living in the north as uncivilized and people living in the south as oriental (Pagden, 2002). Furthermore, the Greeks labeled the non-Greek speaking people as barbarians, even if that word would surely have a different meaning by that time. In nearer times, although the Russians shared many features with a European society including the same religion, it could not reach the formal limits of a Romanized civilization thus perceived as a barbaric empire or the orient, depending on the time. Moreover, European belief of its superiority relied on the common features of European societies such as science and liberal arts. Thus the rest of the world could only be portrayed as actors in relation to Europe, in other words always remained as the other. According to Delanty, Europe has been always invented and reinvented on the basis of division and strategy for the construction of difference from the other starting from Christian identity against Islam in the Middle-Ages, after that in the colonial politics to the New World, and to the ethnic minorities in the contemporary European Union (Delanty, 1995). Therefore, historical experience suggests that the new European identity may be constructed on the other which may be the United States, the East, Islam or the European past itself. Samuel Huntington has argued that religion provides the best common means of historically distinguishing between Europeans and the other, especially in terms of the confrontation between the Judeo-Christian tradition and Islam (Huntington, 1996). However, at the same time, the separation between Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Western variations of Christianity has, for a long time, been crucial in establishing a division between Western and Eastern E urope; partially reinforced in the Cold War, divisions between Catholicism and Protestantism and separation between North and South (Guibernau, 2001). Today, the European Union is frequently argued to be a fortress for the other and the EU is often referred to as a Christian Club, because historically all states on the continent of Europe had Christian societies. The Ottoman Empire was the greatest enemy of European states as well as Christianity in the Middle Ages; which made Islam the primary charactersitic of the other for Europeans from the perspective of history. Today, the accession dialogues of Turkey into the European Union raise wide public opposition in Europe while the European Union officials make constant efforts to prove their allegiance to non-religious, non-ethnic but solely liberal and non discriminatory Copenhagen Criteria independent from historical aspects of the other which has actually been extensively used to define the European identity. Finally, Europe is unique because it has possessed an identity as a cultural space which gave birth to political unions throughout its history. However, it has never succeed ed to constitute a single nation-state or a unified ethnic group. Although the European Union with its single currency and supranational political and legal institutions changed these historical facts to an extent, it is only possible with the means of a common European identity which will carry Europe to the next stage of integration which it always aimed but failed to achieve during its long history. Nevertheless, history has already proved that it will surely be hard to overcome uncertainties of a common European identity at the level of the masses. Over the past millennium, the advancements of European civilization gave rise to the elites living on the continent of Europe who feel increasingly attached to Europe as a whole and shared dreams of a united continent. However, Europe as a realm sharing a common history as well as a common destiny has been largely abandoned by fixed prejudices on often nationalistic and ethnic grounds. National interests and biases at local, national, and global levels have prevented the masses of European people from viewing themselves collectively (Lowenthal, 2000: 315). However, today, forces of globalization, advancements in communications technologies and media transmission of everyday popular culture now promotes the sense of being European among larger segments of society other than the European elites. Although a truly trans-European society is still in its infancy, many of its essential elements are already in place this time largely due to the forces of globalization. Most European states a re increasingly democratic in reality; their economies are for the most part market driven; their popular culture grows more homogeneous as communication technologies expand under the forces of globalization in the 21st Century (Waterman, 1999: 23). Therefore, Europe is at the stage of defining its identity today; however which criteria are being deployed to define Europe, Europeans, Europeanness and their respective boundaries is critically important. A common European identity must be constructed by defining and understanding the historical roots of outstanding features of the European society in relation to the notion of citizenship, which will be discussed in depth in the following parts; developed in the past over the land of Europe. For sure, Europe is being redefined as a result of a complex set of processes, but an important question is what sort of Europe is emerging from them? There is certainly a structured symmetry in the perception of the European Union as the coincidence of a homogenized socio-political space, a unified regulatory space of an EU super-state, a singular European civil society surpassing existing national and regional differences in culture and identity (Hudson, 2000). In some respects there has been progress towards such an ideal of European civil society. For example, the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights have had an important role in defining acceptable standards across Europe. The issue of European identity and the criteria used to denote Europeans is clearly a critical one for the political and social integrity for the European Union. Europe will exist as an unquestionable political community only when European identity permeates peoples lives and daily existence (Demos 1998). Identity is a key issue which is continuously changing and thats the reason why it is so hard to define especially in a world of f ast changes in the 21st Centurys globalization. The member states of todays enlarged EU have become multi-ethnic and multi-cultural societies with various structural phenomenon ranging from the immigrant community of France to Post-Communist yet ethnic communities of the Central and Eastern European states. As the EU expanded eastwards in the last two rounds of enlargements, the issue of defining a European identity became even more critical for sake of integrity and stability of the Union. One conception of a singular European identity would see it constructed through a process similar to that involved in the creation of national identities in the 19th and the 20th Centuries. Ironically, while the aim was to create those national identities in the past, the challenge that Europeans face today would be to transcend them for the creation of Europeannes. However, the current trends at local European level are quite different from the interests of Europeanists at the supranational level. There are pressures from nation states and their citizens to resist any further transfer of national sovereignty as well as erosion of national identity (Hudson, 2000). In fact, the success of extreme right wing political parties in important European countries such as Austria and France may be seen as a sign of the reappearance of dangerous nationalist and racist ambitions which the peoples of Europe have most probably experienced more than any other continent in the world history. Eric Hobsbawm has proclaimed that nationalism is dead (Hobsbawm, 1990). On the contrary, Llobera argues that national identities are certainly not eternal, but the time of their demise has not yet arrived (Llobera, 2003). In fact, national identities are still dominant in Europe. Recent surveys show that, people in Europe prefer maintaining their national identity and sovereignty, but increasing number of people have accepted European identity in addition to their national identities. Therefore, European nationalism is another important component of a common European identity and it has been a major ideological tool for unifying nation states as well as the Europeans as a whole throughout Europes history. To start with, the European Union, with its both intergovernmental and supranational characteristics represents a far different type of state-organization than a classical nation state. The main distinguishing characteristics of the EU from the nation-state are the absence of a shar ed language, a uniform media, common education system and a central state structure (Shore, 2000: 64). Furthermore, the powers of the EU rely on the sharing of sovereignty of its member states. European unification is a progressive method of limiting individual nation states to practice any kind of harmful nationalism and this is makes up an important part of the European identity. At this point, nationalist Euroskeptics may argue that building a common Europe and an identity for it means destroying nations. However, a general feeling of Europeanness and loyalty to Europe in a cultural sense, does not need to conflict with national identities (Andreani, 1999). A successful construct of European identity must include the concrete and symbolic realities created within time. The European states have not always been nationalist through Europes long history. The definition of nationalism counts on the idea of nation and territory; while the definition of a European nationalism depends on the historical and ideological evolution of the European nation states and aspirations for a post-national Europe. In fact, the aspirations that underlie in the roots of the foundation of the European Union are parallel to European cosmopolitanism in the 18th and the 19th centuries. From the Enlightenment to the beginning of the ECSC after the Second World War; European nationalism found two separate meanings: one as an antinational Pan-European idea of a new united Europe that limits the sovereignty of the nation states, and the other as a pro-national ideology to create or legitimate new nation states (DAppollonia, 2002). Historically, cosmopolitanism reflected intentions for a European unity, and gave rise to anti-national European nationalism. European nationalism was characterized by the will to protect the European interests and its supremacy from non-Europeans as well as protecting Europe from itself by creating a federation. It can be argued that economic development, commercial prosperity, intellectual-supremacy and military power were the factors making Europe homogeneous and created a united European identity beyond national borders to an extent. Some intellectuals as well as economists believe that the nation state is an outdated political and economic entity, and nationalism is merely an expression of old prejudiced and narrow-minded ideas. European nationalism defined itself similar to the nation state through common identity and culture, territory, historical memory building, and economic and political objectives to defend self-interests. The defensive conception of European nationalism o n the other hand had always been a driving factor, yet the pro-nationalist ideologies had been the major cause underlying the wars of modern times. As Europe was divided into aggressive nation states, the idea of Europe had increasingly converged. Although the wars were dividing factors themselves, their interpretations by the Europeanists became powerful unifying factors for Europe. The irony of European nationalism is that it depends on the memory of events that divided rather than united the continent (DAppollonia, 2002). Although it used the same definitions of nation and Europe with the anti-national European nationalism from time to time, it remained limited to the strict logic of the national framework. Transnational solidarities were necessity to establish European unity under either a supranational or an intergovernmental structure. For some intellectuals, European nationalism was the only way to protect the autonomy of nations and the liberty of the individuals. Conceptualizing of the European Union citizenship and creation of the Committee of the Regions in the EU were seen as efforts of the Pro-national European nationalists. These forms of European nationalism rejected the form of narrow nationalism while it showed ambitions to reinforce the intermediary actions between state and individual, between the individual, the market the centralizati

Brief History Of Library Automation: 1930-1996 :: essays research papers fc

Brief History of Library Automation: 1930-1996 An automated library is one where a computer system is used to manage one or several of the library's key functions such as acquisitions, serials control, cataloging, circulation and the public access catalog. When exploring the history of library automation, it is possible to return to past centuries when visionaries well before the computer age created devices to assist with their book lending systems. Even as far back as 1588, the invention of the French "Book Wheel" allowed scholars to rotate between books by stepping on a pedal that turned a book table. Another interesting example was the "Book Indicator", developed by Albert Cotgreave in 1863. It housed miniature books to represent books in the library's collection. The miniature books were part of a design that made it possible to determine if a book was in, out or overdue. These and many more examples of early ingenuity in library systems exist, however, this paper will focus on the more recent computer automation beginning in the early twentieth century. The Beginnings of Library Automation: 1930-1960 It could be said that library automation development began in the 1930's when punch card equipment was implemented for use in library circulation and acquisitions. During the 30's and early 40's progress on computer systems was slow which is not surprising, given the Depression and World War II. In 1945, Vannevar Bush envisioned an automated system that would store information, including books, personal records and articles. Bush(1945) wrote about a hypothetical "memex" system which he described as a mechanical library that would allow a user to view stored information from several different access points and look at several items simultaneously. His ideas are well known as the basis for hypertext and mputers for their operations. The first appeared at MIT, in 1957, with the development of COMIT, managing linguistic computations, natural language and the ability to search for a particular string of information. Librarians then moved beyond a vision or idea for the use of computers, given the technology, they were able make great advances in the use of computers for library systems. This lead to an explosion of library automation in the 60's and 70's. Library Automation Officially is Underway: 1960-1980 The advancement of technology lead to increases in the use of computers in libraries. In 1961, a significant invention by both Robert Noyce of Intel and Jack Kirby of Texas Instruments, working independently, was the integrated circuit. All the components of an electronic circuit were placed onto a single "chip" of silicon. This invention of the integrated circuit and newly developed disk and tape storage devices gave computers the speed, storage and ability

How Time Flies

Non-governmental organization From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search â€Å"NGO† redirects here. For other uses, see NGO (disambiguation). | This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (January 2012) | A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any form of government.The term originated from the United Nations (UN), and is normally used to refer to organizations that are not a part of the government and are not conventional for-profit business. In the cases in which NGOs are funded totally or partially by governments, the NGO maintains its non-governmental status by excluding government representatives from membership in the organization. The term is usually applied only to organizations that pursue wider social aims that have political aspects, but are not openly political organizations such as political parties. The number of NGOs operating in the United States is estimated at 40,000. 1] International numbers are even higher: Russia has 277,000 NGOs;[2] India is estimated to have around 3. 3 million NGOs in year 2009, which is just over one NGO per 400 Indians, and many times the number of primary schools and primary health centres in India. [3][4] Contents * 1 Definition * 2 Types * 2. 1 Development, Environment and Human Rights NGOs * 2. 2 Track II Diplomacy * 3 Activities * 3. 1 Operational * 3. 2 Campaigning * 3. 3 Both * 3. 4 Public relations * 3. 5 Project management * 4 Corporate structure * 4. 1 Staffing * 4. Funding * 4. 3 Overhead costs * 4. 4 Monitoring and control * 5 History * 6 Legal status * 7 Critiques * 7. 1 Challenges to legitimacy * 8 See also * 9 References * 10 Further reading * 11 External links| Definition NGOs are difficult to define and classify, and the term ‘NGO' is not used consistently. As a result, there are many different classifications in use. The most common use a framework that includes orientation and level of operation. An NGO's orientation refers to the type of activities it takes on. These activities might include human rights, environmental, or evelopment work. An NGO's level of operation indicates the scale at which an organization works, such as local, international or national. â€Å"Confronting the Classification Problem: Toward a Taxonomy of NGOs† One of the earliest mentions of the acronym â€Å"NGO† was in 1945, when the UN was created. The UN, which is an inter-governmental organization, made it possible for certain approved specialized international non-state agencies – or non-governmental organisations – to be awarded observer status at its assemblies and some of its meetings. Later the term became used more widely.Today, according to the UN, any kind of private organization that is independent from government contr ol can be termed an â€Å"NGO†, provided it is not-profit, non-criminal and not simply an opposition political party. Professor Peter Willetts, from the University of London, argues the definition of NGOs can be interpreted differently by various organizations and depending on a situation’s context. He defines an NGO as â€Å"†an independent voluntary association of people acting together on a continuous basis for some common purpose other than achieving government office, making money or illegal activities. [5] In this view, two main types of NGOs are recognized according to the activities they pursue: operational NGOs that deliver services and campaigning NGOs. Although Willetts proposes the operational and campaigning NGOs as a tool to differentiate the main activities of these organizations, he also explains that a single NGO may often be engaged in both activities. Many NGOs also see them as mutually reinforcing. Professor Akira Iriye defines NGO as â€Å" a voluntary nonstate, nonprofit, nonreligious, and nonmilitary association. â€Å"[6] Types Some find it helpful to classify NGOs by orientation and/ Professional association * Empowering orientation; NGO type by level of co-operation * Community-based organization * City-wide organization * National NGO * International NGO Apart from â€Å"NGO†, there are many alternative or overlapping terms in use, including: third sector organization (TSO), non-profit organization (NPO), voluntary organization (VO), civil society organization (CSO), grassroots organization (GO), social movement organization (SMO), private voluntary organization (PVO), self-help organization (SHO) and non-state actors (NSAs).Non-governmental organizations are a heterogeneous group. As a result, a long (and sometimes confusing or comical) list of additional acronyms has developed, including: * BINGO, short for ‘business-friendly international NGO' or ‘big international NGO' * TANGO, ‘tech nical assistance NGO' * TSO, ‘third sector organization' * GONGO, ‘government-operated NGOs' (set up by governments to look like NGOs in order to qualify for outside aid or promote the interests of government) * DONGO: Donor Organized NGO INGO stands for international NGO; Oxfam, INSPAD,[7] Institute of Peace and Development â€Å"A European Think Tank For Peace Initiatives†; * QUANGOs are quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). (The ISO is actually not purely an NGO, since its membership is by nation, and each nation is represented by what the ISO Council determines to be the ‘most broadly representative' standardization body of a nation.That body might itself be a nongovernmental organization; for example, the United States is represented in ISO by the American National Standards Institute, which is independent of the federal government. However, other countries can be represented b y national governmental agencies; this is the trend in Europe. ) * National NGO: A non-governmental organization that exists only in one country. This term is rare due to the globalization of non-governmental organizations, which causes an NGO to exist in more than one country. [5] * CSO, short for civil society organization ENGO: short for environmental NGO, such as Greenpeace and WWF * NNGO, short for ‘Northern nongovernmental organization' * SNGO, short for ‘Southern nongovernmental organization' * SCO, also known as ‘social change organizations' * TNGO, transnational NGO; The term emerged during the 1970s due to the increase of environmental and economic issues in the global community. TNGO includes non-governmental organizations that are not confined to only one country, but exist in two or more countries. * GSO: Grassroots Support Organization * MANGO: short for market advocacy NGO NGDO: non-governmental development organization USAID refers to NGOs as privat e voluntary organizations. However, many scholars have argued that this definition is highly problematic as many NGOs are in fact state and corporate funded and managed projects with professional staff. [citation needed] NGOs exist for a variety of reasons, usually to further the political or social goals of their members or funders. Examples include improving the state of the natural environment, encouraging the observance of human rights, improving the welfare of the disadvantaged, or representing a corporate agenda.However, there are a huge number of such organizations and their goals cover a broad range of political and philosophical positions. This can also easily be applied to private schools and athletic organizations. Development, Environment and Human Rights NGOs NGOs are organizations that work in many different fields, but the term is generally associated with those seeking social transformation and improvements in quality of life. Development NGOs is the most highly visi ble sector, and includes both international and local organizations, as well as those working in humanitarian emergency sector.Many are associated with international aid and voluntary donation, but there are also NGOs that choose not to take funds from donors and try to generate funding in other ways, such as selling handicrafts or charging for services. Environmental NGOs are another sub-sector, and sometimes overlap with development NGOs. An example is Greenpeace. (see: List of Environmental NGOs). Just like other NGOs networks, transnational environmental networks might acquire a variety of benefits in sharing information with other organizations, campaigning towards an issue, and exchanging contact information.Since Transnational environmental NGOs advocate for different issues like public goods, such as pollution in the air, deforestation of areas and water issues, it is more difficult for them to give their campaigns a human face than NGOs campaigning directly for human rights issues. Some of the earliest forms of transnational environmental NGOs started to appear after the Second World War with the creation of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).After the UN was formed in 1945, more environmental NGO started to emerge in order to address more specific environmental issues. In 1946, the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was created with the purpose of advocating and representing scientific issues and collaboration among environmental NGOs. In 1969, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) was funded to increase and improve collaboration among environmentalists. This collaboration was later reinforced and stimulated with the creation of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Program in 1971.In 1972, the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, tried to address the issues on Sweden’s plead for international intervention on trans-boundary pollution from other European industrialized nations. Transnational environmental NGOs have taken on diverse issues around the globe, but one of the best-known cases involving the work of environmental NGO’s can be traced back to Brazil during the 1980s. The United States got involved with deforestation concerns due to the allegations of environmentalists dictating deforestation to be a global concern, and after 1977 the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act added an Environmental and Natural Resources section. Human rights NGOs may also overlap with those in development, but are another distinct category. Amnesty International is perhaps one of the best-known. During the early 1980s the Brazilian government created the Polonoreste developing program, which the World Bank agreed to finance. The Polonoreste program aimed to urbanized areas of the Amazon, which were already occupied by local indigenous groups.Rapid deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon called the attention and intervention of UNE SCO, who utilized its Program on Man and the Biosphere to advocate against the Polonoreste program, on the grounds of violating the rights of the indigenous groups living in the Amazon. In the case of deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon, the environment NGOs were able to put pressure on the World Bank to cancel the loans for the Polonoreste program. Due to the leverage that the U. S. has over the bank, in 1985 the World Bank suspended the financial aid to the Polonoreste Program.The work of environmental NGOs in the Brazilian case was successful because there was a point of leverage that made the targeted actor vulnerable to international pressure. [8] Even though NGOs might have common goals relating to development or environment issues, interests and perspectives are diverse. A distinction can be made between the interests and goals among those NGOs located in industrialized countries—often referred to as the states of the North—and NGOs from nations located in dev eloping countries—referred to as states of the South.There is sometimes tension between them. Southern states blame the developed nations for over-consumption and pollution resulting from industrialization, and for sustaining inequalities in the international economic system There is also a distinction among groups that take on particular and specific socio-economic issues. The Women’s Environment and Development Organization was created in 1990 with the purpose to advocate for gender inclusion in work related to the Earth Summit.Other groups might focus on issues that include racial minorities and individuals from lower income backgrounds. [9] Track II Diplomacy Main article: Track II diplomacy Track II dialogue, or Track II diplomacy, is a transnational coordination that involves non-official members of the government including epistemic communities as well as former policy-makers or analysts. Track II diplomacy aims to get policymakers and policy analysts to come to a common solution through discussions by unofficial figures of the government.Unlike the Track I diplomacy where government officials, diplomats and elected leaders gather to talk about certain issues, Track II diplomacy consists of experts, scientists, professors and other figures that are not involved in government affairs. The members of Track II diplomacy usually have more freedom to exchange ideas and come up with compromise on their own. Activities There are also numerous classifications of NGOs. The typology the World Bank uses divides them into Operational and Advocacy:[10] NGOs vary in their methods.Some act primarily as lobbyists, while others primarily conduct programs and activities. For instance, an NGO such as Oxfam, concerned with poverty alleviation, might provide needy people with the equipment and skills to find food and clean drinking water, whereas an NGO like the FFDA helps through investigation and documentation of human rights violations and provides legal as sistance to victims of human rights abuses. Others, such as Afghanistan Information Management Services, provide specialized technical products and services to support development activities implemented on the ground by other organizations.NGOs were intended to fill a gap in government services, but in countries like India, NGOs are gaining a powerful stronghold in decision making. In the interest of sustainability, most donors require that NGOs demonstrate a relationship with governments. State Governments themselves are vulnerable because they lack strategic planning and vision. They are therefore sometimes tightly bound by a nexus of NGOs, political bodies, commercial organizations and major donors/funders, making decisions that have short term outputs but no long term affect.NGOs in India are under regulated, political, and recipients of large government and international donor funds. NGOs often take up responsibilities outside their skill ambit. Governments have no access to th e number of projects or amount of funding received by these NGOs. There is a pressing need to regulate this group while not curtailing their unique role as a supplement to government services. Operational Operational NGOs seek to â€Å"achieve small scale change directly through projects. â€Å"[5] They mobilize financial resources, materials and volunteers to create localized programs in the field.They hold large scale fundraising events, apply to governments and organizations for grants and contracts in order to raise money for projects. They often operate in a hierarchical structure; with a main headquarters staffed by professionals who plan projects, create budgets, keep accounts, report, and communicate with operational fieldworkers who work directly on projects[5] Operational NGOs deal with a wide range of issues, but are most often associated with the delivery of services and welfare, emergency relief and environmental issues.Operational NGOs can be further categorized, one frequently used categorization is the division into relief-oriented versus development-oriented organizations; they can also be classified according to whether they stress service delivery or participation; or whether they are religious or secular; and whether they are more public or private-oriented. Operational NGOs can be community-based, national or international. The defining activity of operational NGOs is implementing projects. [5] Campaigning Campaigning NGOs seek to â€Å"achieve large scale change promoted indirectly through influence of the political system. [5] Campaigning NGOs need an efficient and effective group of professional members who are able to keep supporters informed, and motivated. They must plan and host demonstrations and events that will keep their cause in the media. They must maintain a large informed network of supporters who can be mobilized for events to garner media attention and influence policy changes. The defining activity of campaigning NGOs is holding demonstrations. [5] Campaigning NGOs often deal with issues relating to human rights, women's rights, children's rights. The primary purpose of an Advocacy NGO is to defend or promote a specific cause.As opposed to operational project management, these organizations typically try to raise awareness, acceptance and knowledge by lobbying, press work and activist event. Both It is not uncommon for NGOs to make use of both activities. Many times, operational NGOs will use campaigning techniques if they continually face the same issues in the field that could be remedied through policy changes. At the same time, Campaigning NGOs, like human rights organizations often have programs that assist the individual victims they are trying to help through their advocacy work. [5] Public relationsNon-governmental organizations need healthy relationships with the public to meet their goals. Foundations and charities use sophisticated public relations campaigns to raise funds and employ s tandard lobbying techniques with governments. Interest groups may be of political importance because of their ability to influence social and political outcomes. A code of ethics was established in 2002 by The World Association of Non Governmental NGOs. Project management There is an increasing awareness that management techniques are crucial to project success in non-governmental organizations. 11] Generally, non-governmental organizations that are private have either a community or environmental focus. They address varieties of issues such as religion, emergency aid, or humanitarian affairs. They mobilize public support and voluntary contributions for aid; they often have strong links with community groups in developing countries, and they often work in areas where government-to-government aid is not possible. NGOs are accepted as a part of the international relations landscape, and while they influence national and multilateral policy-making, increasingly they are more directly i nvolved in local action. Corporate structureStaffing Some NGOs are highly professionalized and rely mainly on paid staff. Others are based around voluntary labour and are less formalized. Not all people working for non-governmental organizations are volunteers. Many NGOs are associated with the use of international staff working in ‘developing' countries, but there are many NGOs in both North and South who rely on local employees or volunteers. There is some dispute as to whether expatriates should be sent to developing countries. Frequently this type of personnel is employed to satisfy a donor who wants to see the supported project managed by someone from an industrialized country.However, the expertise these employees or volunteers may be counterbalanced by a number of factors: the cost of foreigners is typically higher, they have no grassroot connections in the country they are sent to, and local expertise is often undervalued. [10] The NGO sector is an important employer i n terms of numbers. [citation needed] For example, by the end of 1995, CONCERN worldwide, an international Northern NGO working against poverty, employed 174 expatriates and just over 5,000 national staff working in ten developing countries in Africa and Asia, and in Haiti. FundingWhether the NGOs are small or large, various NGOs need budgets to operate. The amount of budget that they need would differ from NGOs to NGOs. Unlike small NGOs, large NGOs may have annual budgets in the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. For instance, the budget of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) was over US$540 million in 1999. [12] Funding such large budgets demands significant fundraising efforts on the part of most NGOs. Major sources of NGO funding are membership dues, the sale of goods and services, grants from international institutions or national governments, and private donations.Several EU-grants provide funds accessible to NGOs. Even though the term â€Å"non-gove rnmental organization† implies independence from governments, many NGOs depend heavily on governments for their funding. [13] A quarter of the US$162 million income in 1998 of the famine-relief organization Oxfam was donated by the British government and the EU. The Christian relief and development organization World Vision United States collected US$55 million worth of goods in 1998 from the American government.Nobel Prize winner Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) (known in the USA as Doctors Without Borders) gets 46% of its income from government sources. [14] Government funding of NGOs is controversial, since, according to David Rieff, writing in The New Republic, â€Å"the whole point of humanitarian intervention was precisely that NGOs and civil society had both a right and an obligation to respond with acts of aid and solidarity to people in need or being subjected to repression or want by the forces that controlled them, whatever the governments concerned might think about the matter. [15] Some NGOs, such as Greenpeace do not accept funding from governments or intergovernmental organizations. [16][17] Overhead costs Overhead is the amount of money that is spent on running an NGO rather than on projects. [18] This includes office expenses,[18] salaries, banking and bookkeeping costs. What percentage of overall budget is spent on overhead is often used to judge an NGO with less than 10% being viewed as good. [18] The World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations states that ideally more than 80% should be spent on programs (less than 20% on overhead). 19] The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has specific guidelines on how high overhead can be to receive funding based on how the money is to be spent with overhead often needing to be less than 5-7%. [20] While the World Bank typically allows 10%. [21] A high percentage of overhead to total expenditures can make it more difficult to generate funds. [22] High overhead costs may als o generate criticism with some claiming the certain NGOs with high overhead are being run simply to benefit the people working for them. [23] Monitoring and control In a March 2000 report on United Nations Reform priorities, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote in favor of international humanitarian intervention, arguing that the international community has a â€Å"right to protect†[24] citizens of the world against ethnic cleansing, genocide, and crimes against humanity. On the heels of the report, the Canadian government launched the Responsibility to Protect R2P[25] project, outlining the issue of humanitarian intervention. While the R2P doctrine has wide applications, among the more controversial has been the Canadian government's use of R2P to justify its intervention and support of the coup in Haiti. 26] Years after R2P, the World Federalist Movement, an organization which supports â€Å"the creation of democratic global structures accountable to the citizens of the world and call for the division of international authority among separate agencies†, has launched Responsibility to Protect – Engaging Civil Society (R2PCS). A collaboration between the WFM and the Canadian government, this project aims to bring NGOs into lockstep with the principles outlined under the original R2P project.The governments of the countries an NGO works or is registered in may require reporting or other monitoring and oversight. Funders generally require reporting and assessment, such information is not necessarily publicly available. There may also be associations and watchdog organizations that research and publish details on the actions of NGOs working in particular geographic or program areas. [citation needed] In recent years, many large corporations have increased their corporate social responsibility departments in an attempt to preempt NGO campaigns against certain corporate practices.As the logic goes, if corporations work with NGOs, NGOs will not work against corporations. In December 2007, The United States Department of Defense Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) S. Ward Casscells established an International Health Division under Force Health Protection & Readiness. [27] Part of International Health's mission is to communicate with NGOs in areas of mutual interest. Department of Defense Directive 3000. 05,[28] in 2005, requires DoD to regard stability-enhancing activities as a mission of importance equal to combat.In compliance with international law, DoD has necessarily built a capacity to improve essential services in areas of conflict such as Iraq, where the customary lead agencies (State Department and USAID) find it difficult to operate. Unlike the â€Å"co-option† strategy described for corporations, the OASD(HA) recognizes the neutrality of health as an essential service. International Health cultivates collaborative relationships with NGOs, albeit at arms-length, recognizing their trad itional independence, expertise and honest broker status.While the goals of DoD and NGOs may seem incongruent, the DoD's emphasis on stability and security to reduce and prevent conflict suggests, on careful analysis, important mutual interests. History International non-governmental organizations have a history dating back to at least 1839. [29] It has been estimated that by 1914, there were 1083 NGOs. [30] International NGOs were important in the anti-slavery movement and the movement for women's suffrage, and reached a peak at the time of the World Disarmament Conference. 31] However, the phrase â€Å"non-governmental organization† only came into popular use with the establishment of the United Nations Organization in 1945 with provisions in Article 71 of Chapter 10 of the United Nations Charter[32] for a consultative role for organizations which are neither governments nor member states—see Consultative Status. The definition of â€Å"international NGO† (ING O) is first given in resolution 288 (X) of ECOSOC on February 27, 1950: it is defined as â€Å"any international organization that is not founded by an international treaty†.The vital role of NGOs and other â€Å"major groups† in sustainable development was recognized in Chapter 27[33] of Agenda 21, leading to intense arrangements for a consultative relationship between the United Nations and non-governmental organizations. [34] It has been observed that the number of INGO founded or dissolved matches the general â€Å"state of the world†, rising in periods of growth and declining in periods of crisis. [35] Rapid development of the non-governmental sector occurred in western countries as a result of the processes of restructuring of the welfare state.Further globalization of that process occurred after the fall of the communist system and was an important part of the Washington consensus. [13] Globalization during the 20th century gave rise to the importance of NGOs. Many problems could not be solved within a nation. International treaties and international organizations such as the World Trade Organization were centred mainly on the interests of capitalist enterprises. In an attempt to counterbalance this trend, NGOs have developed to emphasize humanitarian issues, developmental aid and sustainable development.A prominent example of this is the World Social Forum, which is a rival convention to the World Economic Forum held annually in January in Davos, Switzerland. The fifth World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January 2005 was attended by representatives from more than 1,000 NGOs. [36] In terms of environmental issues and sustainable development, the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 was the first to show the power of international NGOs, when about 2,400 representatives of NGOs came to play a central role in deliberations.Some have argued that in forums like these, NGOs take the place of what should belong to popular movements of th e poor. Whatever the case, NGO transnational networking is now extensive. [37] Legal status The legal form of NGOs is diverse and depends upon homegrown variations in each country's laws and practices. However, four main family groups of NGOs can be found worldwide:[38] * Unincorporated and voluntary association * Trusts, charities and foundations * Companies not just for profit Entities formed or registered under special NGO or nonprofit laws The Council of Europe in Strasbourg drafted the European Convention on the Recognition of the Legal Personality of International Non-Governmental Organizations in 1986, which sets a common legal basis for the existence and work of NGOs in Europe. Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects the right to freedom of association, which is also a fundamental norm for NGOs. Critiques Stuart Becker provides the following summary of the primary critiques of NGOs: There’s a debate that, NGOs take the place of what should belon g to popular movements of the poor.Others argue that NGOs are often imperialist in nature, that they sometimes operate in a racist manner in Third World countries and that they fulfill a similar function to that of the clergy during the colonial era. Philosopher Peter Hallward argues that they are an aristocratic form of politics. â€Å"[39] Issa G. Shivji is one of Africa's leading experts on law and development issues as an author and academic. His critique on NGOs is found in two essays: â€Å"Silences in NGO discourse: The role and future of NGOs in Africa† and â€Å"Reflections on NGOs in Tanzania: What we are, what we are not and what we ought to be†.Shivji argues that despite the good intentions of NGO leaders and activists, he is critical of the â€Å"objective effects of actions, regardless of their intentions†. [40] Shivji argues also that the sudden rise of NGOs are part of a neoliberal paradigm rather than pure altruistic motivations. He is critical of the current manifestations of NGOs wanting to change the world without understanding it, and that the imperial relationship continues today with the rise of NGOs. James Pfeiffer, in his case study of NGO involvement in Mozambique, speaks to the negative effects that NGO's have had on areas of health within the country.He argues that over the last decade, NGO's in Mozambique have â€Å"fragmented the local health system, undermined local control of health programs, and contributed to growing local social inequality† [41] He notes further that NGO's can be uncoordinated, creating parallel projects among different organizations, that pull health service workers away from their routine duties in order to serve the interests of the NGO's. This ultimately undermines local primary health care efforts, and takes away the governments ability to maintain agency over their own health sector. 42] J. Pfeiffer suggested a new model of collaboration between the NGO and the DPS (the Moza mbique Provincial Health Directorate). He mentioned the NGO should be ‘formally held to standard and adherence within the host country', for example reduce ‘showcase' projects and parallel programs that proves to be unsustainable. [43] Jessica Mathews once wrote in Foreign Affairs in 1997: â€Å"For all their strengths, NGOs are special interests. The best of them †¦ often suffer from tunnel vision, judging every public act by how it affects their particular interest†. 44] Since NGOs do have to worry about policy trade-offs, the overall impact of their cause might bring more harm to society. [45] Vijay Prashad argues that from the 1970s â€Å"The World Bank, under Robert McNamara, championed the NGO as an alternative to the state, leaving intact global and regional relations of power and production. â€Å"[46] Others argue that NGOs are often imperialist[47] in nature, that they sometimes operate in a racialized manner in third world countries, and that the y fulfill a similar function to that of the clergy during the high colonial era.The philosopher Peter Hallward argues that they are an aristocratic form of politics. [48] Popular movements in the global South such as, for instance, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign in South Africa have sometimes refused to work with NGOs arguing that this will compromise their autonomy. [49][50] Another criticism of NGOs is that they are being designed and used as extensions of the normal foreign-policy instruments of certain Western countries and groups of countries. 51] Russian President Vladimir Putin made this accusation at the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy in 2007, concluding that these NGOs â€Å"are formally independent but they are purposefully financed and therefore under control. â€Å"[52] Also, Michael Bond wrote â€Å"Most large NGOs, such as Oxfam, the Red Cross, Cafod and Action Aid, are striving to make their aid provision more sustainable. But some, mostly in th e US, are still exporting the ideologies of their backers. † [53] Indeed, whether the NGOs are adiding for evangelical purposes or their ideological intentions, various NGOs are examined and accused of their nature.There has also been the overwhelming disaster of NGOs using white lies or misinformed advise to enact their campaigns. In other words, NGOs have been quite ignorant about critical issues because, as chief scientist at Greenpeace Doug Parr claims, these organizations have lost their efforts in being trully scientific and are now more self-interested. Rather than operating through science so as to be rationally and effectively practical, NGOs are now abusing the utilization of science in order to gain their own advantages.In the beginning, as Parr indicated, there was â€Å"‘a tendency among our critics to say that science is the only decision-making tool . . . but political and commerical interests are using science as a cover for getting their way. ‘â⠂¬ [54] At the same time, NGOs have shown themselves not to be very cooperative with other groups, as the previous policy-maker for the German branch of Friends of the Earth Jens Katjek acknowledged. â€Å"If NGOs want the best for the environment, he says, they have to learn to compromise. â€Å"[55] Challenges to legitimacy The issue of the legitimacy of NGOs raises a series of important questions.This is one of the most important assets possessed by an NGO, it is gained through a perception that they are an â€Å"independent voice†. [56][57] Their representation also emerges as an important question. Who bestows responsibilities to NGOs or INGOs and how do they gain the representation of citizens and civil society is still not scrutinized thoroughly. For instance, in the article, it is stated, â€Å"To put the point starkly: are the citizens of countries of the South and their needs represented in global civil society, or are citizens as well as their needs constructed by practices of representation?And when we realize that INGOs hardly ever come face to face with the people whose interests and problems they represent, or that they are not accountable to the people they represent, matters become even more troublesome. † [58] Moreover, the legitimacy and the accountability of NGOs on the point of their true nature are also emerging as important issues. Various perceptions and images on NGOs are provided, and usually implemented in an image as ‘non-state actors' or ‘influential representatives of civil society that advocate the citizen. Accountability may be able to provide this and also be able to assist activities by providing focus and direction[59] As non-state actors with considerable influence over the governance in many areas, concerns have been expressed over the extent to which they represent the views of the public and the extent to which they allow the public to hold them to account. [60] The origin of funding can have serious implications for the legitimacy of NGOs. In recent decades NGOs have increased their numbers and range of activities to a level where they have become increasingly dependent on a limited number of donors. 60] Consequently competition has increased for funding, as have the expectations of the donors themselves. [61] This runs the risk of donors adding conditions which can threaten the independence of NGOs, an over-dependence on official aid has the potential to dilute â€Å"the willingness of NGOs to speak out on issues which are unpopular with governments†. [57] In these situations NGOs are being held accountable by their donors, which can erode rather than enhance their legitimacy, a difficult challenge to overcome. Some commentators have also argued that the changes in where NGOs receive their funding has ultimately altered their functions. 57] NGOs have also been challenged on the grounds that they do not necessarily represent the needs of the developing world, thr ough diminishing the so-called â€Å"Southern Voice†. Some postulate that the North-South division exists in the arena of NGOs. [62] They question the equality of the relationships between Northern and Southern parts of the same NGOs as well as the relationships between Southern and Northern NGOs working in partnerships. This suggests a division of labour may develop, with the North taking the lead in advocacy and resource mobilisation whilst the South engages in service delivery in the developing world. 62] The potential implications of this may mean that the needs of the developing world are not addressed appropriately as Northern NGOs do not properly consult or participate in partnerships. The real danger in this situation is that western views may take the front seat and assign unrepresentative priorities. [63] The flood of NGOs has also been accused of damaging the public sector in multiple developing countries. The mismanagement of NGOs has resulted in the break down of public health care systems.Instead of promoting equity and alleviating poverty, NGOs have been under scrutiny for contributing to socioeconomic inequality and disempowering the services in the public sector of third world countries. [64] The scale and variety of activities in which NGOs participate has grown rapidly since the 1980s, witnessing particular expansion in the 1990s. [65] This has presented NGOs with need to balance the pressures of centralisation and decentralisation. By centralising NGOs, particularly those that operate at an international level, they can assign a common theme or set of goals.Conversely it is also advantageous to decentralise as this increases the chances of an NGO behaving flexibly and effectively to localised issues. [66] See also * Charitable organization * Civil society * Community foundation * NGO-isation * Non-governmental organizations by country * Non-profit organization * Not just for profit * Occupational health and safety * Track II diplomac y References 1. ^ Anheier et al. , â€Å"Global Civil Society 2001†, 2001 2. ^ â€Å"Hobbled NGOs wary of Medvedev†. Chicago Tribune. May 7, 2008. 3. ^ â€Å"India: More NGOs, than schools and health centres†. OneWorld. net. 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ISBN  978-3-86537-222-2. 24. ^ [1][dead link] 25. ^ [2][dead link]  PDF  (434  KB) 26. ^ Engler, Fenton, Yves, Anthony (2005). Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority. Vancouver, Winnipeg: RED Publishing. p. 120. ISBN  978-1-55266-168-0. Retrieved 2011-10-30. 27. ^ OSD. mil 28. ^ http://www. dtic. mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/300005p. df 29. ^ The Rise and Fall of Transnational Civil Society: The Evolution of International Non-Governmental Organizations since 1839. By T. R. Davies City University London Working Paper. Steve Charnovitz, â€Å"Two Centuries of Participation: NGOs and International Governance, Michigan Journal of International Law, Winter 1997. 30. ^ Subcontracting Peace – The Challenges of NGO Peacebuilding. Edited by: Richmond, Oliver P. , and Carey, Henry F. Published by Ashgate, 2005. Page 21. 31. ^ Davies, Thomas Richard (2007). The Possibilities of Transnational Activism: the Campaign for D isarmament between the Two World Wars.ISBN  978-90-04-16258-7. 32. ^ Charter of the United Nations: Chapter X[dead link] 33. ^ United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. â€Å"Agenda 21 – Chapter 27: Strengthening the Role of Non-governmental Organizations: Partners for Sustainable Development, Earth Summit, 1992†. Habitat. igc. org. Retrieved 2011-12-20. 34. ^ â€Å"1996/31. Consultative relationship between the United Nations and non-governmental organizations†. Un. org. Retrieved 2011-12-20. 35. ^ Boli, J. and Thomas, G. M. (1997) World Culture in the World Polity: A century of International Non-Governmental Organization.American Sociological Review. pp. 177 36. ^ Bartlett, Lauren (2005). â€Å"NGO Update†. Human Rights Brief 12 (3): 44–45. 37. ^ Stone, Diane. â€Å"Transfer Agents and Global Networks in the ‘Transnationalisation’ of Policy†, Journal of European Public Policy. austiniskewl, 11(3) 2004: 545â⠂¬â€œ66. 38. ^ Grant B. Stillman (2007), Global Standard NGOs, Geneva: Lulu, pp. 13-14. 39. ^ Stuart Alan Becker (January 28, 2011). â€Å"The definitive description of a non-government organisation†. The Phnom Penh Post. Retrieved 2011-09-19. 40. ^ Shivji, Issa G. (2007). Silence in NGO discourse: the role and future of NGOs in Africa.Oxford, UK: Fahamu. p. 84. ISBN  978-0-9545637-5-2. 41. ^ Pfeiffer, J. 2003. International NGOs and primary health care in Mozambique: the need for a new model of collaboration. Social Science & Medicine 56 (4):725. 42. ^ Pfeiffer, J. 2003. International NGOs and primary health care in Mozambique: the need for a new model of collaboration. Social Science & Medicine 56 (4):725-738. 43. ^ J. Pfeiffer. (2003). International NGOs and primary health care in Mozambique: the need for a new model of collaboration. Social Science & Medicine 56 (2003) 725-738 44. ^ Jessica T.Mathews (Jan. – Feb. , 1997). â€Å"Power Shift†. Foreign Affair s. Retrieved 2012-06-01. 45. ^ Bond, M. (2000) The Backlash against NGOs. Prospect (magazine). 46. ^ Mother Teresa: A Communist View, Vijay Prashad, Australian Marxist Review, No. 40 August 1998 47. ^ Abahlali baseMjondoloRethinking Public Participation from below, ‘Critical Dialogue', 2006 48. ^ See his Damming the Flood (Verso, London, 2007. ) 49. ^ Building unity in diversity: Social movement activism in the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, Sophie Oldfield & Kristian Stokke, 2004 50. Ashraf Cassiem: South African Resistance Against Evictions, Marlon Crump, Poor Magazine, 2009 51. ^ ‘NGO’: The Guise of Innocence, by Jenny O'Connor, New Left Project, 2012 52. ^ Putin, Vladimir (February 10, 2007). Speech and the Following Discussion at the Munich Conference on Security Policy (Speech). 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy. Munich, Germany. Retrieved February 28, 2012. 53. ^ Bond, Michael. â€Å"The Backlash against NGOs. † Prospect, April 2000, pp . 321. Print 54. ^ Bond, Michael. â€Å"The Backlash against NGOs. † Prospect, April 2000, pp. 323. Print 55. Bond, Michael. â€Å"The Backlash against NGOs. † Prospect, April 200, pp. 323. Print 56. ^ Weber, N. and Christopherson, T. (2002) The influence of non-givernmental organisations on the creation of Natura 2000 during the European policy process. Forest policy and Economics. 4(1), pp. 1-12. 57. ^ a b c Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. (2002) NGO Performance and Accountability: Introduction and Overview. â€Å"In: Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. , ed. 2002. † The Earthscan Reader on NGO Management. UK: Earthscan Publications Ltd. Chapter 11. 58. ^ Neera Chandhoke. (2005) â€Å"How Global Is Global Civil Society? Journal of World-Systems Research, 11, 2, 2005, pp. 326-327. 59. ^ Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. (2002) Beyond the Magic Bullet? Lessons and Conclusions. â€Å"In: Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. , ed. 2002. † The Earthscan Reader on NGO Management. UK: Earthsca n Publications Ltd. Chapter 12. 60. ^ a b Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. (1996) Too Close for comfort? The impact of official aid on Non-Governmental Organisations. â€Å"World Development. † 24(6), pp. 961-973. 61. ^ Ebrahim, A. (2003) Accountability in practice: Mechanisms for NGOs. â€Å"World Development. † 31(5), pp. 813-829. 62. ^ a b Lindenberg, M. and Bryant, C. 2001) Going Global:Transforming Relief and Development NGOs. Bloomfield: Kumarian Press. 63. ^ Jenkins, R. (2001) Corporate Codes of Conduct: Self-Regulation in a Global Economy. â€Å"Technology, Business and Society Programme Paper Number 2. † United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. 64. ^ Pfeiffer, J. 2003. International NGOs and primary health care in Mozambique: the need for a new model of collaboration. Social Science ; Medicine 56(4):725-738. 65. ^ Avina, J. (1993) The Evolutionary Life Cycles if Non-Governmental Development Organisations. â€Å"Public Administration and Devel opment. † 13(5), pp. 53-474. 66. ^ Anheier, H. and Themudo, N. (2002) Organisational forms of global civil society: Implications of going global. In: Anheier, H. Glasius, M. Kaldor, M, ed 2002. Further reading * Mark Butler, with Thulani Ndlazi, David Ntseng, Graham Philpott, and Nomusa Sokhela. NGO Practice and the Possibility of Freedom Church Land Programme, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 2007 Churchland. co. za[dead link] * Olivier Berthoud, NGOs: Somewhere between Compassion, Profitability and Solidarity Envio. org. ni, PDF Edinter. net Envio, Managua, 2001 * Terje Tvedt, 19982/2003: Angels of Mercy or Development Diplomats.NGOs ; Foreign Aid, Oxford: James Currey * Steve W. Witt, ed. Changing Roles of NGOs in the Creation, Storage, and Dissemination of Information in Developing Countries (Saur, 2006). ISBN 3-598-22030-8 * Cox, P. N. Shams, G. C. Jahn, P. Erickson and P. Hicks. 2002. Building collaboration between NGOs and agricultural research institutes. Cambodian Journ al of Agriculture 6: 1-8. IRRI. org[dead link] * Ann Florini, ed. The Third Force: The Rise of Transnational Civil Society (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Japan Center for International Exchange, 2001). Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Cornell University Press * Rodney Bruce Hall, and Biersteker, Thomas. The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance (Cambridge Studies in International Relations, 2003) * Dorthea Hilhorst, The Real World of NGOs: Discourses, Diversity and Development, Zed Books, 2003 * Joan Roelofs, Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003). Ian Smillie, ; Minear, Larry, editors. The Charity of Nations: Humanitarian Action in a Calculating World, Kumarian Press, 2004 * Simon Maxwell and Diane Stone. (eds) Global Knowledge Networks and International Development: Bridges Across Boundaries (Routledge, 2005: I-xix; 1-192). * Sidney Tarrow, The New Transnational Activism, New York  :Cambridge University Press, 2005 * Thomas Ward, editor. Development, Social Justice, and Civil Society: An Introduction to the Political Economy of NGOs, Paragon House, 2005 * H. Teegen, 2003. International NGOs as Global Institutions: Using Social Capital to Impact Multinational Enterprises and Governments’, Journal of International Management. * Jennifer Brinkerhoff, Stephen C. Smith, and Hildy Teegen, NGOs and the Millennium Development Goals: Citizen Action to Reduce Poverty, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. * S. Goonatilake. Recolonisation: Foreign Funded NGO's in Sri Lanka, Sage Publications 2006. * Teegen, H. Doh, J. , Vachani, S. , 2004. â€Å"The importance of nongovernmental organisation in global governance and value creation: an international business research agendaâ€Å" in Journal of International Business Studies.Washington: Vol. 35, Iss. 6. * K. Rodman, (1998). â€Å"‘Think Global ly, Punish Locally: Nonstate Actors, Multinational Corporations, and Human Rights Sanctions† in Ethics in International Affairs, vol. 12. * Grant B. Stillman (2006), NGO Law and Governance: a resource book, ADB Institute, Tokyo, ISBN 4-89974-013-1. More useful are regional histories and analyses of the experience of NGOs. Specific works (although this is by no means an exhaustive list) include: * T. R. Davies, The Possibilities of Transnational Activism: The Campaign for Disarmament between the Two World Wars, Brill, 2007.ISBN 3-598-22030-8 * H. Englund, Prisoners of Freedom: Human Rights & the Africa Poor, University of California Press, 2006 * Carrie Meyer, The Economics and Politics of NGOs in Latin America, Praeger Publishers, July 30, 1999 * Chhandasi Pandya. 2006. Private Authority and Disaster Relief: The Cases of Post-Tsunami Aceh and Nias. Critical Asian Studies. Vol. 38, No. 2. Pg. 298-308. Routledge Press: Taylor & Francis Group * Maha Abdelrahman, Civil Society Exp osed: The Politics of NGOs in Egypt, The American University in Cairo Press, 2004.Al-Ahram Weekly has done a review of the book. * Sangeeta Kamat, Development hegemony: NGOs and The State in India, Delhi, New York; Oxford University Press, 2002 * Adama Sow, Chancen und Risiken von NGOs – Die Gewerkschaften in Guinea wahrend der Unruhen 2007 – EPU Research Papers: Issue 03/07, Stadtschlaining 2007 (German) * Lyal S. Sunga, â€Å"Dilemmas facing INGOs in coalition-occupied Iraq†, in Ethics in Action: The Ethical Challenges of International Human Rights Nongovernmental Organizations, edited by Daniel A. Bell and Jean-Marc Coicaud, Cambridge Univ. and United Nations Univ.Press, 2007. * Lyal S. Sunga, â€Å"NGO Involvement in International Human Rights Monitoring, International Human Rights Law and Non-Governmental Organizations† (2005) 41-69. * Werker & Ahmed (2008): What do Non-Governmental Organizations do? * Steve Charnovitz, â€Å"Two Centuries of Partic ipation: NGOs and International Governance,† Michigan Journal of International Law, Vol. 18, Winter 1997, at 183-286. * Abahlali baseMjondolo Rethinking Public Participation from Below, ‘Critical Dialogue', 2006 * Akpan S. M (2010): Establishment of Non-Governmental Organizations (In Press). Edward A. L. Turner (2010) Why Has the Number of International Non-Governmental Organizations Exploded since 1960? , Cliodynamics, 1, (1). Retrieved from: [3] * Eugene Fram & Vicki Brown, How Using the Corporate Model Makes a Nonprofit Board More Effective & Efficient – Third Edition (2011), Amazon Books, Create Space Books. The de facto reference resource for information and statistics on International NGOs (INGOs) and other transnational organisational forms is the Yearbook of International Organizations, produced by the Union of International Associations. David Lewis and Nazneen Kanji (2009): Non-Governmental Organizations and Development. New York: Routledge. * Issa G. Sh ivji (2007): Silence in NGO Discourse: The Role and Future of NGOs in Africa. Nairobi: Fahamu. * Jens Steffek and Kristina Hahn (2010): Evaluating Transnational NGOs: Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation. New York: Palgrave, Macmillan. External links * NGO Search: NGO/IGO google custom search engine built by the Govt Documents Round Table (GODORT) of the American Library Association. * Interface journal special issue on NGOs * A brief history of Non-Governmental Organizations Historical Database of International NGOs * Duke University NGO Library * Global Policy Forum: The site includes articles on a wide range of aspects of NGOs. * NGOs – Non-Governmental Organizations * What is a Non-Governmental Organization? 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Aesthetic of Character Little Woman by Louisa May...

The focus of this seminar paper will be on a theoretical approach called aesthetic of character, with examples from a novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Various terms, coined up by theoreticians of this approach, will be explained through some of the examples taken out of the above mentioned novel. To begin with, this approach is concerned with what is the function of the characters in the narrative and how the characters are characterised. According to it, characters are agents performing actions in a story. They can be persons, anthropomorphised animals or objects. There are two main theoretical approaches within this one, and those are mimetic and semiotic approaches. While the mimetic approach considers characters as real†¦show more content†¦In contrast to this, we have another term called gender permutation, or when female performs actions in accordance with the prewritten male gender script, or shortly, female set in a male role. There is a milder version of thi s, described only as a deviation from prescribed gender norms while character retains its feminine identity. In the book, this can be seen through the character of Jo March. She is a fifteen-year old girl, who resents these gender roles. She feels uncomfortable in her own body, because it presents everything which prevents her from behaving in a way she wants. It is also called abjection, one form of the growing-up-grotesque archetype, which implies a girl’s feeling of aversion towards her own body as it matures. If she was a boy, nobody would care if she likes â€Å"boys games and work and mannersâ€Å"(Alcott: p. 9). On the contrary, it would be desirable. What is more, behaving in such way might be tolerable in very young age, but as one advances, such â€Å"romping ways† should stop. The result of this is a tomboy figure, whose behaviour interrogates the societal norms which force women into secondary and submissive role. As we could see from this short overview of the main theoretical premises of this approach, gender roles and stereotypes very much influenced the process of characterising agents in a story. Whether they are made as an exemplary models or interrogative models, they are portrayed according to theShow MoreRelatedThe Conflict between Personal Development and Social Expectations in Anne of Green Gables.2576 Words   |  11 Pagesmore apparent in culture and society. As a result, British story papers as Girl’s Own Paper started to circulate. This magazine for girls was founded in 1880 and canvassed the struggle between traditional domestic ideologies and the idea of the â€Å"new woman† (Paul 119). Claudia Nelson argues that by reading those magazines girls were expected to adopt virtues such as â€Å"purity, obedience, dependence, self-sacrifice and service† (141). However, they also encouraged girls to have â€Å"intelligence, self-respect