Abstract

The annual Global Civil Society Yearbooks provide an indispensable guide to global civil society or civic participation and action around the world. The Yearbook includes commissioned contributions from leading commentators across the social sciences on the latest issues and developments, explores and presents the latest approaches to measuring and analyzing global civil society and provides a chronology of key global civil society events in the year. The Global Civil Society Yearbook remains the standard work on all aspects of contemporary global civil society for activists, practitioners, students and academics alike. It is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the key actors, forms and manifestations of global civil society around the world today. Suicide bombings, collateral damage, kidnappings and air strikes pepper the lexicon of twenty-first century politics. Global Civil Society 2006//7 explores the complex relationship between violence, civil society and legitimacy in a unique dialogue that crosses political, cultural and religious boundaries. Is the use of violence by non-state actors ever justified? How is violence transmitted from the private to the public sphere? Why is terror and 'the war on terror' catalysing rather than suppressing violence? Do Western and Islamic traditions of thought offer any solutions? This edition of the Yearbook also includes new research on economic and social rights, the politics of water, and football.