Contested civic spaces : a European perspective / Siri Hummel, Rupert Graf Strachwitz

Developing the space

Shrinking space for civil society development in Croatia Gojko Bežovan

Civil Society in England : current challenges and future opportunities Asif Afridi

Third Sector as the most significant manifestation of civil society in Italy Gianluca Salvatori, Francesco Scarpat und Alessia Schiavone

The qinterplay with the state

Civil society in Ukraine : cooperation between Ukrainian CSOs and local and state authorities Nataliia Lomonosova

French democracy under threat Hélène Balazard

Civil Society in Germany : contested spaces in times of rapid change Siri Hummel

Fighting right-wing populism

Civic spaces between turbulent politics and the pandemic - the civil society in Austria Ruth Simsa

Civil society in 21st century Greece : locating challenges, charting opportunities, assessing developments Vasilios N. Makrides

Dancing on a thin ice : civil society in Slovakia Boris Strečanský

New movements

From a privileged partnership to policy neglect : civil society in the Netherlands Ulla Pape

Spain : the evolution of civil society's mobilisation since 15M Maria Medina-Vicent und Ramón A. Feenstra

Polish civil society 2015-2022 : steered from the top, reclaimed from the grassroots Anna Domaradzka und Magdalena Kołodziejczyk

The civic space : growing - shrinking - closing - changing? : a comparative analysis Rupert Graf Strachwitz

For some years, we have observed a broad public discussion over the shrinking civic space. While the focus has generally been on countries with authoritarian governance systems, it has more recently become apparent that the issue is neither restricted to these countries nor indeed to countries with weak or non-existing democracies. It has been demonstrated that the space in which civil society actors and individual citizens may contribute to public affairs is undergoing fundamental changes in Europe. While in some areas, the clout of civic initiative is larger today than ever before, in others, civic action is highly disputed and governments are attempting to crowd out non-governmental actors from the public sphere. This edited volume examines the wellbeing of civil society in the Europe and its riparian states. Presented by experts from 12 European countries the book presents insights in the latest developments of civil society and aspect like the shifting interaction between the state, market and civil society or the influence of populist movements on civil society and tackles the question wether there is a shrinking civic space in Europe. It addresses policy and decision makers, civil society academics and actors in the field, as well as the public.