CINEFOGO had its Kick-Off Conference on 15-19 October 2005 at Roskilde University. All universities represented in the CINEFOGO were present at the Conference. Through four days of enthusiastic debate the scientific programme of the CINEFOGO was outlined in detail and firm commitments were made between the institutions in planning the programme for the first 18 months.

The conference included a series of opening and plenary lectures on issues related to 'Civil Society and New Forms of Governance' and the aim and scope of the CINEFOGO Network. Please find below a brief mention of these lectures.

A European Social Model?

Dr. Bent Greve, Professor at Roskilde University, outlined his reflections on 'A European Social Model?', and asked whether there is a European model for welfare, and whether there is a move towards a European social model. On the basis of a comparative welfare perspective, Bent Greve had identified and analyzed six European models of welfare, using the triangulation between state, market and civil society as the welfare state actors. One of the six, i.e. the socalled 'Nordic or social democratic model' was characterized by a strong civil society. Bent Greve stated that there a few signs of a development towards a European welfare state model, where universalism seems to pre-vail in some areas and where convergence can be found at a macro-level, and he argued that institutional and organizational differences call for different roads to welfare.
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Civil Society and Governance

In his speech on 'Civil Society and Governance', Dr. Lars Hulgård, Associate Professor at Roskilde University, addressed CINEFOGO's concern about improving citizens' participation in governance, and he welcomed the emerging interest in building the civil society - governance relation into the overall strategy for the development of the EU. Lars Hulgård outlined the complex relationship be-tween civil society and governance with a short historical journey, with four illustrating snapshots of periods in time, with Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan as starting point, and then a controversy in the mid 1990s between the two Czech statesmen Václav Havel and Václav Klaus about the role of civil society in a modern democracy. Next snapshot included Robert Putnam and his book 'Bowling Alone', and the last referred to reflections of Romano Prodi on the role of the third sector organizations as "schools for democratic participation and active citizenship". Lars Hulgård concluded "or-ganized civil society is today fully aware of its legitimate role as a cornerstone in the making of European citizenship".
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Aims and Scope of the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence

Dr. Thomas Boje, Professor at Roskilde University, presented 'Scope and Aim of the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence'. The aim is to provide knowledge about the relationship between civil soci-ety, citizenship and social protection in an increasingly diversified and multicultural Europe, which also seeks greater integration of those living in Europe. The objectives of the Network are: (1) To promote citizens' involvement and participation in European policymaking - how to enlarge and activate democracy and participation. (2) To understand the impact of the different forms of citizen-ship and civic participation - how to ensure social cohesion in an economic, socially and culturally diversified Europe, and (3) To identify factors facilitating the co-existence of multiple identities - how to combine recognition of social and cultural differences with universal citizenship rights and social justice.
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Social Capital across Europe

'Social Capital across Europe' is the title of a speech given by Dr. Claire Wallace, Professor at Aberdeen University. Claire Wallace outlined the comparative study 'Social Capital across Europe, patterns of participation, trust and social cohesion'. The aim of the study was to examine whether formal and informal social capital reinforce or substitute one another. The main indicators for social capital chosen were: generalized trust, social contacts, networks of mutual help outside the family, and involvement in voluntary organizations. The research is based on data from 27 EU countries, Turkey and Croatia, and resulted in a clustering of countries around five groups. Claire Wallace stated that the social capital study indicates that a simple welfare regime typology does not give a sufficient picture of differences among the European countries. Thus it is not possible to measure social capital by the same yardstick, and that new EU countries cannot be clustered together by so-cial capital, as they vary too much.
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Still a Trustworthy Ally?

Dr. Erik Amnå, Professor at Gothenburg University gave a lecture titled 'Still a Trustworthy Ally? Civil Society and the Transformation of Scandinavian Democracy'. Erik Amnå focused on the transformation democracy and of the role of civil society in Scandinavian countries The develop-ment of democracy and the welfare state Norway, Sweden and Denmark were characterized by an expansion of the welfare into the sphere of civil society, leaving it to an instrumental role of strengthening and legitimizing the representative democracy, through political socialisation. Erik Amnå described the role of civil society by a series of statements, e.g. "Civil society returns due to run-away political parties", and "As civil society returns, it speaks a new language: the language of human rights", and he concluded "civil society operated more as an engine in the transformation of Scandinavian democracies than as brakes, yet it is more like lubricated shock absorbers than a real engine".
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Community Participation in the Real World

Dr. Marilyn Taylor, Professor at University of the West of England, titled her presentation 'Community Participation in the Real World. Opportunities and Pitfalls in New Governance Spaces'. Marilyn Taylor identified policy communities and issues network as two kinds of groupings that have a role to play in the policy process. Of the two, policy communities are far more central to governing. She argued that although the new governance spaces that have emerged over recent years are suffused with state power, there are still opportunities for communities to become active subjects in the governance spaces and thus to shape and influence the exercise of government. Also issue networks have opportunities to become active subjects. Marilyn Taylor stressed that the main pitfall in governance is to completely overlook issue networks as possible contributors to the revi-talisation of the democratic process. This may happen if the institutionalised 'rules of the game' and technologies continue to be largely framed by government actors.
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Civil Society and Volunteering

Dr. Paul Dekker, Professor at Tilburg University, gave a lecture on 'Civil Society and Volunteering: Comparison and Questions for Further Research'. He addressed the concepts of civil society and volunteering, and highlighted that the concepts have various definitions due to cultural and societal differences. After comparing volunteering in Western Europe in the perspective of civil society (active membership) and the non-profit sector (unpaid work), he summarized why volunteering can be considered to be both appositive and negative factor for society. Positive as it is supposed to make people more social, trusting and interested in politics (cf. 'social capital' and 'political democracy'), and negative because it replaces mutuality by service and spreads a questionable work ethics (may imply 'avoiding politics'). Paul Dekker concluded that voluntary workers seem to grow in numbers at the expense of active members, which is a development that several scholars find negative.
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