6. Outline of the activities in the CINEFOGO Network in 2007

Thomas P. Boje, Roskilde University (Denmark)

The first year of the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence has gone. The Network has started its second year and a lot of activities are under way. The initial phase was characterized by a focus on the establishment of the infrastructure of the Network.  First of all an efficient CINEFOGO website was created, www.cinefogo.org . This will be followed by a special website for student communication - 'Student Corner'. Further information on this facility will be announced when the website is ready.

A network for Ph.D. students on civil society, citizenship and governance in Europe is established and every year at least one Ph.D. Workshop on 'European Civil Society' will be organised. In 2007 the Ph.D. Workshop will be at Westfälische Wilhelms Universität in Münster in Germany. Finally, a professional team for the Spread of Excellence activities (encompassing TV Series, Book Series, Newsletter and training courses for dissemination) has been organised. The main responsibility for running these activities is placed at Charles University in Prague.

During the first year a few conferences were organised with great success, but for most of the Work Packages planning and preparation of the activities have not surprisingly taken a lot of time. This means that most Work Packages have their main activities in the late 2006 and during 2007. The second year of the lifetime of the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence looks thus very exciting and challenging with a lot of activities - including several events planned in cooperation with represen-tatives from external institutions and networks, meaning that a significant number of participants from external partners and other European scientific networks will be present at the CINEFOGO activities. Truly in line with the purpose formulated by the European Commission for a European network of excellence. A more detailed description of the planned conferences and workshops during the period November 2006 - July 2007 you find in this Newsletter section 10.

In the description of the CINEFOGO Programme for Integrated Research Activities (PIRA) we have especially focussed on three related themes:

• Active citizenship: to promote citizens' involvement and social participation in policy-making;
• Organised civil society: to understand the impact of different forms of citizenship and civic participation;
• Multiple identities: to identify factors that help co-existence among multiple identities in Europe.

Both the on-going activities and the future activities planned under the Second 18 Month Activity Period are organised under the heading of these themes. Here I just want to mention some of the most important subjects to be dealt with in the up-coming activities under the Second 18 Month Activity Period:

• The work-family relations and its influence on citizenship rights and civic participation;
• Civil society / NGO activities within specific sectors and regional differences;
• Gender relations and gendered citizenship in the civil society;
• EU aid policy and the impact of organized civil society in the South - North dialogue;
• European Citizenship - challenges and possibilities.

In the debate about the relationship between civil society institutions and the welfare state, CINE-FOGO wants to develop an input towards the making of European Citizenship. The importance of the conception of a European Citizenship and its consequences for the European citizens and for the functioning of the European institutions is emphasised by the CINEFOGO Network by making this topic the theme of the Mid-term Conference in June 2007. At the conference the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence wants to reflect on the relationship between of civil society and citizenship in Europe and the impact of social movements on democracy, social participation and citizenship for European citizens. The results and accomplishments from the first 2 years of activities in the network will be evaluated at the conference.

In addition to the relations among the ordinary members of the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence we also want to establish long-lasting relationships with other networks - European as well as international. For the time being we have established exchange relationship with EMES (European research network on Social Entrepreneurship), ISTR (International Society for Third-Sector Research) and ESA (European Sociological Association). In June 2008 the CINEFOGO Network will organise an international conference together with EMES and ISTR in Barcelona on 'Non-profit institutions and civil society'.