by Lars Josephsen

Note on a conference arranged in July 2008 by ISTR and EMES in partnership with CINEFOGO. The note builds upon the Conference Report, read more at www.istr.org/conferences/barcelona/.

About the conference

ISTR’s 8th International Conference was unique as the Society joined with the EMES European Research Network to hold the 2nd European Conference at the same time. For the second time after the first joint European conference in Paris in 2005, a partnership was created to allow special emphasis on European debates and contributions related to social enterprises and the Third Sector while placing them in a worldwide context.

The 8th International Conference arranged by the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) was unique in the sense, that the Society joined with the EMES European Research Network to hold the 2nd European Conference at the same time. For the second time after the first joint European conference in Paris in 2005, a partnership was created to allow special emphasis on European debates and contributions related to social enterprises and the Third Sector while placing them in a worldwide context.

In addition, the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence cooperated through its research program on civil society and new forms of governance in Europe. These collaborations and networks brought a much wider group of delegates from the continent to explore this year’s conference theme, “The Third Sector and Sustainable Social Change: New Frontiers for Research.”

The conference had attracted 601 delegates from 61 countries conference, among those several from CINEFOGO partner institutions. The program included plenary sessions, workshops, and 125 paper and panel sessions.

Plenary sessions

The opening plenary featured the keynote address by Professor Victor Pérez-Díaz, University in Madrid and Founding Director of ASP Research Center in Madrid. As the respondent served Professor Adalbert Evers of Justus Liebig Universität in Germany and a member of the EMES European Research Network. Both speakers yielded inspiring perspectives to the conference by highlighting unnoticed aspects of civil society and the third sector.

Dr. Pérez-Díaz’s comments addressed “The Voices of Civil Societies”, and explored themes of civil society, markets and democratic politics, and noted that the (prevailing) use of civil society relates to the world of associations. His concluding message was “As history has taught us, associations, markets and democratic politics belong together in a normative model that, for all its limitations, still looks as the best alternative to totalitarian, authoritarian, collectivistic experiments of the past; and one which leaves itself open to ongoing reforms, if and when there is a need for them, in the search for a better, possibly even a good society. Engaging markets and democratic politics, learning from them and, in turn, learning how to influence them back may be one of the most important challenges of the world of associations in the coming future.” - In his contribution “Observations on uncivility - Points of reference to blind spots in third sector research”, Professor Evers held in conceiving the world of associations (or the third sector) and civil society as two different subjects. In his final remark, Adalbert Evers referred to the dictum that “the state builds on premises it can not create and sustain by its own force” (Böckenförde, 1976), and he suggested to apply the sentence likewise to the third sector. “Its abilities to contribute to a civil society depend on premises it can not create by itself alone”.

The  second plenary, “Global Civil Society and Democratic Cultures,” was moderated by Professor Thomas P. Boje of CINEFOGO and Roskilde University (Denmark). The session addressed “The role of global civil society institutions” from various perspectives. - The final plenary session on “Theorizing the Global Third Sector: Does North/South Make Sense?”, was moderated by Roseanne Mirabella of Seton Hall University (USA). The session examined ideas about Third Sector theory including whether the theories of the global Third Sector are really global?

Professional Development Workshops

A series of workshops explored a range of topics including Bridging Research and Policy, The Third Sector in Spain, Civic Engagement in the Mediterranean, The State of Philanthropy in Africa, Theoretical Dialogues, PhD Perspectives: Social Entrepreneurship Research, and Harnessing Social Enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The workshop titled “PhD Perspectives: Social Entrepreneurship Research” was organized by the University Network for Social Entrepreneurship with the goal of analyzing the state of the academic field of social entrepreneurship and its relevance as a valuable field of study.

Awards

ISTR awarded the second Young Scholar Dissertation Award in Barcelona to Vanessa Timmer, PhD (Canada) for an outstanding dissertation that contributes to the field of comparative study of civil society organizations, nonprofit organizations, philanthropy, voluntarism and related issues. -
The Rockefeller Archive Center and ISTR awarded the first International Research Fellowship Award to Marwa El Daly (Egypt). The purpose of the award is to support scholarly research in the field of nonprofit and philanthropic studies throughout the world. Marwa El Daly is the lead researcher of the first philanthropy national study in Egypt, and she is currently a PhD student at Humboldt University in Berlin. Her thesis is on philanthropy, waqf (traditional endowed structure) and community foundations

Paper, Panel and Poster Sessions
The program included 125 paper and panel sessions. Papers were organized into sessions by theme and a list of sessions by theme track was included in the program. Thirteen posters were displayed during the conference.

Many of the papers presented in Barcelona will be reviewed for Volume 6 of the ISTR Conference Working Paper Series and for the EMES Selected Conference Paper Series. Some papers are expected to be published in Voluntas.

The conference abstracts and a lot more information can be found at http://www.istr.org/conferences/barcelona/index.htm.

EMES European Reseach Network

EMES is a research network of established university research centres and individual researchers whose goal is to gradually build up an European corpus of theoretical and empirical knowledge, pluralistic in disciplines and methodology, around “Third Sector” issues.

EMES exists since 1996, when an international group of scholars formed a research network that had been sponsored by the European Union. Having reached an unusual level of mutual understanding, trust and a common perspective of working together, a community of researchers sprang off from this working experience.

Formally established as a non-profit association (ASBL under Belgian law) in 2002 and named after its first research programme, on "the emergence of social enterprises in Europe”, EMES nevertheless concerns itself with broader matters, defining the “Third Sector” in broad ways.

Read more: www.emes.net

ISTR - the International Society for Third-Sector Research

Founded in 1992, the International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR) is a major international association promoting research and education in the fields of civil society, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector. ISTR is an organization committed to building a global community of scholars and interested others dedicated to the creation, discussion, and advancement of knowledge pertaining to the Third Sector and its impact on human and planetary well-being and development internationally. As an organization, ISTR is recognized and respected for its global vision, its commitment to excellence, its collaborative approach, and the values of diversity and pluralism with which it pursues its mission.

The Society's mission is to promote the development of high quality research and education internationally on Third Sector related issues, theories, and policies; and to enhance the dissemination and application of knowledge about the Third Sector as widely as possible throughout the world. ISTR strives to broaden the participation of researchers in all parts of the world and in all disciplines, with special emphasis given to expand the number of Third Sector researchers in developing nations and Central and Eastern Europe.

Read more: www.istr.org