International research on the connection between civil society and governance agrees about one thing: The soft revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe, which were initiated at the end of the 1980s, led to a renewed growth in interest concerning civil society in Europe in general. This was so, even though such an interest had already existed since the late sixties and early seventies. It was promoted by social movements and developed through social, cultural and political changes in various societies around the world. The renewed interest in civil society and its impact on active civic participation and cultural identity appeared at a time that was marked by a number of historical developments. These included the collapse of totalitarian regimes, as well as of authoritarian states, and even by a widespread crisis in the socio-political order of Western societies. These events collectively questioned, to some extent, the political classes and the state institutions per se, and they contributed to enhancing the role of the citizenship.

More specifically, since the late twentieth century in Europe (but also elsewhere), the debate about citizenship and civil society has also been intensified because nation-states have been challenged into changing their ways of dealing with their increasingly complex and open societies. To a certain extent, they seem to have lost their ability to control the economic, social and political developments of their countries both at the national and the regional levels. This is partly because of globalization and partly because of intensified local demands. These challenges seem to suggest a loss of authority (that is, of legitimacy and of perceived efficacy) of the state, but also the emergence of new ways of understanding the complex relations between law, ethics, policy, the economy and various forms of institutionalised praxis.

In conceptualizing citizenship, civic participation and social integration it is necessary to take into consideration a variety of different dimensions. The gender dimension has played a remarkable role in discussing citizenship rights and social participation. The changing model of family and the entry of women into the labour market and the public sphere have had significant consequences for the definition of citizenship rights and the development of social entitlements across Europe. The public welfare arrangements have in a similar way been seen as decisive in understanding the position of civic institutions and their role in the social processes of integration and differentiation in the EU societies. It is often argued that a negative relation exits between public welfare arrangements and social capital / civic participation suggesting that the welfare state neglects or even erodes the involvement of the civil society and the family in producing social welfare. Only weak empirical evidences can be found for this assumption. Instead it has been found that in periods of welfare state expansion the supportive functions of the civil society and family have flourished.

The growth in research on civil society, civic cultures and citizenship has been marked by considerable disagreements about how to define and articulate concepts, and how to apply them to the historical evidence. Several perspectives are at stake in current European research on the inter-relation between civil society, civic cultures and citizenship. However, underlying those debates and disagreements among researchers within the social sciences, three basic understandings or assumptions are generally accepted in the main readings of the inter-relation between civic cultures, citizenship and governance.

1. Historically, democracy in Europe’s nation states is closely related to the evolution of civil society.
2. European modernity is to be understood within a triadic framework as an evolution of state, market and civil society based institutions.
3. There exists a strong relationship between citizenship rights, economic prosperity, and political involvement of citizens in the society.

Those debates and these three basic understandings set the intellectual background for this Network of excellence. Together they form a common platform for integrating activities to be undertaken by the CINEFOGO Network. The platform can be expressed through the following three perspectives:

• Perspective 1: The relationship between cultural identity and civil society
  
• Perspective 2: The civil society tradition in the evolution of European democracy
• Perspective 3: The relationship between citizenship, welfare provision and gender