Civil Society in Times of Conflict

A new way of understanding how civil society organizations in the Global South adapt and survive in times of conflict, violence, and war

This open access book offers a new way of understanding how civil society organizations in the Global South adapt and survive in times of conflict, violence, and war. The book contains a thorough introduction outlining a novel theoretical framework for understanding how civil-society leaders negotiate a complex web of issues during catastrophic times—factors including increased militarism, humanitarian crises, ingrained sectarianism, collaboration with local activists, and pressure from international donors—in order to continue impacting community development initiatives and local change. Each chapter then elucidates one of these factors through an in-depth case study drawing on long experiences of working for INGOs and NGOs, participatory observation, interviews, and existing literature. These chapters span the Global South, including studies of Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, and the Central African Republic, as well as particularly timely studies of Palestine, Sudan, and South Sudan. Ultimately, all this sheds new light on how CSOs can manage political, social, and financial challenges across the globe.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on Bloomsbury Collections. Open access was funded by the Bloomsbury Open Collections Library Collective.