Pros And Cons Of Civil Society Organizations

1431 Words6 Pages
Any formal entity for profit which may be a corporation, a partnership, association or individual proprietorship can be termed as a business company whereas the term Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) is broad and inclusive of non-governmental organizations, charities, trusts, foundations, advocacy groups, national and international non-state associations, which are all particular types of organizations within civil society (Deakin and Taylor, 2001). CSO’s vary enormously in their focus and organization so we need to exercise caution in treating them as if they represent a homogenous grouping. Their membership may be local, national and international. Some have relatively few members whereas others form extensive global network. The International Amateur Athletic Federation, for instance, has 21 more member states than the United Nations. The organizational structures of CSO’s are also varied: unitary, hierarchical structures, such as church, trade unions and professions; centralized associations such as Greenpeace; federations such as Amnesty International; confederations such as World Council of Churches;…show more content…
Yearley (1992), pointed out that, CSO’s face the problem of “nescience” or unknown unknowns, because future research that addresses the problem at hand may not turn out to support their assumptions. For example, environmental organizations concerned about toxic effects of a pollutant on ecosystem or human health may learn that the pollutant have no identifiable effects at a specific level of exposure. Social movements and public-interest civil society organizations also face uncertainty in the interpretation of the research that exist (Gunter and Kroll-Smith, 2007), accounting for the broader “knowledge gaps” that they face when attempting to solve public policy problems (Frickel,

More about Pros And Cons Of Civil Society Organizations

Open Document