European Civil Society on the Road to Success?

The new challenges of globalisation of economy, society and politics appear in the Europeanisation of social and political networks in different policy areas. New forms of citizen"s involvement in policy processes as well as planning, implementation and evaluation need new forms of governance on local, regional and European level as well as global participation of European actors. In this process civil society emerged as political programme and scientific and theoretical challenge for the social sciences.
The issue of civil society in the axis of the different fields and directions of political and social research in an European context is the focus of this anthology. Its aim is to break the barriers between the traditional division of labour of European governance and national-regional-local oriented social and political research. Two leading questions are addressed:
o What do civil society organisations contribute to social, cultural and leisure time services in the context of Europeanization?
o In European comparison and at the organizational level, what risks and opportunities result from the inclusion of civil society organisations in new concepts of governance?