including the annual World Social Forum that began in Brazil in 2001 , explicitly have
no purpose beyond dialogue (Kaldor, Anheier, and Glasius 2003 a).
3 Definitions
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‘‘ ‘NGOs: They’re everywhere, but what are they?’ ’’ Thus begins one of the many
edited volumes on the subject to appear in the 1990 s, citing a question posed by a
reporter in a public forum (Smith, ChatWeld, and Pagnucco 1997 , xiii). One of the
harder tasks facing scholars in this area is deWning the subject. Another edited
volume lists a litany of terms in current usage, with overlapping and competing
deWnitions: ‘‘ ‘nongovernmental organization’... independent sector, volunteer
sector, civic society, grassroots organizations, private voluntary organizations,
transnational society movement organizations, grassroots social change organiza-
tions, and non-state actors’’ (Gordenker and Weiss 1996 , 18 ). To this list could be
added civil society organization, third sector, citizen sector, transnational civil
society, and an ever-growing list of alternatives.
One important distinction among the various terms and meanings is the one
between formal organizations and informal associations. Although the terms tend to
be used interchangeably, NGOs and civil society are not the same thing. NGOs are
the formally constituted, legally recognized entities that pursue public purposes.
International NGOs, or INGOs, are NGOs with members in more than one country.
Civil society is a much broader term that includes NGOs but can also include a
wide array of other types of associations. Its deWnition is much contested. Ameri-
can usage tends to deWne ‘‘civil society’’ as a ‘‘third sector,’’ the large and amorph-
ous realm of non-governmental associations among people beyond the level of the
family that are not primarily motivated by proWt-seeking; and that is the deWnition
adopted in this chapter. It is important to know, however, that elsewhere in the
world, particularly in continental Europe, ‘‘civil society’’ can refer to all non-
governmental associations, including for-proWt enterprises. This chapter uses the
American deWnition, focusing on the literature that addresses the unique charac-
teristics and roles of politically active entities motivated by goals other than
Wnancial proWt.
In a book that makes a major contribution to untangling the very confused
debate over the meaning and therefore the roles of civil society, Michael Edwards
( 2004 ) laid out three diVerent ways the term ‘‘civil society’’ is used:
- Analytically, with ‘‘civil society’’ constituting the world of voluntary associ-
ations a` la Toqueville. This deWnition of civil society looks at voluntary
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