Editor-in-Chief
Reza Hasmath, University of Alberta
Associate Editors
Nathan Grasse, Carleton University [Data Notes Editor]
Carolyn Hsu, Colgate University
Georg von Schnurbein, University of Basel
Pamala Wiepking, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Indiana University
The Journal of Civil Society (JCS) is a preeminent academic journal dedicated to research and policy analysis on civil society. As a peer-reviewed publication with stringent standards, JCS serves as a prominent and influential platform for world-class scholarship and debate on civil society.
Civil society intersects with various academic disciplines and highlights enduring questions about the relationship between the economy, polity and society. Indeed, civil society has emerged as a crucial conceptual innovation within the social sciences, signifying a shift from disciplinary specialization on the state and market to broader discussions on key aspects of the human condition.
In this context, JCS aims to enhance the theoretical understanding and empirical knowledge of civil society – its nature, patterns and composition; its history and development; and its relationships with the economy, political system and society at large. The journal’s primary goal is to foster and inform the diversity of scholarship and approaches to civil society across disciplines, as well as national and comparative perspectives.
JCS specifically seeks qualitative and/or quantitative contributions on a range of topics, including (but not limited to):
Philanthropy and social investment (e.g. grantmaking, foundations)
Volunteerism (e.g. citizen participation, volunteer activities)
Nonprofit governance, management and leadership (e.g. organizational behaviour, accountability, finance and fundraising)
Public policy (e.g. government-civil society relations)
Globalization and transnational civil society (e.g. international NGOs, transnational advocacy networks)
Social justice and contentious issues (e.g. advocacy, human rights, protests, social movements)
Social innovation and entrepreneurship (e.g. social enterprises, business-civil society relations)
Cultural and educational initiatives (e.g. youth engagement, arts and culture promotion)
Environmental sustainability (e.g. climate change initiatives)
Mário Aquino Alves, FGV São Paulo School of Business Administration
Rene Bekkers, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Lucy Bernholz, Stanford University
Paul Chaney, Cardiff University
Elisabeth Clemens, University of Chicago
Ram Cnaan, University of Pennsylvania
Catherine Corrigall-Brown, University of British Columbia
Paul Dekker, Tilburg University
Angela Eikenberry, University of Connecticut
Grzegorz Ekiert, Harvard University
Bernard Enjolras, Institute for Social Research
Ann Florini, Arizona State University
Alan Fowler, University of Witwatersrand
Catherine Herrold, Syracuse University
Lesley Hustinx, Ghent University
Tobias Jung, St. Andrew's University
John Keane, University of Sydney
David Lewis, London School of Economics and Political Science
Peter Lewis, John Hopkins University
Lianjiang Li, University of Hong Kong
Debra Minkoff, Columbia University
Michael Meyer, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien
Roseanne Mirabella, Kean University
Francie Ostrower, University of Texas at Austin
Enrique Peruzzotti, Torcuato Di Tella University
Susan Phillips, Carleton University
Andrea Römmele, Hertie School of Governance
Hans Peter Schmitz, North Carolina State University
Jan Aart Scholte, Leiden University
Elizabeth Searing, University of Texas at Dallas
Anthony Spires, University of Melbourne
Mark Sidel, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Helen Sullivan, Australia National University
Stefan Toepler, George Mason University
Mary Tschirhart, George Washington University
Filip Wijkström, Stockholm School of Economics
Volume 20 (2024)
Issue 1
Renegotiating State-Third Sector Relations Through Collaborative Partnerships: The Case of Reception Services for Asylum-Seeking Children in Gothenburg, Sweden [link]
Faith Standing Out? Discovering the Particularities of Faith-Based Antitrafficking Organizations in Thailand and Cambodia [link]
Community Co-production Engaging Youth with Mental Health Problems. Is Equal Participation Possible? [link]
Consultation Not Contestation: Brazilian Civil Society in EU-Mercosur Association Agreement Negotiations [link]
Beyond the Immediate Effects of COVID-19: Exploring the Consequences of the Pandemic on the Southern NGO Partners of Dutch INGOs [link]
Youth Worldlessness and Civic Participation Online and at School: Exploring Arendt’s Philosophy [link]
Issue 2
Authoritarianism and Civil Society in Central Asia: Shifting Boundaries [link]
Collaboration to Support Refugees: The Importance of Local-Level Relations Among Civil Society Organizations [link]
Examining the Relationship between Women’s Descriptive Political Representation and Women's Possibility to Participate in Civil Society Across Regime Types [link]
Exploring Online Coalition Building: A Longitudinal Analysis of Interorganizational Networks of Nonprofit Homeless Shelters on Social Media [link]
Motivations and Expectations of German Volunteer Firefighters [link]
Issue 3
The "Dark Side" of Organisational Resilience: The Civil Society Sector in Croatia [link]
Contextual Factors Influencing Voluntary Organizations’ Inclusiveness and Individual Participation in Leisure Activities: The Case of Norway [link]
Shrinking Civic Space And The Media: How Indonesian Media Frame Environmental Issues [link]
Advocating for Human Rights of LGBTQ+ Persons in Multilevel Governance Systems [link]
Claiming Space in Civil Society. Young Muslim Moral Personhoods in Bangladesh and Italy [link]
Issue 4
Regime Elites and Civil Society: Assessing the Channels of Pro-Government Mobilization in Autocracies [link]
Local Councils as Movement Resource in a Hybrid Regime: Post-Anti-Extradition Movement District Councils in Hong Kong [link]
Environmental Activism in Ukraine: Everyday Concerns as Reasons for Civic Mobilization [link]
Enabling Role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to Local Environmental Management in the Philippines: A Systematic Review [link]
Role of Civil Society in Post-War Democracy Building in Sri Lanka: Reflections and Lessons [link]
Civil Society and Governance. A Survey of Local Authority and NPO Collaboration from an Institutional Perspective [link]
Volume 21 (2025)
Issue 1
Cultivating Political Efficacy: Facilitation as a Catalyst for Democratic Education and Civic Competence [link]
Social Reproduction and Contestation of Racialized Roma Exclusion: The Role of Civil Society Organizations in the Czech Republic [link]
Cultural Genocide? Civil Society Perspectives on the Contemporary Human Rights Situation of Indigenous People in Bolivia: A Critical Analysis [link]
The Overlap of Volunteering and Leisure Activities in Young People’s Way of Life [link]
Advancing Food Systems Governance: Perspectives of Canadian Civil Society Organizations [link]
Issue 2
Civil Society Organizations Under Rapid Democratic Backsliding: The Case of Hong Kong [link]
Civil Society in Welfare: The Roles and Potentials of Professional Non-Profits and Voluntary Organizations [link]
Cross-sector Collaboration of Endowed Foundations: Organizational Identity Matters [link]
Innovative but Feeble: Civil Society and Political Financing Accountability in Uruguay [link]
Third Sector Advocacy for Sustainability Transitions in the European Union [link]
Counter-Terrorism Measures and Civil Society Organisations: A Review of Literature and Agenda for Future Research [link]
Issue 3
Against de Tocqueville: How Membership in Civil Society Organizations Predicts Understandings of Democracy [link]
‘Us’ vs. ‘Them’: Civicness and Identity Formation in Civil Society Discourse [link]
Civil Society and Environmental Compliance: New Empirical Evidence [link]
Maintaining an Alternative: Analyzing the Worldshop Movement’s Choices in the Context of Finland [link]
Issue 4
From Mobilization to Aftercare: Movement Trauma and Care Work for Exiled Hongkongers [link]
Pathways of Participation: How Community-based Adult Education in the Netherlands Empowers Feminist and Women’s Movements [link]