Sustainable Civil-Society Engagement: Potentials of a Transnational Civil Society in French-German, Polish-German, and Czech-German Border Regions

Klaus Boehnke, Susanne Rippl and Daniel Fuss
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Klaus Boehnke: Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, D-28759 Bremen, Germany
Susanne Rippl: Department of Sociology, Chemnitz University of Technology, D-09107 Chemnitz, Germany
Daniel Fuss: Data Center and Method Development, Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, Wilhelmsplatz 3, 96047 Bamberg, Germany

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: Based on representative survey data, the present study examines potentials for the sustainable development of a transnational civil society in French-German, Polish-German, and Czech-German border regions. The theoretical framework is a social capital approach in the tradition of Putnam. Transnational engagement is seen as a key element for the development of a border-crossing civil society. For the analysis, existing forms of social capital were classified according to their bridging and bonding functions and the potentials of local and transnational activities are described. Furthermore, using multilevel analysis, the predictive power of different variables like individual dispositions and specific contexts of the regions on cross-border activities are examined. Descriptively, the expected lower level of local civil-society engagement, in general, and also with regard to the transnational activities was found for post-socialist border regions. It is shown that, first and foremost, existing experience in civil-society engagement in the local context is a high-impact predictor for both transnational activities and an interest in such activities. Other variables like feelings of a historical burden or the economic situation of the region are less important.

Keywords: civil society; border regions; Germany; Poland; France; Czech Republic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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