Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Welfare Reform in the United States on NGOs

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 dramatically transformed the structure and goals of the public welfare system in the United States. The vast body of research and evaluation generated by the 1996 welfare reforms largely overlooked nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) despite their substantial historical and contemporary involvement in the delivery of social services to low-income populations. Therefore, this paper presents a unique assessment of PRWORA's implications based on the perspective of 90 social service NGOs operating in the Detroit metropolitan area. Examination of their services, staffing, budgets, and clients reveals many changes experienced by NGOs between 1996 and 2000 related to the welfare reforms. Overall, the findings suggest an increased role for social service NGOs in the public welfare system as well as concerns regarding their capacity to adequately fulfill this growing responsibility in the future.     

生态文明建设中政府与环境NGO的协同关系

生态文明建设已经成为我党治国理政的核心理念,但“政府失灵”的现实表现,以及作为新生力量的环境NGO所凸显出的推动公众参与、反映公众利益、积极影响决策及创新环境管理等多方面的优势,使人们重新厘清政府与环境NGO各自的职责,进而达成两者之间主导和补充、合作和互助、平等和监督的协同关系,联同有效地作用于生态文明和美丽中国的建设。     

An assessment of child protection in Bangladesh: How effective is NGO-led Child-Friendly Space?

Many underprivileged Bangladeshi children are vulnerable to child trafficking, abuse, and exploitation. Child-Friendly Space (CFS) is a semi-permanent house space where vulnerable children are given the support to have a safe environment to survive and thrive. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of CFS in providing a protective environment for the children in Bangladesh. A set of secondary and primary data was used to review child protection situation in Bangladesh, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the CFS within a community. An evaluation of child development among the children who attend in the CFS and who do not attend in the CFS was conducted. CFS was found to benefit vulnerable children and communities in terms of protective environment and child development. Children attending in the CFS had better performance at almost every child development indicator. At the community level, child labor decreased in the areas where CFS exists. To respond to the continuing threats of child insecurity, this study presents a set of recommendations for the sustainability of the CFS in the community.     

Influence of gender self-schema and type of service-oriented NGOs on volunteering activity / Influencia del autoesquema de género y del tipo de servicios de las ONG en las actividades de voluntariado

The feminization of service-oriented NGOs on volunteering needs to consider gender differences when exploring the system of volunteer motivations. This study examines the relationship of these motivations with gender self-schema and type of service-oriented NGOs. For this purpose, 160 volunteers from 21 Spanish NGOs completed a questionnaire. The results show that, once the effect of time spent volunteering was removed, there was a significant effect of gender self-schema in relation to motivation and there was a significant interaction effect between gender self-schema and type of NGO. Specifically, masculine volunteers were less motivated than feminine, androgynous and undifferentiated persons. Also, masculine people working with the elderly were the least motivated volunteers and androgynous people working in service-oriented NGOs dedicated to children and adolescents were the most motivated individuals. The results indicate the relevance of androgyny in understanding volunteering, as well as the importance of promoting non-sexist educational proposals to increase men’s participation in these activities.     

从结构论争到行动分析：海外中国NGO研究述评

当代中国NGO的发展一直是海外学者高度关注的话题,由于其复杂性与多样性,海外中国研究学者对改革开放后中国NGO的发展及其日益扩展的影响有着不同的理解,也引发了激烈的学术争论。本文运用文献研究方法,将海外学者的研究归纳为依托公民社会与统合主义理论的结构研究与关注NGO行为的行动研究,力图展现改革开放以来海外学者研究中国NGO的整体图式。 本文认为,“结构研究”基于 “国家-社会”的二元分离,在一国的政治与权力配置层面上思考问题,侧重于国家与社会之间的权力分配状态;“行动研究”则试图在中观和微观层面来洞察与把握国家与社会之间相互交融的机制、策略与路径,倡导关注NGO的行动。这两者之间存在明显的互补性。     

城市治理分析

本文首先界定了治理和城市治理的内涵 ;接着分析了城市治理的几种模式 ;最后指出中国城市治理应主要解决三大问题 :改革中国城市政府、建立高效的城市公共管理机制 ,建立和发挥非政府组织的作用 ,处理城市间的竞争与合作的关系     

中国非政府组织登记管理制度存在的问题及对策

目前中国的非政府组织在登记管理制度上实行的是＂归口登记、分级管理＂的双重管理体制。这种管理体制不仅限制了非政府组织功能的发挥,限制了竞争,压制了发展,更使一些非政府组织游离于法律的保护之外而沦为非法的民间组织。因此,应借鉴国外非政府组织登记管理制度经验,立足国情,改革当前不合理的双重管理体制,划分政府与非政府之间的职能关系,建立登记备案制度,制定完善的法律,给非政府组织一个健康的成长空间。     

In—Credible Government: Legitimacy, Democracy, and Non-Governmental Organizations

This article analyses emerging trans-global networks of governance that are coming to light within a post-democratic form of governance that relies upon specific technologies of credibility building, as opposed to universalistic mechanisms of representation. Using the NGO sector as a model, and using examples from fieldwork conducted in the unraveled contexts of Bosnia and Croatia, and the unraveling context of Ecuador over the past decade, we show how intervention within the global south and post conflict realms, although often couched using such master terms as democracy, development and freedom, are in fact geared towards the generation of political legitimacy and influence through relationships based upon the exchange of credibility.

公民信任结构——论非政府组织应对公共危机的微观基础

应对现代公共危机在很大程度上已无法依靠单个政府或个体,非政府组织的参与成为一种趋势。以往针对非政府组织应对公共危机的研究多基于国家、政府等宏观语境,忽视了微观视角的探讨。公民的信任结构是非政府组织应对公共危机的重要微观基础,主要划分成三个维度：微观、中观和宏观,基于公民的信任结构和各种互惠网络,非政府组织形成了应对公共危机的整合性力量。在公共危机发生的各个阶段,公民的信任结构发挥着信任网络启动、信任结构巩固、信任资源重建与再生产的作用,从而为非政府组织施展行动力提供了多种机会空间。     

艾滋病防治领域非政府组织参与的障碍 及其解决:以云南为例

非政府组织的参与是当前中国社会建设的重要议题。文章以云南省非政府组织参与艾滋病防治为例,通过2009年7—8月间对昆明市、瑞丽市以及个旧市的实地调研发现,非政府组织在内部治理、社会企业模式、伞状网络、志愿者动员等方面取得了诸多宝贵经验,但也存在非政府组织分布地域不均衡、资源浪费、很难获取合法身份等问题。为此,迫切需要政府采用多种措施加大宏观调控力度,首先鼓励本土非政府组织的参与,利用国际非政府组织的资金、信息和技术优势,进一步让非政府组织地域分布合理化;其次,加强对非政府组织的资源支持,通过购买服务的方式支持其可持续发展;再次,通过枢纽型非政府组织或者非政府组织联席会议制度的方式让已登记注册以及无法或不愿意登记注册的非政府组织建立公平的资源竞争和共享机制。总之,通过政府与非政府组织的合作,方能有效遏制艾滋病的蔓延,进而推动社会建设的发展。