Civil society configurations: networks, modus operandi and organizational ecologies

• Grant number: 12/18439-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: February 15, 2013
• End date: February 14, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science
• Principal Investigator: Adrian Gurza Lavalle
• Grantee: Adrian Gurza Lavalle
• Host Investigator: Mark Warren
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of British Columbia, Vancouver (UBC), Canada

Abstract

This project is aimed at systematically describing the modus operandi of civil society. Methodologically, the project rely on relational data and network analysis, while theoretically it draws on a population level approach to associations normally known as organizational ecology. The diagnoses of civil society modus operandi is both cross-national and sub-national, comparing networks of civil organizations from Brazil and México, and specifically from São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Brasília e Salvador; and Ciudad de México and Xalapa, respectively. .Standard measures of network analysis will allow to focus on patterns of hierarchy, connectivity, closeness and farness between types of civil organizations, as well as on their relational strategies within local organizational ecologies and in relation to the environment made of political institutions. (AU)