Participatory and practice-oriented research of the civil society in Ghent

The city council of Ghent aims to analyse how the relationship between local civil society and the local government and between local civil society organisations themselves can be organised in a different and more adequate way. The following questions are central. What concerns the relationship between civil society and local government, we aim to identify which forms of support civil society organisations expect from the local government, how the administrative burdens on organisations can be reduced, how the local government can work across sectoral policy fields and how it can arrive at a more clear division of labour with civil society. What concerns internal relations within civil society itself, we analyse how existing activities and provisions can be matched and overlap can be reduced and how the relationships between small self-organisations and large established organisations can be improved.

Keywords:POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY

Disciplines:Political sociology, Urban sociology and community studies, Public administration organisations