Subprojects | Concluded Projects
C02
Non-governmental organisations: Strategies of spatial order formation
In the subproject C02 we investigate non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in two highly topical and dynamic thematic areas, housing and asylum policy. The aim of the project is to assess the interaction between NGOs and other actors within the policy fields, as well as the spatial references and their relevance for the strategies and fields of action of the organisations. Both policy areas are characterised by a shifting interplay between different spatial scales (e.g. local, national, regional, global), shaped by both state and non-state political and economic actors. The focus of the project is on NGOs and their networks, in particular on the different ways in which local particularities and translocal interdependencies are linked together. We are investigating a wide range of NGOs, from small local to large, highly professionalized international organizations. We do not see NGOs as a uniform actor, but rather as collective civil society actors who often show great differences among each other. The activities of NGOs, their networking and political relations as well as the basic premises of their work are examined in detail. To enable an analysis that reflects the heterogeneity of NGOs and the complexity of the policy fields, we work with an innovative qualitative mix of methods, which consists not only of spatially focused organisational and network analyses but also of socio-spatial mapping, mind maps, participating observations and interviews with experts and actors within the policy fields and NGOs.