ISTR Fifth International Conference Cape Town, South Africa / July 7-10, 2002 Transforming Civil Society, Citizenship and Governance: The Third Sector in an Era of Global (Dis)Order

Ingo Bode email

In spite of an expanding social state, charitable organizations have remained an important institution of European societies during the 20th century. Their scope of action changed as well as their methods, but links to civil society stayed alive. One major reason for this was the strong position the churches were holding in the political and social life of major European countries. Germany and - less obviously - France are prominent examples for this.

In both countries, welfare - especially in the form of social services - has continued to be provided by church associations which remained rather independent from the state, at least formally. This holds true especially for catholic movements. While they joined together under one organizational roof in Germany (called: Caritas), the catholic network was more dispersed in the French case. In France, some associations officially withdrew from a religious mission, whereas other maintained it, stressing lay help at the grassroot level. Nonwithstanding this difference, catholic welfare in France and Germany was based both on professional social help and voluntary lay action in favor of people in need. Resources came from civil society (via the churches) as well as from the social state. The fundament of these associations was a cultural, political and social embeddedness in a modernized society.

Since a couple of years, this fundament seems to be eroding. The cultural roots are threatened since traditional christian thinking is less and less accepted in society. The links to major political actors - mainly the Christian parties - can no longer be taken for granted. The social underpinnings, especially the model of a humble and life-long way of volunteering as well as high fidelity in giving, are loosing ground. Thus, the question arises how these organizations may survive this manysided evolution.

Case study research from France and Germany show that catholic welfare is rethinking its mission and its methods. More importantly, major organizations from this field try to manage their relationsship to stake holder environments in new ways. The central issues of these endeavour are public relations, multiple resource strategies and identity politics. As a result, catholic welfare becomes "activated": There is more agency and creative sense making and less ‚programming' by the old stake holder environments. While this opens some new channels of action, basic elements of catholic charity will be seriously called into question in the long run.

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