ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of civil society organisations in global governance. It begins with an analysis of the contextual conditions which allowed for the development of transnational activism in the last decades. It then identifies a number of challenges and opportunities for civil society in global governance which relate to the current configuration of international affairs in terms of institutional and political power. It then maps out the main features of transnational activism in terms of its organisational structure (in the form of transnational networks), its repertoire of action (in the form of transnational campaigns), and the politics of norms change which shape their advocacy. Afterwards, the chapter analyses the political opportunity structure within which the transnational actors of civil society act. In the last part of the chapter, the global unbalances in the geographical distribution of civil society organisations worldwide and the issue of legitimacy intended as an area between autonomy and co-optation are addressed. 1
