ABSTRACT
Dominant discourses on civil society in Europe prioritise NGOs and voluntary associations in general (Ruzza, 2004) rather than social movements as an emancipatory cultural and political force and indeed the ‘third sector’ in socio-political structures. Governments fund NGOs to fill societal gaps in the waning welfare state, most authors throw positive light on NGOs as antidotes to clientelism and family networks and sometimes refer to social movement organisations (SMOs), too. 2 NGOs are more formal and do not by definition compose a ‘strong’ civil society, because they are often dependent on the state. They are usually state-supported or elite- and bourgeois-sponsored associations (Afouxenidis, 2004; 2014). In works that prioritise NGOs,
‘civil society’ is simplistically understood as complementary to the state apparatus [ … ] rather than as a source of potentially disruptive forces and energies – sometimes radical/revolutionary forces and energies which challenge the status quo …
A social movement may contain organizations, while an NGO is an organization in itself. (Souza, 2013, p. 259)
