Geographical Aspects of Activities of Nongovernmental Organizations and Civic Initiatives in Czechia on the Case of Liberec Region - Theoretical-methodological bases
Abstract
Civic society with its initiatives, citizen participation in public affairs, right to protest, is seen for liberal democracy as essential. Regional differences in those activities, possible conflict with local, regional or central administration or commercial actors can indicate dangerous dysfunction of democratic institutions.
It may also influent negatively regional and societal development. Therefore, there is a brief attempt to find the best way to study civic initiatives with a geographical approach, to critical analyze relevant works - theoretical, methodological and empirical, both geographic and non-geographic, e.g. to find possible connections with sociology, political science and even in geography studying social capital, social networks etc.
At last the possibilities and first findings of geographical research of civic initiatives and NGOs are discussed regarding the model case area of Czech Liberec region, its namely environmental and public policy conflicts of interests.