Fall 2026
Civil Society, Activism in the Contemporary World
Dates: August 26, 2026 – December 17, 2026Day/Time: Wednesday 7:00 AM - 08:15 AM EDT; Thursday 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM EDT
Level: 200-Level
Certificate: Civic Engagement, Global Studies, Human Rights
Civic Engagement certificate requirement: Theories of civic engagement, democracy, and social action.
Global Studies certificate requirement: Elective.
Human Rights certificate requirement: Elective.
Instructor: Nurgul Dzhanaeva, American University of Central Asia
This course is an introduction to civil society - a growing social phenomenon in the contemporary world. Civil society organizations (CSOs) are key actors in sustainable development. This course is focused on introduction of the concepts of civil society and civic space, roles of CSO, CSO development effectiveness, CSO enabling environment, the importance and impact of the civil society organizations at various levels. Civil society is a vibrant social construct with its own internal and external mechanisms of relations, and structures. They operate in very diverse forms. They play a multitude of roles, including advocacy for human rights, justice, service-delivery, research and policy development. Human rights, sustainability of development, equality, levels of democracy are linked with the level of civil society organizations’ enabling environment. In the contemporary world more and more development actors are structurally engaged with CSOs. In the course students will study diverse civil society actors, examine role and functions of civil society organizations at country, regional and global levels, analyse elements of the civil society enabling environment, which is very important in the current trend of shrinking civic space in many countries; impact of the civil society organizations at various levels, such country and global. Compiled reading materials will help students to dig deep into each of the four modules. The course combines hands-on workshops with discussions of human rights, democracy, equality, inclusiveness. During discussions students will learn to unpack broad concepts of political participation, democratization, human rights and equality. Through a combination of interactive demonstrations and hands-on exercises, students will develop a deeper understanding of the mechanisms by which governments, donors, and other development actors strengthen civil society enabling environments.
Credits: 3 US / 6 ECTS