Beyond Donor Dependency; Self-Sustained Civil Society in Eastern and Western Europe

This British Academy funded project explores civil society groups which operate without any external funding either from foreign or local donors. It assesses such groups’ sustainability and importance for local communities. It also looks on the role of ethnic minorities and migrants as not only beneficiaries but also active constituents of local civil society. The project, based on case studies in Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Spain and the UK, examines the respective roles of the communist legacy and of the recent financial crisis in shaping contemporary civil societies.