New centre for the study of civil society at CBS

"The public debate tends to fluctuate between the poles "state" and "market". This reduces the choices to what we usually call the public vs. the private sector. Some want more of one thing and less of the other - or the other way around. However, we often forget that there is a third sector, which we in this book will refer to as the "civil society".

Quote from the book "Civilsamfundets ABC (the ABC of civil society)" by Professor Anker Brink Lund and PhD Gitte Meyer, 2011.

The financial crisis makes the establishment of the new Center for the Study of Civil Society very relevant. Not only is this the first centre to study the unique Danish civil society; the civil society is now perceived as being a factor in relation to Danish value creation.

State, market and civil society are three sectors that ensure Danish welfare. The amount of knowledge on how the state and market function is vast, but we do not know much about the civil society. It has been overshadowed by the other sectors. Anker Brink Lund, Professor at CBS, is the Director of the new Center for the Study of Civil Society at CBS, of which the aim is to remedy this.

The crisis makes the centre relevant

The current debate on what Denmark is supposed to live on in the future makes this centre even more relevant, says Anker Brink Lund. He underlines that the centre is not just a result of a current event. For six years, it has been his dream to fill this research field.

- The crisis demonstrated that neither the market or the state is able to handle this task alone. It is time to see what the civil society can do. Prior to the financial crisis, the deregulation of the market got the chance to be successful with what used to belong to the public sector. Other structural changes will also make this centre relevant. The strengths of the civil society have been forgotten due to local government reforms and new public management. The reason I am mentioning these two examples is because they have taken part in changing the way in which the civil society works. The local authorities are now market players, where they used to be based on voluntariness and civic duties, says Anker Brink Lund.

”The civil society is not a tea party”

Traditionally, the civil society is built on voluntariness and reciprocity - the third sector is thus essentially different from the state and the market. Voluntariness and reciprocity contribute to a special value creation, but it is not a "tea party", says Anker Brink Lund:

- A lot of people think that the civil society is a perfect idyll. That is misunderstood. The civil society is a place for conflicting interests with respect to political debates and other kinds of public dialogues. In the next years, the centre will study the mechanisms and origin of the civil society - also on the basis of foreign experience related to the inclusion of active citizens and social entrepreneurship, says Anker Brink Lund.

Market solutions in the civil society

- We have drawn lessons from the methods used by Porter & Kramer from Harvard Business School for shared value creation - why tax-funded welfare and private CSR are not enough. Pure voluntariness or public regulation cannot stand alone. We also need self-organised reciprocity, says Anker Brink Lund.

In the long run, the centre would like to offer advice to the civil society, the state and the market on how the potential of the civil society are utilised in the best way possible, but it needs to be mapped first.

- Denmark has always had a strong civil society, and therefore we forget to talk about it and take good care of it. In Denmark, we feel very confident and happy. Those are signs that the civil society is thriving, but it is time to give it a service check, says Anker Brink Lund.

Contact person: Ea Ørum, Journalist, +45 27 12 52 00