Civil Society at the United Nations Through the Lens of Organizational Sociology: Exclusion and Temporariness

Abstract

Studying the inclusion of civil society in international organizations has grown in the last decade. This article repatriates the ongoing scholarly discussions of this inclusion within organizational sociology to answer what the nature of civil society is as an organization at the United Nations. With “temporary organizations” it proposes a relational perspective whereby civil society’s temporariness induces mechanisms of exclusion and vice-versa. In practice civil society actors counter exclusion mechanisms by holding on to their autonomy.