Ethnic Civil Society and Nonprofit Organizations in Central Europe. Case Studies of Košice, Pécs and Timișoara

Mainstream theories of the civil society and non-profit organizations have shown us the diversity of this institutional field and the variety of roles it fulfils in modern societies, ranging from service provision, through innovation, advocacy, expressive and leadership development role to community building and democratization. These theories see NPOs as an intermediary organizational sphere connecting the other sectors: the political society, the market and the informal sector. Previous studies on ethnic Hungarian institutional systems in Slovakia and Romania have pointed out the prevalence of NPOs within minority institutional systems and inform us about their activities and conditions of operation. These were automatically considered parts of the civil society and their activity was interpreted in the light of the mainstream theories, but there are scholars who question this assumption and stress the importance of a theoretical model of minority institutional systems. In addition we know only little about other minority communities, as well as about the rationales behind the establishment of ethnic non-profit organizations, the differences across ethnic communities and the informal structure of these institutional systems. Present paper aims to address this blind spot in the literature and seeks to contribute to our better understanding of the non-profit organizations of autochthonous ethnic minorities. The analysis is based on interviews conducted with the representatives of organizations of different ethnic communities in three Central European cities, selected for their multi-ethnic character, which allow us to compare the non-profit organizations across ethnic communities and states. The paper seeks to explore, how the representatives of ethnic organizations define the terms minority organizations and civil society organization, perceive the role of minority CSOs, what are the issues they address and what resources (financial, human, relational) they try to mobilize in the pursuit of their organizational goals. The paper aims to present the ways in which minority elites use the legal form of non-profit organizations to foster the reproduction and strengthen the ethnic community, tackle stereotypes and discrimination, substitute for public institutions; and acquire funding for their activities.