Civil society and its organisations (CSO) play a vital role in the implementation of and social
change towards sustainable development (SD). Civil society actors exhibit special features:
They are to a large degree driven by visions and ideals they place a focus on common action
thus balancing individual and collective goals. CSO participate in and initiate as well as
organise discourses about SD in society. Through their activities social capital is built
maintained and increase. CSO provide and share a non-economical non-efficiency driven world
view to the implementation process of SD. This guidebook gives an insight to the impact of CSO
on governance processes towards SD from three different viewpoints: 1. Theoretical perspectives
on Civil Society and Sustainability reflects on theoretical concepts of Civil Society and its
contribution to SD 2. Case studies from practice on Civil Society and Sustainability give
insights from Implementation Practice and shows tools and methods 3. Examples from
collaboration between Science and Civil Society show how science and civil society can
cooperate for innovative concepts of reaching SD Case studies and examples are the combined
results of the research project Civil Society for Sustainability funded under the 7th
Framework Research Program of the European Union and presentations and discussions from the
International Conference on Connecting Civil Society and Science: A Key Challenge for Change
towards Sustainable Development in October 2011 in Stuttgart Germany. The Editor Ortwin Renn
serves as full professor and Chair of Environmental Sociology and Technology Assessment at
Stuttgart University (Germany). He directs the Interdisciplinary Research Unit for Risk
Governance and Sustainable Technology Development (ZIRN) at Stuttgart University and the
non-profit company DIALOGIK a research institute for the investigation of communication and
participation processes in environmental policy making. Renn also serves as Adjunct Professor
for Integrated Risk Analysis at Stavanger University (Norway) and as Affiliate Professor at the
Harbin Institute of Technology and Beijing Normal University.
