Civic Ecosystems are complex systems that self-organise to address specific social problems. They can enable or constrain civic actors and action in critical ways. Our interest in civic ecosystems reflects a particular understanding of social change that is bound up with their distinctive characteristics:

Civic ecosystems can act both as vehicles for effective crises response and as a driver for social innovation.

Civic ecosystems often emerge spontaneously and evolve organically to address a range of crises – from natural disasters and extreme weather events to health and humanitarian emergencies. Crises expose urgent needs and deeper structural problems, but they can also disrupt ‘business as usual’ and create opportunities for innovation. An ecosystem perspective to crisis response and recovery brings out the diverse range of civic actors and practices that mobilize, highlights their distinctive functions and contributions, and reveals critical complementarities between diverse approaches, capabilities and resources brought to the overall effort.

The phenomenon of closing civic space is normally approached through the lens of restrictions on civil society activists and activism in particular settings. However, that approach may obscure the diversity of civic actors and the extent to which they are embedded in broader ecosystems that often cut across civil society, the state, and the market, and extend from the local to the global.

By drawing attention to disruptions and distortions at the ecosystem level, our approach offers an alternative lens for interpreting the closing space phenomenon. In practical terms, it offers new ideas and strategies for opening up and expanding civic space, for example by reinforcing the diversity, interdependence, or normative alignment and coherence of civic ecosystems.

Protection tends to be associated with public security provision although in practice, the security apparatus can both protect and threaten the safety of individuals and communities. An ecosystem lens brings out the diversity and interdependence of the actors and practices, both public and private, that are involved in providing protection in particular settings. It also enables experimentation with new ideas and approaches for enhancing and expanding protection ecosystems.

Peace processes are often interpreted through the narrow lens of those who are directly involved in the negotiations. An ecosystem lens reveals how a broader set of actors, ideas, and practices activated at multiple levels can influence such processes and affect their outcomes in significant ways. Adopting an ecosystem approach enables us to identify civic openings in the wider systems that shape peace processes and to develop strategies for sustaining such openings and unlocking their full potential.

The rise of memory activism in different parts of the world is injecting new energy in local and global struggles for justice. Memory activists are experimenting with different forms of social mobilisation and knowledge production that draw attention to past oppression and injustice and strive to expose and challenge their lasting legacies in the present. An ecosystem approach allows us to capture the emerging synergies between memory and justice activists and activism and consider how they could be strengthened and harnessed in productive ways.

Conventional approaches to resourcing social change tend to focus on particular actors, ideas or practices that are selected for support, whereas an ecosystem approach emphasises the broader systems they are embedded in and dependent upon. The concept of civic ecosystems is useful in thinking about resourcing because it draws attention to patterns of interdependence and interaction, revealing how resources flow and circulate among diverse actors in the system. It also implies a broader understanding of resources and resourcing that goes beyond the provision of financial support.