Nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations are called upon as solutions to an ever-widening array of social problems, including world poverty, sexual health "crises," environmental degradation, and human trafficking. Yet a growing body of critique points to the ways in which nonprofits and NGOs facilitate neoliberal aims of economic liberalization and privatization of public resources, even while propagating seemingly universal principles of self-empowerment and participation.

 The full symposium schedule can be found here: thenongovernmentalimpulse.weebly.com/

 The Nongovernmental Impulse Symposium aims to consider the nature of nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations and their relations to states and a global civil society, the positioning of civil society and its institutions in promoting a more democratic world, and the interface of civil society with the academy as a topic of scholarship and collaboration.