193 © The Author(s) 2019 E. Ongaro (ed.), Public Administration in Europe, Governance and Public Management, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92856-2_18 CHAPTER 18 Civil Society and Citizens: From the Margins to the Heart of Public Administration Research Permanent Study Group 8: Civil Society, Citizens and Government Bram Verschuere, Taco Brandsen, and Karen Johnston 18.1 INTRODUCTION Public services are increasingly being delivered though a myriad of net- works involving public, private, voluntary and civil society organizations (CSOs). This is partly due to a belief that these inter-organizational, collaborative arrangements have advantages above the traditional, hierar- chical public sector modes of delivery. It is argued that partnerships and inter-organizational collaborations are of better solutions to societal prob- lems, which no single sector can independently address. 1 However, these 1 J. Brinkerhoff and D. W. Brinkerhoff, Government-Nonproft Relations in Comparative Perspective: Evolution, Themes and New Directions, in Public Administration and Development, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 3–18, 2002. B. Verschuere (*) Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium e-mail: Bram.Verschuere@UGent.be