Introducing the NGO and Civil Society Working Group conveners

Here we introduce the NGO and Civil Society Working Group conveners: Dr Angela Crack and Dr Erla Thrandardottir.

Angela Crack

Angela Crack is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Portsmouth. Angela teaches at various levels in the International Relations and Politics programmes. Her research interests include NGO accountability, humanitarianism, transnational civil society and global governance. She is currently investigating the efficacy of NGO peer-regulation regimes through interviews with senior staff from a variety of leading humanitarian and development NGOs. Her PhD thesis investigated the preconditions for the emergence of a transnational public sphere through new media technologies. Angela has a strong interest in human rights and is a trustee of Amnesty International UK and previously a member of their International Issues sub-committee to the Board. She was previously a Senior Lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University. She has published on theories of NGO accountability and new media and social movements. Recent publications include: Recent publications include: The Regulation of International NGOS: Assessing the Effectiveness of the INGO Accountability Charter (2017), Reversing the Telescope: Evaluating the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP International) and the Sphere Project (2016), and: Language, Listening and Listening: Critically Reflective Accountability for NGOs (2013).

Erla Thrandardottir 

Erla Thrandardottir has held a lectureship and visiting research fellowship at the University of Manchester and at City University London. Her PhD thesis explored the internal legitimacy of three large NGOs (Amnesty, Cafod and Greenpeace) in the UK and the power relations these units have with the international offices of their global network. She has published on NGO legitimacy, legality, and trust in several journals including Representation, Voluntas, British Journal of Politics and IR, and International Politics, as well as with Practical Action on knowledge production in NGOs. Erla’s current research focuses on the legal legitimacy of INGOs and the legitimacy challenges they face at the domestic level in the UK, India and China.