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To a limited extent, the OECD Convention on the Bribery of Foreign Officials drew attention within the global private sector to the damaging effects of corruption and the potential costs of bribery by companies headquartered in countries that are signatories to the convention. International efforts to bring to account companies that perpetrate or are complicit in environmental destruction, child labour exploitation, and political violence meet with stiff opposition from within the business community.

This text came from this news article.

I am translating this article. I am confused about what the word "within" mean in these sentences, because "within" has more than one meaning.

Can we replace the first "within" by "of" and delete second "within"?

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    Now that you've provided a link to the article where you've found these questions, your question is still missing one important component: a summary of the research you did in trying to solve this mystery. In other words, I wouldn't be surprised if members of the community starting to vote to close this because it's "answerable with a dictionary." However, if you explain a little more about why the dictionary only confused you, your question be more immune to downvotes, and we would all have a better idea of what you don't understand about the word within.
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 10:10
  • who are you? are you site manager? within has not only one meaning in target language, and i think if we replace first "within" by "of" and then delete second "within", we can understand the sentence meaning better.(a summary of my Researches as far as i did).
    – yorgun
    Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 10:18
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    Stack Exchange is run by communities, so my comment could have come from anyone. (See, for example, the discussions under this question and this question.) As all SE sites say on their tour pages, "We're a little bit different from other sites. Include details about what you have tried and exactly what you are trying to do." This meta question gives more guidance for asking questions within ELL.
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 10:25
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    It's easier to answer questions when we have a little more information about what confuses you. See this question, for example. I'm only trying to give some useful guidance that might help you ask questions that will be more accepted and appreciated by the community. (By the way, SE does have moderators, and I'm a moderator for ELL. You can tell who the moderators are by the little diamonds after their usernames. But I might have left this same comment even if I wasn't a moderator.)
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 10:34
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    Sometimes it's easier to explain with an example, so I've edited your question with information from your comment. I think it's now acceptable. Most of my comments here are meant to help you with your future questions, since you've only been here a few weeks. Just remember to avoid questions that have nothing but a quote, followed by "What does this part mean?" Instead, try to say, "What does this part mean? I'm confused because..." Also, put an angle bracket (like this: >) before the quote, so that it shows up in that yellow quote box. Finally, welcome to ELL! I hope all this helps.
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 10:49

2 Answers 2

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within has not only one meaning in target language, and i think if we replace first "within" by "of" and then delete second "within", we can understand the sentence meaning better.

In the first use of within its meaning is not very clear.

drew attention within the global private sector

In its second use

stiff opposition from within the business community

within cannot be dropped because the resulting phrase would suggest that the business community was uniformly opposed, when only certain players in that community might be opposed. from within can be replaced with "in" or "by" here, if you add "some elements of"... by some elements of the business community.

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  • I think among, or some phrase using it, would fit here as well, and might shed light on the meaning.
    – TecBrat
    Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 14:28
  • among would also be idiomatic, as you say. It does not imply uniform opposition.
    – TimR
    Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 14:29
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within has several meanings. "the global private sector" and "the business community" can be treated as groups, so this meaning is appropriate:

used when saying what happens in a group or organization

Just to clarify, in in this context would mean inside.

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