Civil Society (Sociology)

Introduction
What civil society encompasses is a highly contested subject in political and social theory. This debate speaks to the inherent complexity of the dynamics scholars of “civil society” attempt to address. The concept has been deliberated since the mid-1700s, yet there has been a marked revival of the use of the term since the 1980s. This recent resurgence has been attributed to scholarly engagement with questions related to democracy, accountability, and participation in the public sphere in light of such dynamics as economic globalization, the fall of the Soviet Union, and perceptions of declining civic engagement in democratic governance. Scholars broadly agree that the notion of civil society pertains to the realm of voluntary participation in a public sphere that is distinct from government per se. The re-popularization of the notion has occurred within both academic and non-academic arenas, as politicians, activists, and institutions increasingly utilize the term “civil society” with the intent of speaking to the role of individuals in influencing a wide range of public issues. In terms of origins, political theorists point to 18th-century Enlightenment ideas related to the social contract as a basis of both authority and social cohesion. However, it is not unusual for scholars of civil society to reference political thought related to the Greek city-state, as questions of accountability, transparency, and democracy were raised in that context as well. Within scholarship on civil society, various approaches can be identified in relation to the sorts of issues that are being addressed. For example, work that investigates the revolutionary potential of civil society often critiques the hegemonic power of the state and posits analysis of the role of individuals who voluntarily associate in opposition to anti-democratic institutions, governments, and policy processes. While not mutually exclusive to this characterization of civil society, work that focuses more on the role of individuals in sustaining robust democratic traditions focuses on civil society as associational life. This is often articulated in terms of social values such as trust, reciprocity, and caring. While there is much contention in scholarly circles about the meaning of the term “civil society,” many scholars who use the term argue that in spite of its shortcomings, with proper specification it is a useful way of grappling with complex issues involving the relationship of individuals to the public sphere.
Historical Texts
Scholarship on civil society periodically references the fact that ideas about democracy and participation are not entirely new and were addressed by ancient Greek philosophers, where one engaged in the polis. This formulation, which equates civil society with the state, can be seen in Rousseau 1920. In Locke 1988, the notion of civil society can be seen as the realm of social reciprocity that was often conceived as being relatively synonymous with the state. Yet also in Locke we see possibilities for the shift in the manner in which civil society began to be taken up, which allowed for a conceptualization of the notion as being distinct from the state. Yet, in the 1700s, this work retained a focus on governance and the nature of humans as political beings. This transformation laid the groundwork for 19th-century analyses of the meaning of social existence outside of the realm of the state. Tocqueville 2000 (originally published in two volumes in French in 1835 and 1840) has had a significant influence on theorists who grapple with the ambiguities inherent in highly diverse societies that value individualism. In a different vein, as Scottish Enlightenment-based thinkers, the authors of Smith 2010 and Ferguson 1980 posit contrasting theories related to the social contract, yet all grapple with the emerging nature of governance in an era of Enlightenment-based claims regarding human capacity to reason, and therefore to self-govern. In contrast to these theories that often valorized individual volition, Marx 1843 critiqued human action in civil society as being “egoistic” and therefore counterproductive to the aims of true democracy. The Gramsci 1971 reading of civil society was substantially different than Marx’s, in that he chose to emphasize the potential for civil society to operate in a counter-hegemonic fashion, providing a more “revolutionary” conceptualization of the concept of civil society in opposition to a (potentially) totalitarian state.
Ferguson, Adam. 1980. An essay on the history of civil society. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
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Originally published in 1767. Seen as representative of the Scottish Enlightenment, Ferguson’s texts take up emerging notions of governance in the 18th century.
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Gramsci, Antonio. 1971. Selections from the prison notebooks. New York: International.
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In his prison notebooks, Gramsci develops the concept of “hegemony” and its relationship to civil society. Characterized as representing the “revolutionary approach” to civil society analysis, wherein the focus is on the transformative potential of civil society in relation to the state. In particular, the book addresses the ways in which civil society has the capacity to challenge authoritarian regimes.
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Locke, John. 1988. Locke: Two Treatises of Government. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511810268Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published in 1689. Engaging with questions of governance and human ability to engage in the public sphere, Locke advocates for a theory of the individual that represents a critique of the notion of natural or divinely ordained inequalities. Instead, the crux of self-governance according to Locke lies in the notion that we are all “created equal.”
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Marx, Karl. 1967 “On the Jewish Question.” In Writings of the young Marx on philosophy and society. Edited by Loyd D. Easton and Kurt H. Guddat, 216–248. New York: Anchor.
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Originally published in 1843. In this essay, Marx articulates his sense of civil society as representing a battle of individual interests. Here, Marx identifies civil society as comprising the private realm where due to the estranging mechanisms of capitalism, humans are alienated from each other and from themselves and can therefore not realize true democracy.
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Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1920. The Social Contract and Discourses. London: J. M. Dent.
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Originally published in 1762. Equates civil society with the state.
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Smith, Adam. 2010. The theory of moral sentiments. New York: Penguin.
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Originally published in 1759, and followed by five additional volumes until 1790, Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments outlines his understanding of the profoundly moral yet individualistic character of human interaction in the public sphere.
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Tocqueville, Alexis de. 2000. Democracy in America. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226924564.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Tocqueville saw in the United States the immense possibilities of democratic governance. Significantly, though, he also identified the inherent contradictions in American individualism in that it presents the possibility of free association at the same time as it creates the potential of atomizing individuals.
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General Overviews
While most scholarly works that engage with the notion of civil society aim to contribute to a larger debate or deeper understanding of the topic, there are several volumes that provide useful historical and substantive overviews. Hoffman 2006 establishes parameters for his analysis in that he addresses the concept of civil society from 1750 to 1914. Edwards 2004 (and revised in 2009) is precisely this sort of reference book. In addition, several edited volumes explicate the historical underpinnings of the idea of civil society, as well as its contemporary importance. For example, Edwards, et al. 1996 focuses specifically on providing an overview of the “social capital” discussions related to civil society (see also Revival of Interest in Civil Society). To this end, Edwards, et al. 1996 presents original texts from a variety of contributors whose work specifically addresses the importance of individual participation in voluntary organizations to modern democracies. This approach is similar to that taken by Eberly 2000 in that the focus is on ways in which civil society has been conceptualized in the context of democracy in the United States. Hodgkinson and Foley 2003 explicitly compiled key texts that contribute to better understanding the notion of civil society more broadly. The contributions to the debate by Ehrenberg 1999 range from a treatment of Aristotle’s theories to modern questions of democracy.
Eberly, Don, ed. 2000. The essential civil society reader: The classic essays in the American civil society debate. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
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Eberly acknowledges the difficulty in defining the term but also notes the reemergence of interest in, and relevance of, voluntary participation in the civic life. Contributions address topics such as civic virtue, liberal individualism, and civic republicanism.
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Edwards, Bob, Michael W. Foley, and Mario Diani. 1996. Beyond Tocqueville: Civil society and the social capital debate in comparative perspective. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
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With twenty-one essays that link civic engagement with robust democratic outcomes, this edited volume includes examples from North America, Africa, Latin America, and eastern Europe. While the materials do not aim to “resolve” the social capital debate, they collectively argue that civic engagement has positive outcomes for democracies.
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Edwards, Michael. 2004. Civil society. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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Edwards provides a basic yet comprehensive and foundational overview of the historical origins and contemporary applicability of the concept of civil society. This book is appropriate as an undergraduate text, or for scholars who are interested in a general foundation in the topic. Updated 2009 edition emphasizes Middle Eastern, African, global, and technological developments as they pertain to civil society.
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Ehrenberg, John. 1999. Civil society: The critical history of an idea. New York: New York Univ. Press.
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Ehrenberg’s text traces the history of the concept of civil society from Aristotle, through the Enlightenment, to late-20th-century debates such as those regarding the erosion of civil society and implications for democracy and the public sphere.
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Hodgkinson, Virginia and Michael W. Foley, eds. 2003. The civil society reader. Hanover, NH: Tufts Univ. Press.
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With twenty-four contributions, this anthology includes key texts that address the historical origins and theoretical significance of civil society. The texts span from a treatment of Aristotle’s polis to current debates regarding the public sphere and free association.
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Hoffman, Stefan-Ludwig. 2006. Civil society: 1750–1914. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Acknowledges the debates in defining the term civil society, but argues for a notion of “associative sociability” as a common thread in scholarship related to civil society. Specifically addressing an established range of materials (from 1750 to 1914), Hoffman makes the case for certain trends that characterize scholarship during this time frame.
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Political Theory
Like the materials cited above, many of the works cited below will help scholars to gain an overview of the history and current importance of the idea of civil society. However, in addition to tracing the history of the idea of civil society, these authors use their work to make particular claims regarding the significance of civil society as it pertains to both historical and contemporary political theory. As political theorists, many of the authors of the works below identify the origins of the notion of civil society in the democratic elements of the ancient Greek city-state. However, for political theory, the transformations that took place during the Enlightenment are central to the notion of civil society as it is conceptualized in the 21st century. Not only did the Enlightenment thinkers develop the idea of the rational individual with the capacity (and, indeed, the right—and in many cases, the obligation) to participate in the public sphere, but it was also during the Enlightenment that the modern nation-state emerged as the defining feature of world politics. Thus, for example, to speak of “non-governmental organizations,” a key component of civil society scholarship, requires developing a sense of the parameters of government in addition to developing a robust understanding of the “public sphere.” It is in this regard that Habermas 1989 has played such a critical role in debates about civil society. Cohen and Arato 1992 and Arato 2000 likewise take up Habermas’s “discourse ethics” and yet develop distinctive contributions to the current debates. Keane 1998 is known as key scholarship in addressing the complexities of the term “civil society,” and Keane’s work has engaged with the history and contemporary applications of the term. In light of larger debates around the meaning and utility of the concept of civil society, Kumar 1993 raises questions as to the utility of the concept, while also providing an overview of the history of the term. Alexander 2006 explicitly addresses civil society from the discipline of sociology, thus engaging in debates related to political theory but also contributing a sociological perspective.
Alexander, Jeffrey. 2006. The civil sphere. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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An explicitly sociological treatment of civil society, Alexander’s book addresses the significance of solidarity in a world that has the potential to create isolation. Alexander uses sociological theory and empirical examples to advance arguments regarding the importance of civil society in maintaining vital democracies.
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Arato, Andrew. 2000. Civil society, constitution, and legitimacy. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
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Builds on Arato’s prior work on the concept of civil society in relation to the history of social and political thought. Articulates arguments related to Arato’s interest in the conceptual linkages between the problem of civil society and that of constitutional politics. Contributes to explicit analysis of the relevance of constitutional legitimacy to the transitions in eastern Europe.
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Cohen, Jean L. and Andrew Arato. 1992. Civil society and political theory. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
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Organized in three parts: Part 1 presents the revival of the discourse of civil society in Europe and Latin America. Part 2 analyzes contemporary theorists such as Arendt, Habermas, and Foucault. Part 3 offers Cohen and Arato’s analysis of the concept of civil society as it pertains to discourse ethics as theorized by Habermas.
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Habermas, Jurgen. 1989. The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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In this widely cited piece, Habermas elaborates on his 1962 essay on the “public sphere,” a space that for Habermas exists between civil society and the state. Habermas’s work is central to discussions of civil society that engage with this notion of “the public sphere,” as his work has played a critical role in debates related to discourse ethics and the tensions between representative democracy and deliberative democracy.
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Keane, John. 1998. Civil society: Old images, new visions. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.
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Keane’s work addresses a reemergence of scholarly interest in the topic of civil society following the events in eastern Europe in the late 1980s and fall of the Soviet Union. One of the central theorists of civil society, Keane argues that this volume is explicitly intended to contribute to modern debates about the meaning and importance of civil society.
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Kumar, Krishan. 1993. An inquiry into the usefulness of an historical term. British Journal of Sociology 44.3 (September 1993): 375–395.
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In light of recent debate about the utility of the application of such a contentious term as “civil society,” Kumar outlines the history of the term and raises contemporary examples of various scholars’ commitment to the concept. Ultimately, Kumar raises the question of whether it might be more useful to focus on the elements that scholars of civil society are attempting to explicate, such as democracy and participation.
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Revival of Interest in Civil Society
While there has been a sustained and robust interest in issues directly related to civil society from the 18th century to the present, particular conditions provided a context within which a marked revival of interest in the term occurred. This revival appears to be part of a larger trend, as the term “civil society” has permeated a wide range of scholarship, institutions, and policy debates. However, two particular trends merit elucidation in that they served to focus a significant scholarly work. One area that is often alluded to in work on civil society involves the transformations in eastern Europe that precipitated the fall of the Soviet Union. A parallel, yet significantly distinct area of concern for scholars of civil society has been the perceived evisceration of the public sphere as individuals have become disengaged in their communities and in democratic life. This latter scholarship has primarily emanated from the United States and engages in debates directly related to the implications of waning democracy, as well as debates related to whether this characterization—that posits a disengagement in public life—is accurate or not.
Eastern Europe
Most treatments of civil society address the fact that there was a reinvigoration of interest in the topic, and indeed, even a more frequent use of the term “civil society” in the lead up to and in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. While many scholars of this particular area of civil society studies, such as those represented in Rau 1991 and Eliaeson 2006, assess the role of civil society in ushering in the revolutionary political changes that took place in the former Soviet Union, some (e.g., Howard 2003) address the cultural and political dynamics that may currently hinder participation in the public sphere in pre-Communist countries. Others such as Tismaneanu 1992 and Tismaneanu 1999 grapple with impediments to democracy, such as those posed by a historically distrustful society. In general, these materials, exemplified by Keane 2006, provide solid contexts for their theoretical discussions, as they root their analysis in specific historical and political contexts. Taking a particular theoretical stance, Skapska 2011 engages in a discussion related to the sociological theory of “reflexive modernization.” Havel and Keane 1985 represents the sort of analysis that bridges academic scholarship and lived political engagement in the “Velvet Revolution.”
Eliaeson, Sven, ed. 2006. Building democracy and civil society east of the Elbe: Essays in honour of Edmund Mokrzycki. New York: Routledge.
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Contributors to this volume include a range of sociologists interested in the meaning and significance of civil society. The volume takes up the debate regarding how one defines civil society—a debate that was fueled by the circumstances and political transformations in eastern Europe. The book relates the events in eastern Europe to other international contexts, as well as to sociological theories.
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Havel, Vaclav, and John Keane, ed. 1985. The power of the powerless: Citizens against the state in central-eastern Europe. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
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Keane applies his expertise in civil society and political theory to the introductory essay of this edited volume, which includes a contribution by Vaclav Havel, known for his activism, playwriting, and as the final president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic after the “Velvet Revolution.” Other contributors likewise take up issues associated with the counter-hegemonic possibilities of civil society, particularly as those dynamics relate to political changes in eastern Europe.
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Howard, Marc Morjé. 2003. The weakness of civil society in post-Communist Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511840012Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Howard critically assesses the decade following the fall of the Iron Curtain. He argues that citizens of post-Communist countries are not likely to join civil society organizations. Howard posits explanations for why this is so, in addition to analyzing the implications for lack of participation in the public sphere.
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Keane, John, ed. 2006. Civil society: Berlin perspectives. New York: Berghahn.
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Keane makes available to English-speaking audiences several contemporary writings about civil society that are written by scholars with close associations to Berlin. Contributing authors draw from actually existing civil societies to add to debates about the meaning and implications of civil society at this current juncture in history.
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Rau, Zbigniew, ed. 1991. The reemergence of civil society in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Boulder, CO: Westview.
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This volume contrasts the views of Eastern activists on the definition, origins, and function of civil society with the theories and ideas of Western academics. The collection of essays illustrates the ambiguities inherent in the idea of civil society.
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Skapska, Grazyna. 2011. ‪From “civil society” to “Europe”: A sociological study on constitutionalism after Communism. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill.
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Contributes to the sociological theory of reflexive modernization through an examination of the post-Communist constitutionalism of Poland in comparison to that of other post-Communist countries. The book addresses issues associated with the role of civil society in the political transformations in eastern Europe, in addition to the implications of post-Communist democratic political institutions.
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Tismaneanu, Vladimir. 1992. Reinventing politics: Eastern Europe from Stalin to Havel. New York: Free Press.
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Tismaneanu is one of several scholars who grapple with the potential obstacles to generating sustainable democratic governance structures in eastern Europe after the revolutions of 1989. Tismaneanu notes the problems posed by a society that has a history of distrust—of public officials, intellectuals, elites, and even of other common individuals. However, he also presents circumstances that serve to make the case for somewhat optimistic outcomes for eastern Europe.
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Tismaneanu, Vladimir, ed. 1999. The revolutions of 1989: Rewriting histories. London: Routledge.
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Focusing on the dramatic political transformations in eastern Europe more broadly, many of the contributions to this interdisciplinary volume address the role of civil society and popular dissent in impacting the fall of the Soviet Union, and in maintaining the social and political changes that followed the revolutions.
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US: Civic Responsibility (Social Capital)
With concerns about the substance and meaning of democracy in the contemporary United States, the second half of the 20th century saw a renewed interest in the idea of civil society in America, in terms of academic work and popular discourse. The academic literature cited below focuses on the role of civil society (defined broadly as individual association in the public sphere) in building robust democracies and communities. O’Connell 1999 reviews the history of this concept and addresses the relationship between civil society and citizenship. Bell 1995, Bellah 1985, and Gutman 1998 engage with these questions as well. This body of work has been characterized as falling within the “liberal” approach to civil society studies in the sense that the emphasis is on both the freedom of individuals to make associations as well as the potential perils of individualism for civic life. Bell 1995 and Rosenblum 1998 address issues and dynamics that either encourage or discourage individuals from engaging in the public sphere and make arguments associated with how a robust public sphere reflects strong moral commitments to community values, trust, and a held-in-common notion of “the good life.” Like Skocpol 2003, these works also address the implications of de jure democratic governments with impoverished de facto participation. While the overarching thread in these materials is the role of civil society and voluntary organizations in democratic governance, they address such issues as voluntary participation, political alienation, government deregulation, and the role of “faith-based” associations in generating robust civil identities and strong community values. The Putnam 1993 conceptualization of “social capital” figures heavily in these works, in that Putnam argues that social values such as trust and engagement in one’s community can be transferred to the public sphere. Likewise, as Putnam 2000 argues, disengagement from the public sphere has implications for the impoverishment of democracy and other elements of the good society in America.
Bell, Daniel. 1995. American exceptionalism revisited: The role of civil society. The Public Interest 95:38–56.
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Known for his sociological work on postindustrial US society, Bell makes the case for the revival of civil society in the United States as a force to mitigate the power of expanding government bureaucracies. Bell is a frequent contributor to anthologies on civil society that are organized around the “liberal” approach.
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Bellah, Robert. 1985. Habits of the heart: Individualism and commitment in American life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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This widely influential book encapsulates Bellah’s concerns regarding the potential for erosion of democracy in the United States as a result of the very quality that gives Americans the opportunity to freely associate: individualism. Bellah’s emphasis is on the role of religious associations in promoting or detracting from robust community building—with implications not just for our politics, according to Bellah, but for our economic and social lives as well.
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Gutman, Amy, ed. 1998. Freedom of association. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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Includes contributions from prominent thinkers in the “liberal” tradition of civil society studies. Gutman, who is known for her work in education and equality, provides an excellent introductory essay that serves as an overview of the main elements of this sort of approach to civil society. The first part of the book gathers essays that focus on the value of associational freedom in the lives of individuals, whereas the second part analyzes the civic value of associational freedom.
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O’Connell, Brian. 1999. Civil society: The underpinnings of American democracy. Hanover, NH: Tufts Univ. Press.
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Intended for both academic and popular audiences, O’Connell’s book argues for the importance of civil society in maintaining a vibrant democracy. He traces the history of the concept of civil society but ultimately focuses on the rights and responsibilities of civil society in producing effective citizenship.
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Putnam, Robert D. 1993. The prosperous community: Social capital and public life. American Prospect 13:35–42.
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Putnam argues that values and characteristics such as trust and reciprocity serve to build “social capital,” which in turn produces strong communities and robust democracies. His notion of “social capital” has influenced a wide range of scholarship related to the liberal approach to civil society studies.
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Putnam, Robert D. 2000. Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
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In this widely known work, Putnam argues that specific US trends in late-20th-century indicate an impoverishment of democracy as it is experienced in American life. Putnam critiques the move away from voluntary associations and flags individuals’ lack of trust in their communities as being problematic. However, he points to opportunities for reengagement in civic life and potential revivals of our commitment to the values that can contribute to the vitality of democracy.
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Rosenblum, Nancy L. 1998. Membership and morals: The personal uses of pluralism in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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Engages with the debates about the utility of free associations by addressing the ambiguities of such dynamics in as highly a pluralistic society as the United States. Engaging with the discussions in her field, she argues that it is important to analyze the sociological elements that may support disengagement in a society experiencing anomie. Likewise, though, she analyzes the importance of the individual psychological desire to create communities and a sense of belonging.
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Skocpol, Theda. 2003. Diminished Democracy: From membership to management in American civic life. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
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Extends the analysis of engagement in civic life in the United States by analyzing the potential impact that a robust civil society can have on public policy. In taking Putnam’s notion of social capital beyond a focus on values and individual engagement in communities, Skocpol intends to point to the policy relevance of democratic civic engagement.
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Region-Specific Scholarship: Africa, Latin America, and Asia
Most scholars of civil society note that particular specificities are crucial in understanding the complexity of civil society—theoretically and how it really works in actual circumstances. Scholarship that focuses on civil society in particular regions or geographical areas tend to speak to the difficulties in translating concepts from one circumstance to another. This work can be very insightful in terms of what can be said about civil society in general but also about what conditions produce or encourage specific outcomes. Given the legacy of colonization in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, for example, the role of civil society in shaping newly independent states has been a subject addressed in Alagappa 2004; Harbeson, et al. 1994; and Oommen 2004. In addition, in light of the prevalence of development lending and multilateral banks in funding megaprojects in collaboration with governments, scholars have noted the importance of civil society in critiquing the social, economic, and environmental impacts of such projects. Certainly, the context in each geographical area is different. In Latin America, for example, liberation theology has played a substantial role in fomenting civil society organizing. Cosgrove 2010 and Ramirez 2011 take up dynamics that are specific to the Latin American context. In Africa and South Asia, there have been significant social movements that have arisen in opposition to inequalities in access to resources as a result of colonization or postcolonial development policies. However, despite their geographical differences, the sources listed below provide important analyses of specific political, economic, or cultural conditions that impact the ways in which civil society is conceptualized and the possibilities for civil society engagement.
Alagappa, Muthiah, ed. 2004. Civil society and political change in Asia: Expanding and contracting democratic space. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.
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Contributions to this edited volume range from treatments of civil society in such vastly different political and cultural contexts as Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Indonesia, among others. In the introduction, Alagappa sets up the analytical framework that organizes the approach to civil society that is used by the contributing authors.
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Cosgrove, Serena. 2010. Leadership from the margins: Women and civil society organizations in Argentina, Chile, and El Salvador. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.
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Cosgrove speaks to the significance of the role of women in social movement organizing in Latin America. She provides specific examples from Argentina, Chile, and El Salvador drawn to illustrate conceptual linkages and distinctions based on geographical, social, economic, or political dynamics. Chapters 1 and 2 specifically address these substantive issues within the context of broader discussions of civil society as a concept.
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Harbeson, John W., Donald Rothchild, and Naomi Chazan, eds. 1994. Civil society and the state in Africa. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
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Including treatments of such issues as gender in Tanzania and the role of civil society in political transformations in Africa, this volume serves as a contribution to both theoretical and geographically specific scholarship on civil society.
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Oommen, T. K. 2004. Nations, civil society, and social movements: Essays in political sociology. New Delhi: SAGE.
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Oommen’s primary examples are drawn from India, yet the book makes reference to civil society and social movements in developing countries more broadly as well. Oommen explicitly ties empirical examples into political sociological theory and debates.
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Ramirez, Maria Clemencia. 2011. Between the guerrillas and the state: The cocalero movement, citizenship, and identity in the Colombian Amazon. Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press.
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Ramirez outlines the history of colonization in Colombia and addresses the transformation of individuals’ shared concerns into the cocalero social movement. Illustrates the complexities of civil society organizing in the context of such dynamics as Plan Colombia, armed conflict, and economic marginalization.
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Civil Society, Policy, and Multilateral Organizations
An important body of work has emerged around the tensions between civil society actors and multilateral organizations. Policymaking institutions such as the United Nations and lending institutions such as the World Bank provide key opportunities for analyzing the complexities of the relationship between the nation-state and civil society actors in a current globalized world. Many scholars who address these issues do so through the lens of participation of civil society (sometimes referred to as “nongovernmental organizations” or NGOs) in policy deliberations. Betsill and Corell 2008 attempts to identify the influence of nongovernmental organizations on a range of policy processes, whereas Fisher and Green 2004 takes up questions of transparency and access to the deliberations themselves. Eastwood 2005 uses ethnographic methods to explicate the work of NGOs in UN-based policy processes. Likewise, Goldman 2005 uses data gathered ethnographically to make claims about the workings of the World Bank. Fox and Brown 1998 raises questions about the mechanisms whereby civil society organizations attempt to hold powerful multilateral lending institutions accountable to social and environmental standards. Anheier 2004 develops an operationalized measure to determine the effectiveness of civil society participation. Jassanof and Martello 2004 represents scholarly work engaged in an analysis of global governance. The list of materials cited below represents literature that engages with the tensions between civil society and nation-states—tensions that are inherent in institutions that are explicitly designed for nation-state actors but that have implications for individuals whose interests may not always align with governments’ interests.
Anheier, Helmut. 2004. Civil society: Measurement, evaluation, policy. London: Earthscan.
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Organized around the goal of operationalizing the notion of civil society so that practitioners and academics can define the term systematically. This work introduces the “Civil Society Diamond,” a tool to measure and determine the effectiveness of civil society organizations and actors.
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Betsill, Michele M. and Elisabeth Corell, eds. 2008. NGO diplomacy: The influence of nongovernmental organizations in international environmental negotiations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Betsill and Corell are well known for their work on NGO influence on policy processes. This edited volume brings together specific case studies authored by individuals who are extremely knowledgeable about various policy arenas. Individually and cumulatively, the contributions attempt to identify the influence that non-state actors have had on specific policy outcomes.
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Eastwood, Lauren. 2005. The social organization of policy: An institutional ethnography of UN forest deliberations. New York: Routledge.
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Ethnographic, sociological studies such as Eastwood’s analysis of the policymaking terrain under the auspices of the United Nations are becoming more prevalent. Such work provides concrete examples of actual policymaking processes with the goal of explicating some of the more theoretical questions posed by scholars regarding the role of civil society in global environmental governance.
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Fisher, Dana R., and Jessica Green. 2004. Understanding disenfranchisement: Civil society and developing countries’ influence and participation in global governance for sustainable development. Global Environmental Politics 4.3: 65–84.
DOI: 10.1162/1526380041748047Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Specifically analyzing the participation of civil society organizations in environmental policymaking processes, Fisher and Green contribute to the body of literature that looks at the role of NGOs in actual policy arenas. They analyze procedural and substantive mechanisms whereby civil society actors are disenfranchised from various processes.
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Fox, Jonathan A. and L. David Brown, eds. 1998. The struggle for accountability: The World Bank, NGOs, and grassroots movements. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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The contributions to this volume take on the potential conflicts in World Bank lending, in terms of social and environmental impacts of World Bank–funded projects. In light of the shift in World Bank goals toward funding “sustainable development” projects, the contributions assess the role of civil society in holding powerful multilateral institutions accountable to social and environmental justice standards.
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Goldman, Michael. 2005. Imperial nature: The World Bank and struggles for social justice in the age of globalization. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
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Goldman’s work is explicitly sociological and methodologically ethnographic. His work on the World Bank intersects with the sociology of knowledge, eco-governmentality, development studies, and the impact of neoliberal policies on developing countries.
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Jassanof, Sheila, and Marybeth Martello, eds. 2004. Earthly politics: Local and global in environmental governance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Analyzes a variety of cases related to environmental governance that involve connections between the local and the global. It discusses institutions and processes that are designed to address problems of environmental governance that are increasingly global in nature.
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Global/Transnational Civil Society
In a globalized world, civil society actors are often able to transcend the boundaries of the nation-state. In fact, many civil society organizations, notes Clark 2003, are based on the notion that the interests they represent are not specific to any one country or geographical location. Instead, in the 21st century, civil society actors see themselves as part of global or regional movements. As will be explored in the next section, Civil Society in the Digital Age, this is often facilitated by technological advancements that allow for alliances to be forged across state boundaries. However, many civil society organizations originate as a result of other global forces, such as those associated with neoliberal economic development and global environmental problems. Florini 2000 addresses movements that have developed in opposition to both nation-state and corporate powers in international politics. The citations included in this section address the transnational or global nature of civil society organizing, both in terms of the prevalence of organizations that have a transnational presence (Cheema and Popovski 2010, Keane 2003, Lipschutz and Mayer 1996 and Taylor 2004), as well as the importance of engagement in a global public sphere in light of the impacts of neoliberal economic globalization. Additionally, Chandler 2004 exemplifies the type of analysis that attempts to examine the ways in which global civil society is taking on normative connotations—some of which may be contradictory. Centre for Civil Society 2001 addresses these dynamics specifically. The scholars in this segment argue that explicating the meanings that are attributed (or misattributed) to civil society is a useful exercise—for academics as well as actually extant civil society actors.
Kaldor, Mary, et al., eds. 2012. Global civil society yearbook: Ten years of critical reflection. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
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The London School of Economics (LSE) has produced an annual yearbook from 2001 to 2012. Each rendition contains new contributions from a range of authors who address the contemporary complexities of civil society and globalization. The 2012 edition places the concept of global civil society within the context of a decade-long emphasis on civil society by scholars, policy makers, and civil society actors.
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Chandler, David. 2004. Constructing global civil society: Morality and power in international relations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
DOI: 10.1057/9780230005846Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Chandler takes on current debates in international relations regarding the significance of global civil society. He partly engages with the notion that global civil society has been posited as a normative political project. For Chandler, this merits academic analysis in order to better understand the ways in which the idea of civil society may be deployed to accomplish particular ends.
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Cheema, G. Shabbir, and Vesselin Popovski. 2010. Engaging civil society: Emerging trends in democratic governance. New York: United Nations University.
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The context of the contributions to this volume is the increased interdependence of nation-states in a globalized world, in terms of their ability to deal with problems that are increasingly global in nature. Thus, the role of civil society in this context is organized by these global transformations as well as the relationship to the nation-state in international politics and global governance.
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Clark, John. 2003. Globalizing civic engagement: Civil society and transnational action. London: Earthscan.
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Clark’s work takes up the significance of transnational alliances among and within civil society organizations. In this book, Clark uses specific transnational movements to explore the obstacles that CSOs face, as well as the possibilities made available by their transnational allegiances.
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Florini, Ann M., ed. 2000. The third force: The rise of transnational civil society. Washington. DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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Addresses the relevance of transnational civil society to a range of substantive issues, including the Nonproliferation and Test Ban Treaty, dam projects, and human rights. This collection includes a useful annotated bibliography, as well as introduction and conclusion chapters by the editor, which speak to the contemporary significance of the globalization of civil society activism and organizing.
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Keane, John. 2003. Global civil society? Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511615023Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
As a well-known scholar of civil society, Keane approaches the concept of global civil society in this book. He argues for the importance of civil society engagement in light of current transformations in the workings of capitalism in a globalized economy. Keane’s argument is that there are particular conditions associated with a contemporary globalized world, and these conditions present obstacles and opportunities for democratic governance.
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Lipschutz, Ronnie D., and Judith Mayer. 1996. Global civil society and global environmental governance: The politics of nature from place to planet. Albany: State University of New York Press.
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Explicitly organized around the terrain of global environmental governance, this book provides an important contribution to analyses of civil society participation in environmental policymaking. Noting that many current environmental problems are global in nature, Lipschutz and Mayer address the implications for engagement of civil society in environmental policy-related arenas.
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Taylor, Rupert, ed. 2004. Creating a better world: Interpreting global civil society. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian.
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Contributions to this volume engage with the contested meaning of global civil society. Contributing authors attempt to address these issues in linking sociological theory up to practice by analyzing the transformative potential of civil society organizations through case studies of actual transnational movements.
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Civil Society in the Digital Age
Many current scholars who are interested in the significance of civil society also note that particular conditions specific to modern society are worthy of analysis. Specifically, the works cited below take up the issue of technological advancements that allow for a proliferation of knowledge and information, and for the ability for civil society actors to connect with individuals who may be geographically located in disparate settings. There is significant overlap between this literature and the literature listed above under Global/Transnational Civil Society. For example, Clark 2003 (cited under Global/Transnational Civil Society) addresses Internet-based “dot causes” in his broader analysis regarding transnational civil society organizing. However, the role of technology in social movement organizing is a more prominent feature in the works listed below, such as Cameron and Stein 2002, Jenkins and Thorburn 2003, and Warkentin 2001. Many of these works, such as Norris 2001, address the implications for civil society organizing in a digital age when information technology is not available to all. Howard 2010 specifically relates the dynamics associated with the “digital age” to political Islam. Raboy, et al. 2010 applies the topics of participation, governance, and information technology to the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society. Kittilson and Dalton 2008 explicitly takes up the discourse of social capital in their analysis.
Cameron, David R., and Janice Gross Stein, eds. 2002. Street protests and fantasy parks: Globalization, culture, and the state. Vancouver: UBC.
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Contributions address the implications of transformations of the nation-state in the face of an increasingly globalized world. Case studies are used to engage with the meaning and implications of global integration and modern technology in terms of social justice, citizenship, public policy, and identity.
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Howard, Philip N. 2010. The digital origins of democracy and dictatorship: Information technology and political Islam. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199736416.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The very topical issue of popular uprisings in the Middle East provides the focus for an exploration of the implications of the digital age for social movements and political change. Since the 1990s, information technologies have played a significant role in political transformations. Howard’s analysis provides an in-depth analysis of social media, mass access to information, other dynamics associated with modern technology.
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Jenkins, Henry, and David Thorburn, eds. 2003. Democracy and new media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Addresses the implications of digital technology for democratic participation in the public sphere. Contributors consider a wide range of topics, including the applicability of Western notions of democracy in non-Western or postcolonial contexts. This work has strong connections to media and communications studies.
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Kittilson, Miki Caul, and Russell J. Dalton. 2008. The Internet and virtual civil society: The new frontier of social capital. Irvine, CA: Center for the Study of Democracy.
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This contribution to the Center for the Study of Democracy’s Working Paper Series clearly outlines the relevance of the Internet to civil society scholarship. Kittilson and Dalton note that some of the dynamics studied by civil society scholars, such as defining and measuring civil society activity, become more complex in a digital age. Their work is designed to explore and elucidate some of these complexities.
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Norris, Pippa. 2001. Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty, and the Internet worldwide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139164887Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Norris addresses dynamics associated with access to information technologies. This work intersects with arguments regarding the new forms of inequalities that are emerging around differential access to technology. In the digital age, possibilities for engagement are predicated on access to information technology. Those who do not have that access are excluded from participation—hence the use of the term “digital divide.”
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Raboy, Marc, Norman Landry, and Jeremy Shtern, eds. 2010. Digital solidarities, communication policy and multi-stakeholder global governance: The legacy of the World Summit on the Information Society. New York: Peter Lang.
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In focusing on the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society, this text explicates some of the ways in which civil society engages in global governance—and some of the conditions that must be met in order for that governance to be democratic and representative.
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Warkentin, Craig. 2001. Reshaping world politics: NGOs, the Internet and global civil society. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
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Develops the analytical tools of “dynamism,” “inclusiveness,” and “cognizance” to investigate the role of particular civil society organizations in shaping global politics. The author’s use of specific cases of organizations helps to elucidate 21st-century dynamics associated with information technology and social movement organizing.
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