Part 1B: Citizenship, Cities and Civil Society

The Landscape of Civil Society 1: Civil society in an urban era

In this lecture we will explore the historical roots of the concept of civil society, from the
Marxist interpretation of civil society as a means for class oppression, to the liberal view of
civil society as representing associational life. The assumed connections between civil
society and democracy are unpacked, with implications for the ways in which citizenship is
understood and practiced. The rising popularity of civil society as a political policy is
explored, and linked to the worldwide expansion of democracy in the past 50 years, as well as
growing government reliance on civil society as the Third Way, between the state and the
market. Two related concepts are also explored, social capital and social movements, as
demonstrating examples of civil society practices and actors respectively. The lecture
connects theoretical debates with empirical examples; for example, the Marxist notion of
civil society as elitist is explored in relation to political and civil society in contemporary
India; while debates surrounding civil society as based on individual or collective identity
and action that is wholly distinct from the state are explored in relation to the UK's Big
Society. The lecture concludes by considering the ways in which the contemporary urban
epoch potentially challenges the landscape of civil society.

Suggested Readings
.I. Civil Society
Chatterjee, P., 2004, The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in most of
the world, Columbia University Press, New York.
Cohen J and Arato, A., 1992, Civil society and political theory, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Fine, R., 1997, 'Civil society theory, Enlightenment and critique', Democratisation, 4, pp7-
28.
Fine, R. and Rai, S., 1997, 'Understanding civil society: a preface', Democratisation, 4, pp1-
6.
Foley, M.W. and Edwards, B., 1996, 'The paradox of civil society', Journal of Democracy, 7,
pp3-52.
Ishkanian, A. 2007, 'Democracy promotion and civil society', in M. Albrow and M. Glasius,
H.K. Anheier and M. Kaldor (eds), 2997, Global Civil Society 2007/8: Communicative
Power and Democracy. Global Civil Society - Year Books. SAGE Publications, London,
pp58-85.
Keane, J., 1988, Democracy and civil society, Verso, London.
Lewis, D., 2002, ‘Civil society in African contexts: reflections on the usefulness of a
concept’, Development and Change, 33, 4, pp. 569-586
Marston, S.A., 1995, 'The public goes private: citizenship and the new spaces of civil
society', Political Geography, 16, pp37-64.
McIlwaine, C., 1998, 'Civil society and development geography', Progress in Human
Geography 22(3), pp415-424.
.II. Social Capital
Fine, B., 2001, Social Capital versus Social Theory: political economy and social science at
the turn of the millennium, Routledge, London
Fox, J., 1996, 'How does civil society thicken? The political construction of social capital in
rural Mexico', World Development, 24, pp1089-1103.
Francis, P., 2002, ‘Social Captial, Civil Society and Social Exclusion’, in Kothari, U. and
Minogue, M. (Eds), Development Theory and Practice: Critical Perspectives, Palgrave
MacMillan, pp71-91.
Harriss, J. and de Renzio, P., 1997, ‘‘Missing Link’ or analytically missing?: The concept of
social capital’, Journal of International Development, 9(7), pp.919-937.
Putnam, R, 1993, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press
Putnam, R., 1995, ‘Bowling Alone: America’s declining social capital’, Journal of
Democracy, 6(1), pp65-78.
Putnam, R., 2000, Bowling Alone: the collapse and revival of American community, Simon
and Schuster, New York.
Putzel, James, "Accounting for the 'Dark Side' of Social Capital," Journal of International
Development, vol.9, no.7 (1997), pp.939-949
Radcliffe, S., 2004, ' Geography of development: development, civil society and inequality −
social capital is (almost) dead', Progress in Human Geography, 28(4), pp517-527.
Rubio, M., 1997, ' Perverse Social Capital: Some Evidence from Colombia', Journal of
Economic Issues, 31(3), pp805-816.

.III. Social Movements

Castells, M., 1997, ‘The Other Face of the Earth: Social Movements against the New Global
Order’, chapter 2 in The Power of Identity (vol.2 of his The Information Age: Economy,
Society and Culture), Oxford: Blackwell, pp.68-109
Escobar A., and S. Alvarez, (eds), 1992, The Making of Social Movements in Latin America.
Identity, Strategy, and Democracy, Boulder: Westview Press
Ghimire, K. B., 2005, The Contemporary Global Social Movements: Emergent Proposals,
Connectivity and Development Implications, UNRISD Civil Society and Social Movements
Programme Paper Number 19, Geneva: UNRISD. Available at:
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/(httpPublications)/F0F8C2DF84C2FB2DC125
7088002BFBD9
Olekoshi, A.,1995, ‘Bourgeois social movements and the struggle for democracy in Nigeria’,
in M. Mamdani, African studies in social movements and democracy. Senegal : CODESRIA.
Veltmeyer, H., 1997, ‘New Social Movements in Latin America: The Dynamics of Class and
Identity’ Journal of Peasant Studies, 25:1