Civil society : history and possibilities
- Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001
- x,330p.: pbk.: 23cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Civil society is one of the most used - and abused - concepts in current political thinking. In this important collection of essays, the concept is subjected to rigorous analysis by an international team of contributors, all of whom seek to encourage the historical and comparative understanding of political thought. The volume is divided into two parts: the first section analyses the meaning of civil society in different theoretical traditions of Western philosophy. In the second section, contributors consider the theoretical and practical contexts in which the notion of civil society has been invoked in Asia, Africa and Latin America. These essays demonstrate how an influential Western idea like civil society is itself altered and innovatively modified by the specific contexts of intellectual and practical life in the societies of the South.
Detailed attention given to the nuances of the idea in various theoretical traditions (most others assume it has a simple, single meaning, or are not attentive to these differences) Uses two axes of comparison between the various Western traditions and between the Western theories and their uses in the third world social and political contexts - which often alter them significantly Shows how practical contexts are as important as purely intellectual ones