Abstract
The social sciences are bedeviled by terminological promiscuity. Terms and phrases are used at one time in a certain context and later borrowed and applied in different circumstances to somewhat different phenomena. Sometimes different groups of actors or researchers simultaneously use the same term with somewhat different meanings. Such is the use of the term civil society. In this 5th Anniversary of the Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, it is timely to trace the evolution of the idea of civil society to its multiple guises in the present. The paper reviews the term’s 18th and 19th century roots, its recent resurrection and the opposing views of civil society, including views that question its applicability to non-western settings. It then discusses prospects for developing agreed approaches to the study of civil society. To guide our thinking the paper presents a brief overview of different approaches to defining civil society taken by some of the major so-called centres for civil society in Australia and internationally. The paper concludes by reflecting on these definitional challenges as it has played out at one particular cross faculty research centre, the University of Technology, Sydney’s Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre.
Highlights
Civil society: Overlapping Frames The social sciences are bedeviled by terminological promiscuity
In this 6th Anniversary year of the Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal it is timely to trace the evolution of the idea of civil society to its multiple guises in the present and to consider its prospects in the near future
This is because they build social capital, trust and shared values, which are transferred into the political sphere and help to hold society together, facilitating an understanding of the interconnectedness of society and interests within it
Summary
Bronwen Dalton and Virginia Watson, 2007 ‘Civil Society, Third Sector: Overlapping Frames’ presented at the University of Technology, Sydney, Conference on Cosmopolitan Civil Societies, 4–5 October, 2007 Sydney. Civil society as supporter of democratic state: the CWA version Robert Putnam (1993) has argued that organisations in civil society are vital for democracy This is because they build social capital, trust and shared values, which are transferred into the political sphere and help to hold society together, facilitating an understanding of the interconnectedness of society and interests within it. Johns Hopkins USA ‘We use the terms ‘civil society sector’ or ‘civil society organization’ to refer to a broad array of organisations that are essentially private, i.e., outside the institutional structures of government; that are not primarily commercial and do not exist primarily to distribute profits to their directors or ‘owners’; that are selfgoverning; and that people are free to join or support voluntarily This definition was formulated in collaboration with teams of researchers and advisors from around the world and has been used successfully to.
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