Conclusion

Abstract

This concluding chapter seeks to draw out some general comparative elements from the rich landscape of civil and ‘uncivil’ society behaviour the authors in this far-reaching comparative volume depict. In engaging, at the same time, other social science literature, it also offers several further comparative cases to reinforce their analysis. In situating Southeast Asian civil societies in a ‘glocalised’ context, the chapter proposes a tentative analytical grid to delineate the domestic topographies and the transnational contours of the space for civil – and uncivil – societies in Southeast Asia. As a heuristic device, the domestic topographies can be broken down into three categories: the societal environment (including both political culture and communicative vectors), the nature of states and regimes, and, thirdly, institutional frameworks such as those pertaining to the judiciary, political party structures, and electoral systems. Nevertheless, norms framing civil society, as well as systemic considerations, are also impacted upon by global and regional contingencies. The transnational contours of the ensuing ‘glocalisation’ comprise four categories: the normative, the societal, the systemic, and the financial. The third and final section turns to the situation in Myanmar after the coup d’état of February 2021 to raise further conceptual questions concerning the space for civil, and uncivil, society in an (un?)civil war.