The Languages of Civil Society

Download or read book The Languages of Civil Society written by Peter Wagner and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past two decades have witnessed a revival of the concept of 'civil society'. From East Central Europe to Latin America and East Asia to the recent calls for a 'European civil society' and a 'global civil society', the concept signifies the need for national and supra-national forms of civic commitment against both unjustified state domination and neo-liberal marketization. Reviewing the long history of the concept, its use in various regional contexts and its place in critical political theory, this book takes comprehensive stock of these debates and asks about the potential of the concept of civil society in guiding political transformations towards fuller understandings of liberty and democracy.