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THE CONCEPT OF CIVIL SOCIETY AS A RESEARCH PROGRAM

stmm. 2022 (3): 40-64

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2022.03.040

VIKTOR STEPANENKO, Doctor of Science in Sociology, Chief Research Fellow at the Department of History and Theory of Sociology, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal “Sociology: theory, methods and marketing” (12, Shovkovychna St., Kyiv, 01021)

vikstepa@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3623-0057

The article attempts to apply the methodology of the research program in its sociological adaptation (D. Berger, M. Zelditch and D. Wagner) to the analysis of historical and contemporary issues of civil society. The concept of civil society is presented as a research program, which is characterized by its own logic of development, historical sequence, variability of semantic representations and actualization of various contextual accents. The structure and features of the concept of civil society as a research program are outlined. Its theoretical core consists of two basic conceptual premises: 1) the principle of social self-activity, separated from state power and 2) the system of norms and value regulations outlined by the concept of civility. The theoretical issues of modern theorizing of civil society are analyzed, in particular the connection between civil society and democracy, the relationship between civil society and the state and the market. It is argued that the key feature of the civil society research program is its historicity and contextuality. The three-stage periodic model of J. Alexander’s civil society concept is analyzed as one of the examples of the development of the research program. It is argued that important methodological guidelines of the sociological research program regarding the conceptualizations of modern Ukrainian civil society are its secularization and nationalization. Modern prospects for the development of the research program of civil society are outlined. It is emphasized that the challenges of political populism require civil society to activate its “protective shield" potential through the acquisition of experience in social activism for many citizens. Resistance to informational fakes and manipulations, which are tools of both populism and military aggression, is also one of the important tasks of domestic civil society and an actual field of research into its contemporary issues.

Keywords: civil society, research program, sociological theory, historicity, contextuality.

References

[=Резнік, В.(2021). Аналіз дослідницьких програм: соціологічний ракурс. Соцiологiя: теорiя, методи, маркетинг, 4, 104–128, DOI: https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2021.04.104.]

Adloff, F. (2016). Gifts of cooperation, Mauss and pragmatism. London: Routledge

Adloff, F. (2021). Capitalism and Civil Society Revisited or: Conceptualizing a Civil, Sustainable and Solidary Economy. International Journal of Politics, Culture & Society, 34 (2), 149–159.

Ahn, T. K., Ostrom, E. (2008). Social capital and collective action. In: D. Castiglione, J.W. Van Deth, G. Wolleb (Eds.), The handbook of social capital (pp. 70–100). New York: Oxford University Press.

Alagappa, M. (2004). Civil Society and Political Change: An Analytical Framework. In: M. Alagappa (Ed.), Civil Society and Political Change in Asia: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space (pp. 25–57). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Albrow, M., Seckinelgin, H. (2011). Introduction: Globality and the Absence of Justice. In: Anheier, H., Glasius, M., Kaldor, M., Park, G.S., Sengupta, C. (Eds.), Global Civil Society 2011. Global Civil Society Yearbook. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230303805_1

Alexander, J.C., Stack, T., Khosrokhavar, F. (2019). Breaching the civil order: radicalism and the civil sphere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Alexander, J. (1998). Introduction. Civil Society I, II, III. Constructing an Empirical Concept from Normative Controversies and Historical Transformations. In: J. Alexander (Ed.), Real Civil Societies. Dilemmas of Institutionalization (pp. 1–21). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Alexander, J. (2000). Theorizing the Good Society: Hermeneutic, Normative and Empirical Discourses. The Canadian Journal of Sociology, 25 (3), 271–309.

Alexander, J. (2006). The civil sphere. New York: Oxford University Press.

Alexander, J. (2018). Frontlash/Backlash: The Crisis of Solidarity and the Threat to Civil Institutions. Contemporary Sociology, 48 (1), 5–11.

Anheier, H.K., Salamon, L.M. (2006). The nonprofit sector in comparative perspective. The nonprofit sector: A research handbook, 2, 89–116.

Anheier, H.K., Toepler S. (Eds.) (2010). International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. New York: Springer Science & Business Media.

Anheier, H., Kaldor, M., Glasius, M. (2012). The Global Civil Society Yearbook: Lessons and Insights 2001–2011. In: M. Kaldor, S. Selchow, H.L. Moore (Eds.), Global Civil Society 2012: Ten Years of Critical Reflection (pp.2–26). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Arato, A. (1981). Civil society against the state: Poland 1980-81. Télos, 1981 (47), 23–47.

Armony, A. (2004). The dubious link: civic engagement and democratization. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.

Aspinall, E. (2004). Indonesia: Transformation of Civil Society and Democratic Breakthrough. In: M. Alagappa (Ed.), Civil Society and Political Change in Asia: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space (pp. 61–96). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Berman, S. (1997). Civil Society and the Collapse of Weimar Republic. World Politics, 49, 401–429.

Bryant, C. (1995). Civic Nation, Civil Society, Civil Religion. In: J.A. Hall (Ed.), Civil Society. Theory, History, Comparison (pp.136–157). Cambridge: Polity Press.

Democracy in Retreat. Freedom in the World (2019). Отримано з: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2019/democracy-in-retreat.

Eder, K. (2009). The making of a European civil society: “Imagined”, “practised” and “staged”. Policy and Society, 28 (1), 23–33. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polsoc.2009.02.003.

Egholm, L., Kaspersen, L.B. (2021). Introduction to the Special Issue ‘Beyond Civil Society’: Advancing a Post-sectoral Conception of Civil Society – Moving Beyond Civil Society? International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 34, 143–148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-020-09372-6.

Ekiert, G., Foa, R. (2017). The Weakness of Post-Communist Civil Society Reassessed. European Journal of Political Research, 56: 419–439. DOI: 10.1111/1475-6765.12182

Englehart, N. (2011). What Makes Civil Society Civil? The State and Social Groups, Polity, 43 (3), 337–357.

Evers, A. (2009). Civicness and civility: their meanings for social services. International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 20 (3), 239–259. DOI: 10.1007/s11266-009-9088-x.

Freise, M., Hallmann, T. (Eds.) (2014). Modernizing democracy. Associations and associating in the twenty-firs century. New York: Springer New York.

Gellner, E. (1996). Condition of Liberty. Civil Society and Its Rivals. London: Penguin Books.

Gouldner, A.W. (1980). The Two Marxisms: Contradictions and Anomalies in the Development Theory. London: Macmillan.

Habermas, J. (2000). The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. [In Ukrainian]. Lviv: Litopys. [=Габермас, Ю. (2000). Структурні перетворення у сфері відкритості. Львів: Літопис.]

Halperin, S. (2003). Effective Resistance to Corporate Globalization. In: S. Halperin, G. Laxer (Eds.), Global Civil Society and Its Limits (pp. 1–25). Houndmills.

Havel, V. (1985). The Power of the Powerless: Citizens against the state in central-eastern Europe. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe.

Howell, J. (2001). Civil Society and Development. A Critical Exploration. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Ikegami, E. (2000). A Sociological Theory of Publics: Identity and Culture as Emergent Properties in Networks. Social Research, 67 (4), 989–1029.

Keane, J. (2001). Democracy and Civil Society. [In Russian]. Moscow: Progress-Traditsiia. [=Кин, Д. (2001). Демократия и гражданское общество. Москва: Прогресс-Традиция.]

Koselleck, R. (2014). Introduction. Dictionary of basic historical concepts: selected papers in 2 Vols./ Tr. from German by K. Levinson; Ed. by Yu. Zaretskii, K. Levinson, I. Shirle (vol. 1, pp. 23–44). Moscow: Novoir literaturnoie obozrenie. [=Козеллек, Р. (2014). Введение. В: Словарь основных исторических понятий: избр. статьи в 2 т. / пер. с нем. К. Левинсона; сост. Ю. Зарецкий, К. Левинсон, И. Ширле (т. 1, сс. 23–44). Москва: Новое литературное обозрение.]

Krastev, I. (2017). After Europe. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Kumar, K. (1993). Civil society: an enquiry into the usefulness of an historical term. The British Journal of Sociology, 44, 375–39.

Kutuev, P. The Concepts of development and modernization in sociological discourse. [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv: Stal. [=Кутуєв, П. (2005). Концепції розвитку та модернізації в соціологічному дискурсі: еволюція дослідницьких програм. Київ: Сталь.]

Lacatos, I. (2007). Methodology of scientific research programs. [In Ukrainian]. Psychology and society, 4, 11–29. [=Лакатош, І. (2007). Методологія наукових дослідницьких програм. Психологія і суспільство, 4, 11–29.]

Laville, J.-L., Salmon, A. (2015). Rethinking the relationship between governance and democracy. The theoretical framework of the solidarity economy. In: J.-L. Laville, D.R. Young, P. Eynaud (Eds.), Civil society, the third sector and social enterprise (pp. 145–162). London: Routledge.

Lichterman, P., Eliasoph, N. (2014). Civic action. American Journal of Sociology, 120 (3), 798–863.

Mbembe, А. (2001). On the Postcolony. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Pérez-Díaz, V. (2014). Civil society: a multi-layered concept. Current Sociology, 62 (6), 812–830.

Putnam, R. (2004). Democracies in flux: the evolution of social capital in contemporary society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Putnam, R.D., Campbell, D.E. (2012). American grace: how religion divides and unites us. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Reznik, V. (2921).The Analysis of research programs: sociological aspect. [In Ukrainian]. Sociology: theory, methods, marketing, 4, 104–128, DOI: https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2021.04.104.

Riley, D. (2005). Civic Associations and Authoritarian Regimes in Inter-war Europe: Italy and Spain in Comparative Perspective. American Sociological Review, 70: 288–310.

Rosenblum, N.L., Post, R. (2002). Civil society and government. Princeton: Princeton University press

Scheidel, W. (2017). The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv346rs7.

Seligman, A. (1993). The Fragile Ethical Vision of Civil Society. In: B.S. Turner (Ed.), Citizenship and Social Theory (pp. 139–161). London: Sage.

Shills, E. (1997). The virtue of civility: Selected essays on liberalism, tradition, and civil society. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.

Spires, A.J. (2011). Contingent Symbiosis and Civil Society in an Authoritarian State: Understanding the Survival of China’s Grassroots NGOs. American Journal of Sociology, 117 (1), 1–45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/660741.

Stepanenko, V. (2015) Civil society: discourses and practices. Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, NAS of Ukraine. [=Степаненко, В. (2015). Громадянське суспільство: дискурси і практики. Київ: Інститут соціології НАН України.]

Tørres, L. (2021). A Civil or Unicivil Civil Society? Research paper. Retrieved from: https://cic.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/cic_pathfinders_civil_or_uncivil_society_2021.pdf

Volpi, F. (2011). Introduction. Invoking Political Civility in the Middle East. Third World Quarterly, 32, 5, 801–806.

Walzer, M. (1991). The idea of civil society: a path to social reconstruction. Dissent, 38, 293–304.

Wiarda, H.J. (2003). Civil Society: The American Model and Third World Development. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Received 15.08.2022

THE CONCEPT OF CIVIL SOCIETY AS A RESEARCH PROGRAM

stmm. 2022 (3): 40-64

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2022.03.040

VIKTOR STEPANENKO, Doctor of Science in Sociology, Chief Research Fellow at the Department of History and Theory of Sociology, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal “Sociology: theory, methods and marketing” (12, Shovkovychna St., Kyiv, 01021)

vikstepa@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3623-0057

The article attempts to apply the methodology of the research program in its sociological adaptation (D. Berger, M. Zelditch and D. Wagner) to the analysis of historical and contemporary issues of civil society. The concept of civil society is presented as a research program, which is characterized by its own logic of development, historical sequence, variability of semantic representations and actualization of various contextual accents. The structure and features of the concept of civil society as a research program are outlined. Its theoretical core consists of two basic conceptual premises: 1) the principle of social self-activity, separated from state power and 2) the system of norms and value regulations outlined by the concept of civility. The theoretical issues of modern theorizing of civil society are analyzed, in particular the connection between civil society and democracy, the relationship between civil society and the state and the market. It is argued that the key feature of the civil society research program is its historicity and contextuality. The three-stage periodic model of J. Alexander’s civil society concept is analyzed as one of the examples of the development of the research program. It is argued that important methodological guidelines of the sociological research program regarding the conceptualizations of modern Ukrainian civil society are its secularization and nationalization. Modern prospects for the development of the research program of civil society are outlined. It is emphasized that the challenges of political populism require civil society to activate its “protective shield" potential through the acquisition of experience in social activism for many citizens. Resistance to informational fakes and manipulations, which are tools of both populism and military aggression, is also one of the important tasks of domestic civil society and an actual field of research into its contemporary issues.

Keywords: civil society, research program, sociological theory, historicity, contextuality.

References

[=Резнік, В.(2021). Аналіз дослідницьких програм: соціологічний ракурс. Соцiологiя: теорiя, методи, маркетинг, 4, 104–128, DOI: https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2021.04.104.]

Adloff, F. (2016). Gifts of cooperation, Mauss and pragmatism. London: Routledge

Adloff, F. (2021). Capitalism and Civil Society Revisited or: Conceptualizing a Civil, Sustainable and Solidary Economy. International Journal of Politics, Culture & Society, 34 (2), 149–159.

Ahn, T. K., Ostrom, E. (2008). Social capital and collective action. In: D. Castiglione, J.W. Van Deth, G. Wolleb (Eds.), The handbook of social capital (pp. 70–100). New York: Oxford University Press.

Alagappa, M. (2004). Civil Society and Political Change: An Analytical Framework. In: M. Alagappa (Ed.), Civil Society and Political Change in Asia: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space (pp. 25–57). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Albrow, M., Seckinelgin, H. (2011). Introduction: Globality and the Absence of Justice. In: Anheier, H., Glasius, M., Kaldor, M., Park, G.S., Sengupta, C. (Eds.), Global Civil Society 2011. Global Civil Society Yearbook. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230303805_1

Alexander, J.C., Stack, T., Khosrokhavar, F. (2019). Breaching the civil order: radicalism and the civil sphere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Alexander, J. (1998). Introduction. Civil Society I, II, III. Constructing an Empirical Concept from Normative Controversies and Historical Transformations. In: J. Alexander (Ed.), Real Civil Societies. Dilemmas of Institutionalization (pp. 1–21). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Alexander, J. (2000). Theorizing the Good Society: Hermeneutic, Normative and Empirical Discourses. The Canadian Journal of Sociology, 25 (3), 271–309.

Alexander, J. (2006). The civil sphere. New York: Oxford University Press.

Alexander, J. (2018). Frontlash/Backlash: The Crisis of Solidarity and the Threat to Civil Institutions. Contemporary Sociology, 48 (1), 5–11.

Anheier, H.K., Salamon, L.M. (2006). The nonprofit sector in comparative perspective. The nonprofit sector: A research handbook, 2, 89–116.

Anheier, H.K., Toepler S. (Eds.) (2010). International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. New York: Springer Science & Business Media.

Anheier, H., Kaldor, M., Glasius, M. (2012). The Global Civil Society Yearbook: Lessons and Insights 2001–2011. In: M. Kaldor, S. Selchow, H.L. Moore (Eds.), Global Civil Society 2012: Ten Years of Critical Reflection (pp.2–26). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Arato, A. (1981). Civil society against the state: Poland 1980-81. Télos, 1981 (47), 23–47.

Armony, A. (2004). The dubious link: civic engagement and democratization. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.

Aspinall, E. (2004). Indonesia: Transformation of Civil Society and Democratic Breakthrough. In: M. Alagappa (Ed.), Civil Society and Political Change in Asia: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space (pp. 61–96). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Berman, S. (1997). Civil Society and the Collapse of Weimar Republic. World Politics, 49, 401–429.

Bryant, C. (1995). Civic Nation, Civil Society, Civil Religion. In: J.A. Hall (Ed.), Civil Society. Theory, History, Comparison (pp.136–157). Cambridge: Polity Press.

Democracy in Retreat. Freedom in the World (2019). Отримано з: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2019/democracy-in-retreat.

Eder, K. (2009). The making of a European civil society: “Imagined”, “practised” and “staged”. Policy and Society, 28 (1), 23–33. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polsoc.2009.02.003.

Egholm, L., Kaspersen, L.B. (2021). Introduction to the Special Issue ‘Beyond Civil Society’: Advancing a Post-sectoral Conception of Civil Society – Moving Beyond Civil Society? International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 34, 143–148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-020-09372-6.

Ekiert, G., Foa, R. (2017). The Weakness of Post-Communist Civil Society Reassessed. European Journal of Political Research, 56: 419–439. DOI: 10.1111/1475-6765.12182

Englehart, N. (2011). What Makes Civil Society Civil? The State and Social Groups, Polity, 43 (3), 337–357.

Evers, A. (2009). Civicness and civility: their meanings for social services. International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 20 (3), 239–259. DOI: 10.1007/s11266-009-9088-x.

Freise, M., Hallmann, T. (Eds.) (2014). Modernizing democracy. Associations and associating in the twenty-firs century. New York: Springer New York.

Gellner, E. (1996). Condition of Liberty. Civil Society and Its Rivals. London: Penguin Books.

Gouldner, A.W. (1980). The Two Marxisms: Contradictions and Anomalies in the Development Theory. London: Macmillan.

Habermas, J. (2000). The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. [In Ukrainian]. Lviv: Litopys. [=Габермас, Ю. (2000). Структурні перетворення у сфері відкритості. Львів: Літопис.]

Halperin, S. (2003). Effective Resistance to Corporate Globalization. In: S. Halperin, G. Laxer (Eds.), Global Civil Society and Its Limits (pp. 1–25). Houndmills.

Havel, V. (1985). The Power of the Powerless: Citizens against the state in central-eastern Europe. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe.

Howell, J. (2001). Civil Society and Development. A Critical Exploration. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Ikegami, E. (2000). A Sociological Theory of Publics: Identity and Culture as Emergent Properties in Networks. Social Research, 67 (4), 989–1029.

Keane, J. (2001). Democracy and Civil Society. [In Russian]. Moscow: Progress-Traditsiia. [=Кин, Д. (2001). Демократия и гражданское общество. Москва: Прогресс-Традиция.]

Koselleck, R. (2014). Introduction. Dictionary of basic historical concepts: selected papers in 2 Vols./ Tr. from German by K. Levinson; Ed. by Yu. Zaretskii, K. Levinson, I. Shirle (vol. 1, pp. 23–44). Moscow: Novoir literaturnoie obozrenie. [=Козеллек, Р. (2014). Введение. В: Словарь основных исторических понятий: избр. статьи в 2 т. / пер. с нем. К. Левинсона; сост. Ю. Зарецкий, К. Левинсон, И. Ширле (т. 1, сс. 23–44). Москва: Новое литературное обозрение.]

Krastev, I. (2017). After Europe. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Kumar, K. (1993). Civil society: an enquiry into the usefulness of an historical term. The British Journal of Sociology, 44, 375–39.

Kutuev, P. The Concepts of development and modernization in sociological discourse. [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv: Stal. [=Кутуєв, П. (2005). Концепції розвитку та модернізації в соціологічному дискурсі: еволюція дослідницьких програм. Київ: Сталь.]

Lacatos, I. (2007). Methodology of scientific research programs. [In Ukrainian]. Psychology and society, 4, 11–29. [=Лакатош, І. (2007). Методологія наукових дослідницьких програм. Психологія і суспільство, 4, 11–29.]

Laville, J.-L., Salmon, A. (2015). Rethinking the relationship between governance and democracy. The theoretical framework of the solidarity economy. In: J.-L. Laville, D.R. Young, P. Eynaud (Eds.), Civil society, the third sector and social enterprise (pp. 145–162). London: Routledge.

Lichterman, P., Eliasoph, N. (2014). Civic action. American Journal of Sociology, 120 (3), 798–863.

Mbembe, А. (2001). On the Postcolony. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Pérez-Díaz, V. (2014). Civil society: a multi-layered concept. Current Sociology, 62 (6), 812–830.

Putnam, R. (2004). Democracies in flux: the evolution of social capital in contemporary society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Putnam, R.D., Campbell, D.E. (2012). American grace: how religion divides and unites us. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Reznik, V. (2921).The Analysis of research programs: sociological aspect. [In Ukrainian]. Sociology: theory, methods, marketing, 4, 104–128, DOI: https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2021.04.104.

Riley, D. (2005). Civic Associations and Authoritarian Regimes in Inter-war Europe: Italy and Spain in Comparative Perspective. American Sociological Review, 70: 288–310.

Rosenblum, N.L., Post, R. (2002). Civil society and government. Princeton: Princeton University press

Scheidel, W. (2017). The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv346rs7.

Seligman, A. (1993). The Fragile Ethical Vision of Civil Society. In: B.S. Turner (Ed.), Citizenship and Social Theory (pp. 139–161). London: Sage.

Shills, E. (1997). The virtue of civility: Selected essays on liberalism, tradition, and civil society. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.

Spires, A.J. (2011). Contingent Symbiosis and Civil Society in an Authoritarian State: Understanding the Survival of China’s Grassroots NGOs. American Journal of Sociology, 117 (1), 1–45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/660741.

Stepanenko, V. (2015) Civil society: discourses and practices. Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, NAS of Ukraine. [=Степаненко, В. (2015). Громадянське суспільство: дискурси і практики. Київ: Інститут соціології НАН України.]

Tørres, L. (2021). A Civil or Unicivil Civil Society? Research paper. Retrieved from: https://cic.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/cic_pathfinders_civil_or_uncivil_society_2021.pdf

Volpi, F. (2011). Introduction. Invoking Political Civility in the Middle East. Third World Quarterly, 32, 5, 801–806.

Walzer, M. (1991). The idea of civil society: a path to social reconstruction. Dissent, 38, 293–304.

Wiarda, H.J. (2003). Civil Society: The American Model and Third World Development. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Received 15.08.2022

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