Not surprisingly, ''society'' was pushed to the sidelines and ultimately became a very abstract notion, relegated to the confines of sociological theorising and social philosophy, not fitting the two-sector world view that has dominated the social sciences for the last fifty years. Likewise, the notion that a ''third sector'' might exist between market and state somehow got lost in the two-sector view of the world. Of course, there were and are many private institutions that serve public purposes-voluntary associations, charities, nonprofits, foundations and non-governmental organisations-that do not fit the state-market dichotomy. Yet, until quite recently, such third-sector institutions were neglected if not ignored outright by all social sciences.
Civil society refers to the arena of uncoerced collective action around shared interests, purposes and values. In theory, its institutional forms are distinct from those of the state, family and market, though in practice, the boundaries between state, civil society, family and market are often complex, blurred and negotiated. Civil society commonly embraces a diversity of spaces, actors and institutional forms, varying in their degree of formality, autonomy and power. Civil societies are often populated by organisations such as registered charities, development non-governmental organisations, community groups, women''s organisations, faith-based organisations, professional associations, trades unions, self-help groups, social movements, business associations, coalitions and advocacy group.
Why civil society? What is this sudden interest in civil society all about? Some may recall that the term was en vogue in the 18th and 19th centuries, but had long fallen into disuse, and became a term of interest to historians primarily. For CCS, the answer is obvious but full of implications. For a long time, social scientists believed that we lived in a two-sector world. There was the market or the economy on the one hand, and the state or government on the other. Our great theories speak to them, and virtually all our energy was dedicated to exploring the two institutional complexes of market and state. Nothing else seemed to matter much.
Such a short-sided approach has had disastrous consequences for our understanding of how economy and society interact, of which the inability of the social sciences to predict and understand the fall of communism in central and eastern Europe is just one of many examples. One of the most important events of the 20th century escaped the attention of mainstream social science until after the fact. Looking back, we can see how events in central and eastern Europe were indeed instrumental in bringing the topic of civil society to the attention of social scientists in the West.
原文正文
What is civil society? Civil society is a concept located strategically at the cross-section of important strands of intellectual developments in the social sciences. To take account of the diversity of the concept, CCS adopted an initial working definition that is meant to guide research activities and teaching, but is by no means to be interpreted as a rigid statement:
One could reach a similar conclusion about the
CCS researchers would reach similar conclusions for the way in which the social sciences typically approached ''development'' in the South. For too long we have held preconceived notions of ''the'' market and ''the'' state that were seemingly independent of local societies and cultures. The debate about civil society ultimately is about how culture, market and state relate to each other.
What is civil society
Concern about civil society, however, is not only relevant to central and eastern <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />
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