Syllabus
Course schedule
Week 1 (6. 10. 2020) Introductory discussion: What is civil society (good for)?
Part I. The Normative Approach
Week 2 (13. 10.)
Required reading: Ernest Gellner, Conditions of Liberty, chs. 1, 24, and 28
Optional further reading: Cohen and Arato, Civil Society and Political Theory (especially Part III) Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (esp. Part II) Petr Pithart, “Občanská společnost a stát” (in Czech)
Part II. The Classics
Week 3 (20. 10.) Pioneers
John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, ch. VII Alexis de Tocqueville, selections from Democracy in American (Book 2, ch. VII)
Optional further reading: Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Week 4 (27. 10.) A New Synthesis
G. W. F. Hegel, “Civil Society,” Part A (in The Philosophy of Right)
Optional further reading: the rest of The Philosophy of Right
Week 5 (3. 11.) A Radical Critique
Karl Marx, “On the Jewish Question”
Optional further reading: Marx, “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction” Antonio Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks 17. 11. No class
Part III. The Revival
Week 6. (10. 11.) Dissent in Eastern Europe
Required reading: Gideon Baker, Civil Society and Democratic Theory, ch. 2, “...Czechoslovakian and Hungarian Voices”
Optional further reading: Baker, ch. 1, “...Polish Voices” Václav Benda, “The Parallel Polis” Iván Szelényi, “Socialist Opposition in Eastern Europe: Dilemmas and Prospects” John Keane, Democracy and Civil Society (esp. chs. 1 and 2)
Week 7 (24. 11.) Dissent in Latin America
Required reading: Baker, ch. 3, “...the Latin American Left’s Rediscovery of Civil Society”
Optional further reading: Baker, ch. 4 Cohen and Arato, Civil Society and Political Theory, ch. 1 Subcomandante Marcos, “Second Declaration from the Lacandona Jungle”
Week 8 (1. 12.) The Post-Communist Taming
Required reading: Veronika Stoyanova, “The Concept of Civil Society during the ‘Transition’”
Optional further reading: Baker, ch. 5, “Civil Society and Theories of Democratization in Eastern Europe” Baker, ch. 6, “...in Latin America”
Part IV. Contemporary Critics
Week 9 (8. 12.) Beyond the Civil World
Partha Chatterjee, “The Politics of the Governed” (esp. section II, pp. 64–78)
Optional further reading: Chris Hann and Elizabeth Dunn (eds.), Civil Society: Challenging Western Models Neera Chandoke, Conceits of Civil Society
Week 10 (15. 12.) Beyond Citizenship
Required Reading: Amy Brandzel, Against Citizenship, introduction
Optional further reading: the rest of Against Citizenship Jeffrey Alexander, “De-civilizing the Civil Sphere” (in The Dark Side of Modernity)
Week 11 (22. 12.) Another Look Back
Required Reading: Engin Isin, Being Political, ch. 8
Optional further reading: Walter Mignolo, The Darker Side of Western Modernity 29. 12. No class
Week 12 (5. 1. 2020): Final discussion/course overview
Annotation
Joseph Grim Feinberg, feinberg@flu.cas.cz
In this course we will explore the concepts of civil society and citizenship as they have been employed in recent political and social theory, and we will confront these concepts with the question of the non-citizen, asking: How do normative theories about the value of citizenship and civil society address the existence of people who are excluded from the society of citizens? Beginning with a historical look at the concepts of civil society and citizenship, we will proceed to key texts from the so-called revival of civil society after 1989, and we will conclude the course with a look at critical approaches to civil society that highlight the role of the excluded.