This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
The module provides an up to date overview of how key social science thinkers from across the social sciences have understood and analysed the relevance and contribution of civil society in their models and theories. It explores how contemporary scholars have continued to use their ideational frameworks to explore current social, political and economic problems and issues. It starts by acknowledging some of the key antecedents to contemporary notions of civil society in classical and pre-modern thought, and then systematically reviews how leading theorists of, and commentators on, post Enlightenment social and political developments have defined this sphere, and accounted for its roles and contributions in their formulations. Most of these writers have crossed what we now think of as disciplinary boundaries, and include: Adam Ferguson; Alexis de Tocqueville, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, Antonio Gramsci, Jurgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault. In each case, their basic socio-political models are reviewed, their accounts of civil society explicated and critiqued, and the applications of their contemporary interpreters to civil society issues explored.
Total contact hours: 22
Private study hours: 178
Total study hours: 200
Civil Society, NGO and Non-profit Studies MA compulsory module
Option module for some other SSPSSR taught master degrees including
Sociology MA
And where appropriate two year master degree versions of the above programmes
Main assessment methods
Coursework assignment 1 – essay (1500 words) – 30%
Coursework assignment 2 – essay (5,000 words) – 70%
Reassessment methods
100% coursework.
Alexander, J. (2006), The Civil Sphere, Oxford University Press.
Cohen, J. and Arato, A. (1992), Civil Society and Political Theory, the MIT Press.
Deakin, N. (2001), In Search Of Civil Society, Palgrave.
Edwards, M. (2009), Civil Society, Polity.
Ehrenberg, J. (1999), Civil society: the Critical History of an Idea, New York University Press
Hall, J.A. and Trentmann, F. (2005), Civil Society: A Reader in History, Theory and Global Politics, Palgrave.
Hodgkinson, V. and Foley, M.W., (2003), The Civil Society Reader, University Press of New England for Tufts University.
Kaviraj, S. and Khilnani, (2001), Civil Society: History and Possibilities, Cambridge University Press.
Keane, J. (1988), Civil Society and the State, Verso
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
8.1 Understand how the idea of civil society has been approached and utilised by some of the most significant social and political analysts.
8.2 Assess why key social science thinkers have deployed accounts of 'civil society' or related constructs as part of their social and political
framework, and how and in what respects this particular component strengthens and deepens, or weakens and challenges, their overall
analysis.
8.3 Evaluate how these contrasting formulations relate to on other in terms of ideational scope, content and emphasis.
8.4 Understand the relevance of these formulations to the contemporary challenges of civil society.
8.5 Critically assess how this range of meanings of civil society have been applied by current theorists and empirical researchers.
8.6. Assess the value of the range of research methods deployed by the key thinkers themselves, and their contemporary interpreters
appropriate to the study of this field.
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
9.1 Communicate, in terms of organising information in a clear and coherent way, responding to written sources and presenting information
orally.
9.2 Develop the application of theory ad research evidence to understanding of key issues in welfare and social policy
9.3 Work with others by co-operating on seminars and expressing reasoned arguments orally.
9.4 Develop argumentation: they will develop logical arguments based upon sound reasoning and understanding of the material and express
these arguments in a written format
9.5 Undertake desk-based research. Students will be able to gather library and web-based resources appropriate for postgraduate study;
make critical judgements about their merits and use the available evidence to construct a developed argument to be presented orally or in
writing.
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