Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/17448689.2022.2125413
Teresa Amezcua, Eva Sotomayor
ABSTRACT This article aims to examine and describe the ways in which elderly people participate in post-industrial societies. The literature points out the benefits of social participation. However, the influence of context in features of civil society has remained relatively understudied. This article analyses the influence of context on the conceptualization of the phenomenon of social participation and civic engagement. In addition, the findings are linked to the broader academic debate on civil society. This empirical study consists of results from semi-structured interviews and focus groups conducted with experts on social participation and elderly members of different associations. The German and Spanish case studies confirm that socio-demographic variables, cultural frames, political structures and social structure shape the culture of participation. The article argues that each context creates its own participatory culture through the incorporation of four different conceptualisations of participation: (1) participation as a right; (2) participation as an attitude; (3) participation as civic engagement; (4) participation as a slogan. The Spanish discourse tends mostly to conceptualize participation as a right and/or a slogan. The German discourse conceptualizes participation mainly as civic engagement. These conceptual differences give rise to two different participatory culture models.
{"title":"Social Participation in Context. Participatory Culture in Spain and Germany","authors":"Teresa Amezcua, Eva Sotomayor","doi":"10.1080/17448689.2022.2125413","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2022.2125413","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article aims to examine and describe the ways in which elderly people participate in post-industrial societies. The literature points out the benefits of social participation. However, the influence of context in features of civil society has remained relatively understudied. This article analyses the influence of context on the conceptualization of the phenomenon of social participation and civic engagement. In addition, the findings are linked to the broader academic debate on civil society. This empirical study consists of results from semi-structured interviews and focus groups conducted with experts on social participation and elderly members of different associations. The German and Spanish case studies confirm that socio-demographic variables, cultural frames, political structures and social structure shape the culture of participation. The article argues that each context creates its own participatory culture through the incorporation of four different conceptualisations of participation: (1) participation as a right; (2) participation as an attitude; (3) participation as civic engagement; (4) participation as a slogan. The Spanish discourse tends mostly to conceptualize participation as a right and/or a slogan. The German discourse conceptualizes participation mainly as civic engagement. These conceptual differences give rise to two different participatory culture models.","PeriodicalId":46013,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Civil Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43634150","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/17448689.2022.2125415
Anders Sjögren
ABSTRACT Civil society organizations (CSOs) respond differently to challenges from autocratic governments and opposition parties around the regulation and content of elections. Building on research on autocratic state regulation of CSOs, this article contributes a sharper focus on their horizontal relations to increase understanding of their diverse strategies of engagement. The article argues that even in contexts dominated by a heavy-handed state, relations between CSOs are especially important during elections, when they are most mobilized and motivated to build coalitions. The results of a study into how non-governmental associations (NGOs) and faith-based organizations (FBOs) engaged with electoral reforms around the Uganda 2016 general elections show how relations of cooperation, competition, or conflict between civil society organizations modify the effects of state regulation by adding to their incentives and capacities. The findings help explain the many ways CSOs engage with each other, the population, the state, and the opposition, including their submission to and protests against the autocratic order. Horizontal relations of conflict and competition among the FBOs prevented effective coalitions and facilitated submissive politics during Uganda’s 2016 elections. Relations among governance NGOs, however, were more cooperative and generated protest alliances, even though those alliances proved difficult to sustain.
{"title":"Civil society and contested elections in electoral autocracies: Dissent and caution in Uganda’s 2016 elections","authors":"Anders Sjögren","doi":"10.1080/17448689.2022.2125415","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2022.2125415","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Civil society organizations (CSOs) respond differently to challenges from autocratic governments and opposition parties around the regulation and content of elections. Building on research on autocratic state regulation of CSOs, this article contributes a sharper focus on their horizontal relations to increase understanding of their diverse strategies of engagement. The article argues that even in contexts dominated by a heavy-handed state, relations between CSOs are especially important during elections, when they are most mobilized and motivated to build coalitions. The results of a study into how non-governmental associations (NGOs) and faith-based organizations (FBOs) engaged with electoral reforms around the Uganda 2016 general elections show how relations of cooperation, competition, or conflict between civil society organizations modify the effects of state regulation by adding to their incentives and capacities. The findings help explain the many ways CSOs engage with each other, the population, the state, and the opposition, including their submission to and protests against the autocratic order. Horizontal relations of conflict and competition among the FBOs prevented effective coalitions and facilitated submissive politics during Uganda’s 2016 elections. Relations among governance NGOs, however, were more cooperative and generated protest alliances, even though those alliances proved difficult to sustain.","PeriodicalId":46013,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Civil Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48186113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17448689.2022.2121296
H. Radice
ABSTRACT This article explores the intersection between civic activism and humanitarian action, two sets of practices which, in conflict settings, nvolve protecting life, supporting people’s ability to survive, and upholding dignity. Yet the logics that govern professionalized humanitarianism sometimes limit or work against the kinds of civic activism and political agency that enable resistance to powerful conflict dynamics. This article elaborates a concept of humanitarian activism that recasts the humanitarian encounter as a problem of political estrangement, to be overcome through a recognition of the political agency of humanitarians’ interlocutors. The starting point of humanitarian action in all its guises should be to see the human in the other, but it should also accept that humanity is political in both its construction and realization. The humanity of the other must be honoured, among other things, through the support of the other’s political voice through civic engagements in the fora relevant to those goals of protecting life and dignity. As contemporary conflict fuels itself by dehumanizing and depoliticizing, so must humanitarian activists situate themselves against both these dynamics, materially and discursively, from the level of local activism to global humanitarian funding flows, to open up genuine humanitarian space for change.
{"title":"Humanitarianism as civic practice? Humanity, politics and humanitarian activism","authors":"H. Radice","doi":"10.1080/17448689.2022.2121296","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2022.2121296","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the intersection between civic activism and humanitarian action, two sets of practices which, in conflict settings, nvolve protecting life, supporting people’s ability to survive, and upholding dignity. Yet the logics that govern professionalized humanitarianism sometimes limit or work against the kinds of civic activism and political agency that enable resistance to powerful conflict dynamics. This article elaborates a concept of humanitarian activism that recasts the humanitarian encounter as a problem of political estrangement, to be overcome through a recognition of the political agency of humanitarians’ interlocutors. The starting point of humanitarian action in all its guises should be to see the human in the other, but it should also accept that humanity is political in both its construction and realization. The humanity of the other must be honoured, among other things, through the support of the other’s political voice through civic engagements in the fora relevant to those goals of protecting life and dignity. As contemporary conflict fuels itself by dehumanizing and depoliticizing, so must humanitarian activists situate themselves against both these dynamics, materially and discursively, from the level of local activism to global humanitarian funding flows, to open up genuine humanitarian space for change.","PeriodicalId":46013,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Civil Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45907748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17448689.2022.2068626
Koen Vlassenroot, Aymar Nyenyezi, E. Mudinga, Godefroid Muzalia
ABSTRACT The article analyses how the 2018 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) contributed to a further opening up of the democratic space and shared expressions and sentiments of citizenship. Through an ethnography of the electoral process in the South Kivu province, we investigate how claiming rights that come with citizenship and how people’s political identity, shape and are being shaped by electoral processes. We introduce the notion of citoyenneté to capture the dynamic process of civic political mobilization and positioning. In the case of the DRC, the concept of citoyenneté encapsulates the ideas, positions and actions giving meaning to citizenship and refers both to a formal ideology of nation building and political hegemony; and to an ideology of resistance, guiding acts and strategies to claim rights. We look at the substantive aspect of citoyenneté, or the processes of transformation and re-ownership of the content of citizenship during moments of intensified political competition and change. This process, as we argue, confirms that citizenship is above all a social construction, guiding social behaviour that varies according to the demands being formed around the acquisition of new rights, the redefinition of the political community, existing power competitions and social grievances.
{"title":"Producing democracy in armed violence settings: Elections and citizenship in Eastern DRC","authors":"Koen Vlassenroot, Aymar Nyenyezi, E. Mudinga, Godefroid Muzalia","doi":"10.1080/17448689.2022.2068626","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2022.2068626","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article analyses how the 2018 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) contributed to a further opening up of the democratic space and shared expressions and sentiments of citizenship. Through an ethnography of the electoral process in the South Kivu province, we investigate how claiming rights that come with citizenship and how people’s political identity, shape and are being shaped by electoral processes. We introduce the notion of citoyenneté to capture the dynamic process of civic political mobilization and positioning. In the case of the DRC, the concept of citoyenneté encapsulates the ideas, positions and actions giving meaning to citizenship and refers both to a formal ideology of nation building and political hegemony; and to an ideology of resistance, guiding acts and strategies to claim rights. We look at the substantive aspect of citoyenneté, or the processes of transformation and re-ownership of the content of citizenship during moments of intensified political competition and change. This process, as we argue, confirms that citizenship is above all a social construction, guiding social behaviour that varies according to the demands being formed around the acquisition of new rights, the redefinition of the political community, existing power competitions and social grievances.","PeriodicalId":46013,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Civil Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47775108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17448689.2022.2068625
M. Theros, R. Turkmani
ABSTRACT This article explores the evolution, role and impact of the Civil Society Support Room (CSSR), the first formal mechanism to involve civil society in the UN-led political talks for Syria. Through surveys, focus groups and interviews, it examines how and whether the CSSR influenced the peace process. Importantly, it also illustrates how the CSSR transformed the participants and third-party mediators themselves, suggesting that it shapes the conflict and peace-making landscape beyond the high-level political process. It argues that the CSSR had a transformative impact on both the attitudes and behavioural patterns of the participants themselves, while also challenging the dominant representations of the conflict that strengthen the power of conflict actors and shape international action. Even if the UN failed to successfully mediate a political agreement, the paper demonstrates how an inclusive and more independent mechanism can inject the logic of civicness. This can be seen in the design of the Constitutional Committee, in actions taken to broaden inclusivity, and in the changing discourse of political actors.
{"title":"Engendering civicness in the Syrian peacemaking process","authors":"M. Theros, R. Turkmani","doi":"10.1080/17448689.2022.2068625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2022.2068625","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the evolution, role and impact of the Civil Society Support Room (CSSR), the first formal mechanism to involve civil society in the UN-led political talks for Syria. Through surveys, focus groups and interviews, it examines how and whether the CSSR influenced the peace process. Importantly, it also illustrates how the CSSR transformed the participants and third-party mediators themselves, suggesting that it shapes the conflict and peace-making landscape beyond the high-level political process. It argues that the CSSR had a transformative impact on both the attitudes and behavioural patterns of the participants themselves, while also challenging the dominant representations of the conflict that strengthen the power of conflict actors and shape international action. Even if the UN failed to successfully mediate a political agreement, the paper demonstrates how an inclusive and more independent mechanism can inject the logic of civicness. This can be seen in the design of the Constitutional Committee, in actions taken to broaden inclusivity, and in the changing discourse of political actors.","PeriodicalId":46013,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Civil Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41840817","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17448689.2022.2068628
R. Ibreck, Angelina Seeka
ABSTRACT We explore refugee solidarities and struggles under conditions of extreme political exclusion and violence, based on collaborative ethnography with South Sudanese refugees in Cairo. From the perspective of the refugees, the city is hostile and precarious. They are routinely subject to racism, deprivation, and arbitrary applications of law. At the same time, South Sudanese people have historical roots in Cairo and have generated forms of moral and political order there, shaped by fluctuating relations with each other, the city, and their homeland. We argue that these inconspicuous socio-political structures provide community citizenship at the urban margins. Additionally, we show how refugees strive for legitimate authority, social welfare, and rights in exile, within and beyond these local realms. We label these endeavours ‘civicness’ to capture their situated politics. The refugees’ relations and contentions are distinctive in that they are mostly oriented towards customary and humanitarian authorities, rather than the state; they rely on and encourage quotidian solidarities; and they blend notions of custom with references to human rights and constitutional norms. In this harsh context, South Sudanese refugees deploy civicness to promote survival with dignity and to counteract dehumanizing modes of humanitarian governance.
{"title":"Civicness in exile: The solidarities and struggles of South Sudanese refugees in Cairo","authors":"R. Ibreck, Angelina Seeka","doi":"10.1080/17448689.2022.2068628","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2022.2068628","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT We explore refugee solidarities and struggles under conditions of extreme political exclusion and violence, based on collaborative ethnography with South Sudanese refugees in Cairo. From the perspective of the refugees, the city is hostile and precarious. They are routinely subject to racism, deprivation, and arbitrary applications of law. At the same time, South Sudanese people have historical roots in Cairo and have generated forms of moral and political order there, shaped by fluctuating relations with each other, the city, and their homeland. We argue that these inconspicuous socio-political structures provide community citizenship at the urban margins. Additionally, we show how refugees strive for legitimate authority, social welfare, and rights in exile, within and beyond these local realms. We label these endeavours ‘civicness’ to capture their situated politics. The refugees’ relations and contentions are distinctive in that they are mostly oriented towards customary and humanitarian authorities, rather than the state; they rely on and encourage quotidian solidarities; and they blend notions of custom with references to human rights and constitutional norms. In this harsh context, South Sudanese refugees deploy civicness to promote survival with dignity and to counteract dehumanizing modes of humanitarian governance.","PeriodicalId":46013,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Civil Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41906285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17448689.2022.2068627
Syed Nisar Majid
ABSTRACT This article explores Somali transborder/transnational activism through the role of two individual actors, drawing upon their life histories and a selection of initiatives they have been involved in over time. The Somali-populated Horn of Africa provides a highly complex environment for the production of identities, based on its ethno-linguistic heritage, clan affiliations, Islam and their variable state-like affiliations in what is a highly politically fragmented context. These complex and multiple forms of identity incorporate diasporic and non-diasporic actors, all of which complicates notions of citizenship. This article draws upon social and cultural notions of citizenship (rather than legal-bureacratic) to argue that the agency expressed by the two protagonists is usefully understood as a form of evolving transborder citizenship. Furthermore, the article utilizes the concept of ‘social remittances’ to suggest that the quality of behaviour expressed by our transborder citizens is a form of ‘civicness’, reflective of an engagement with and resistance to the volatile and exclusionary politics of conflict affected contexts. Utilizing life histories enables us to explore how individuals and the networks of which they are part, pursue different strategies, to varying effects, over time and in multiple settings.
{"title":"Transborder Citizenship and Activism: Political Engagement and Resistance in the Somali Environment","authors":"Syed Nisar Majid","doi":"10.1080/17448689.2022.2068627","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2022.2068627","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores Somali transborder/transnational activism through the role of two individual actors, drawing upon their life histories and a selection of initiatives they have been involved in over time. The Somali-populated Horn of Africa provides a highly complex environment for the production of identities, based on its ethno-linguistic heritage, clan affiliations, Islam and their variable state-like affiliations in what is a highly politically fragmented context. These complex and multiple forms of identity incorporate diasporic and non-diasporic actors, all of which complicates notions of citizenship. This article draws upon social and cultural notions of citizenship (rather than legal-bureacratic) to argue that the agency expressed by the two protagonists is usefully understood as a form of evolving transborder citizenship. Furthermore, the article utilizes the concept of ‘social remittances’ to suggest that the quality of behaviour expressed by our transborder citizens is a form of ‘civicness’, reflective of an engagement with and resistance to the volatile and exclusionary politics of conflict affected contexts. Utilizing life histories enables us to explore how individuals and the networks of which they are part, pursue different strategies, to varying effects, over time and in multiple settings.","PeriodicalId":46013,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Civil Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45313425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17448689.2022.2121295
M. Kaldor, H. Radice
ABSTRACT This article is the introduction to a special issue on ‘Civicness in Conflict’. Civicness is defined in three ways: (i) as a logic of public authority, that speaks to ideas of rights-based, inclusive rather than exclusive political orders; (ii) as a form of behaviour, acting ‘as if’ such a logic existed; and (iii) as a political position, articulated against uncivic politics, in particular the combination of endemic corruption, ethnic or religious sectarianism and economic and social injustice. The introduction traces some conceptual, historical and vernacular entry points, before summarizing empirical research that points to the prevalence of civicness in all three senses in contemporary conflicts. It emerges even without free and secure spaces, and it often represents a strategy of survival. We also suggest that whether or not civicness is merely a way of surviving in conflict contexts or whether it represents an opening for challenging the dominant war logics depends to a degree on the character of international involvement.
{"title":"Introduction: Civicness in conflict","authors":"M. Kaldor, H. Radice","doi":"10.1080/17448689.2022.2121295","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2022.2121295","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article is the introduction to a special issue on ‘Civicness in Conflict’. Civicness is defined in three ways: (i) as a logic of public authority, that speaks to ideas of rights-based, inclusive rather than exclusive political orders; (ii) as a form of behaviour, acting ‘as if’ such a logic existed; and (iii) as a political position, articulated against uncivic politics, in particular the combination of endemic corruption, ethnic or religious sectarianism and economic and social injustice. The introduction traces some conceptual, historical and vernacular entry points, before summarizing empirical research that points to the prevalence of civicness in all three senses in contemporary conflicts. It emerges even without free and secure spaces, and it often represents a strategy of survival. We also suggest that whether or not civicness is merely a way of surviving in conflict contexts or whether it represents an opening for challenging the dominant war logics depends to a degree on the character of international involvement.","PeriodicalId":46013,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Civil Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48368495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17448689.2022.2125416
H. Ezzat
ABSTRACT More than a decade after the 25th of January 2011 uprising in Egypt most of the research that examined the multifaceted dimension of the uprising focused on the political dynamics of change, addressing issues of contentious politics, constitutional change, local governance, political participation and representation, civil–military relations and counter-revolution. This paper examines the forgotten role of the people who formed the multitude that led to the occupation of Tahrir Square on the 28th of January 2011, and the role of citizens who formed popular committees in their neighbourhood till the 11th of February when Mubarak was ousted. The analysis highlights the significance of spontaneity in the rise of civicness during the 15 days of occupation when the absence of effective sovereignty in spite of the presence of tanks on the streets led to the emergence of forms of collective action that can highlight the complexity of the uprising dynamics. Notions of conviviality and political friendship are introduced to draw a more complex picture of these days, building on previous ethnographic research and political analysis.
{"title":"Palimpsests of civicness: Spontaneity and the Egyptian Uprising/Cairo 2011","authors":"H. Ezzat","doi":"10.1080/17448689.2022.2125416","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2022.2125416","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT More than a decade after the 25th of January 2011 uprising in Egypt most of the research that examined the multifaceted dimension of the uprising focused on the political dynamics of change, addressing issues of contentious politics, constitutional change, local governance, political participation and representation, civil–military relations and counter-revolution. This paper examines the forgotten role of the people who formed the multitude that led to the occupation of Tahrir Square on the 28th of January 2011, and the role of citizens who formed popular committees in their neighbourhood till the 11th of February when Mubarak was ousted. The analysis highlights the significance of spontaneity in the rise of civicness during the 15 days of occupation when the absence of effective sovereignty in spite of the presence of tanks on the streets led to the emergence of forms of collective action that can highlight the complexity of the uprising dynamics. Notions of conviviality and political friendship are introduced to draw a more complex picture of these days, building on previous ethnographic research and political analysis.","PeriodicalId":46013,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Civil Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45432190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/17448689.2022.2068629
Murat Belge
ABSTRACT This short commentary provides a personal account of the history of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly of Turkey by its founder. The story is about a group of activists/intellectuals who developed a civic strategy for addressing conflicts, in the Balkans, the Middle East and in Turkey itself. It reflects on the contrast between civic activism, which involves direct political engagement and agency, and what might be called NGO advocacy, which involves writing and promoting reports on, say, human rights abuses in other places.
{"title":"A case study of civicness: Reflections on the story of the Turkish Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly","authors":"Murat Belge","doi":"10.1080/17448689.2022.2068629","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2022.2068629","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This short commentary provides a personal account of the history of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly of Turkey by its founder. The story is about a group of activists/intellectuals who developed a civic strategy for addressing conflicts, in the Balkans, the Middle East and in Turkey itself. It reflects on the contrast between civic activism, which involves direct political engagement and agency, and what might be called NGO advocacy, which involves writing and promoting reports on, say, human rights abuses in other places.","PeriodicalId":46013,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Civil Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48331483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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