The Cement of Civil Society
Studying Networks in Localities

This book analyzes civil society as a field of organizations mobilizing on collective goals.

Mario Diani (Author)

9781107100008, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 May 2015

268 pages, 24 b/w illus. 54 tables
23.7 x 15.8 x 2.5 cm, 0.6 kg

'The Cement of Civil Society … brings valuable insights for the study of nonprofit organizations, mainly by showing how the distinction between formal organizations and informal groups may hide practices and relationships that are relevant for understanding the role and possibilities of civil society … it is a valuable contribution to the discussion of the relationship between nonprofits, social movements, and other civil society groups.' Marcelo Marchesini, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

Civil society is frequently conceived as a field of multiple organizations, committed to highly diverse causes and interests. When studied empirically, however, its properties are often reduced to the sum of the traits and attitudes of the individuals or groups that are populating it. This book shows how to move from an 'aggregative' to a relational view of civil society. Drawing upon field work on citizens' organizations in two British cities, this book combines network analysis and social movement theories to show how to represent civil society as a system of relations between multiple actors. 'Modes of coordination' enables us to identify different logics of collective action within the same local settings. The book exposes the weakness of rigid dichotomies, separating the voluntary sector from social movements, 'civic' activism oriented to service delivery from 'un-civic' protest, grassroots activism external to institutions from formal, professionalized organizations integrated within the 'system'.

Introduction: of King Solomon, Goethe, and civic networks
1. Modes of coordination of collective action
2. The importance of local comparisons: civic organizations in British cities
3. Building civic networks: strategies of tie formation
4. The structural bases of civil society
5. Network positions and their incumbents
6. The duality of organizations and events
7. Network centrality and leadership
8. Civic networks and urban governance
9. 'Networking' contentious politics
Postfaction: bringing time and space(s) into the picture.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Social theory [JHBA], Social interaction [JFFP], Social issues & processes [JFF]