| civil society has evolved since the organization
of the Solidarity movement in Poland in the 1980s. It
was in this instance that scholars took up positions
alongside activists and began to inquire into the origins
and development of civil society in modernity. The study
of civil society goes back to classical times, but makes
its appearance again in the global eighteenth century,
and at different moments such as the rise of Solidarity.
Interest in the topic fluctuates through time in ancient
and modern periods. After the Velvet Revolutions of
Poland and Central Europe, a world wide interest in
revisiting the topic of civil society has continued
to grow from Japan, to Turkey, from South Africa to
Canada. What is civil society? What are its origins?
While the topic is an old one, the modern story can
begin to be explored in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Relevant authors and texts in the eighteenth century
and early 19th century include Giambattista Vico’s
The New Science (1725); The Book of the
Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1723) by James Anderson; An
Essay on Civil Society (17..) by Adam Ferguson; and Benjamin
Constant’s (a Freemason) The Liberty of Ancients
Compared with that of Moderns, (1816).
Additional books in the interim:…
In the 21st century, moving from the contemporary
analytical emphasis at universities such as Johns Hopkins
and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA),
which laudably examines the statistics, management
and communications of non-profit corporations, the
third sector, and faith-based initiatives, nevertheless,
there needs to be a cultural approach to the study
of civil society, religion, and Freemasonry. An extremely
important recent book in this regard has been Jeffrey
Alexader's The Civil Sphere. Equally important has
been the book Alexander has co-edited with Bernard
Giesen and Jason
Mast entitled Social
Performance: Symbolic Action, Cultural Pragmatics,
and Ritual.
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