Every five years I squirrel away everything I can find on the changing contours of civil society, and then try to make some sense of it all in relation to larger trends in politics and culture. It’s always tough because the universe of voluntary, collective action and interaction isn’t a ‘thing’ that is static or owned by one particular geography or ideology; it’s constantly being contested and reshaped in both theory and reality, though there are always some dominant themes. Last time it was the impact of the digital revolution. This time it’s polarization.
But beyond these obvious headlines, the task has become especially challenging for two other reasons. The first is that the contexts in which civil society operates have become much more hostile. In most parts of the world, communities are increasingly divided. Violence, intolerance and inequality are on the rise. Authoritarians of different stripes have gained a foothold. Restrictions on freedom of speech and association are increasingly common, with just three per cent of the world’s population now living in countries where civic space is defined as “fully open.”And public spheres seem incapable of addressing any of these concerns. As the writer Amanda Ripley puts it, “In the present era of tribalism it feels like we’ve reached our collective limitations.”
The second reason is that civil society itself is implicated in these trends, because the fractures in society at large are being replicated in the composition of associational life and the structures of communication. So while it’s usually projected as a solution to violence and division, we have to accept that civil society is also part of the problem, and respond accordingly. What does that mean in practice?
