Introduction to Civil Society Movements

Christie LAM (Graduate School of Human Sciences)

Cource Objective
   Civil society has played an increasingly important role in contemporary social transformations. The aim of this course is to explore the meanings and functions of civil society in different socio-cultural contexts. The course will start with the discussion on what is civil society and why and how it is formed. Do people understand civil society universally or differently? In this section, students will also be able to critically analyze the relationships between the State, civil society and social transformations through a detailed examination of the influences of major key players in civil participation. The lectures will reveal to students how non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations and individuals can develop effective campaigning alliances without becoming institutionalized. The roles of education, media and cyberspace will be explored. In the second part of the course, we will focus on several key aspects of civil society movements including environmentalism, indigenousness, ethnicity and civil war, gender inequality and labour rights. Why are grassroots-based forest protection movements, such as Chipko in India ,occurring globally? Why are we experiencing more intra-country conflicts than before? What is the role of women in civil society movements? What are the links between youth, empowerment and civil society? The course will draw on a broad range of case studies including some in India, Nepal, South America, Africa, and Ukraine and discuss different forms of civil and political engagement. At the end of the course, students should not only be able to reason about the emergence of civil movements, but they will also become familiar with the work of international institutions, their policy strategies and also the limits/ challenges of civil society in building social equality.
   By the end of this course students should be able to (upon successful course completion):

• recognize the nature, principle and contemporary debates of civil society in the literature;
• contrast and review the concept and practice of civil society in different social contexts;
• develop knowledge of the work of international institutions in civil society sectors;
• analyze why and how the civil society movements emerge and the impacts on local and global societies, particularly the roles of media, cyber technologies, NGOs, INGOs and civil activists will be examined;
• critically evaluate the concept and practices of civil society in the contexts of gender, environmentalism, violence and anti-globalization;
• critically examine the strengths and limitations of civil society in building more equal societies; how does a strong civil society make society strong and equal
• read critically various perspectives and produce well argued assignments;
• improve various generic skills such as communication, collaboration, leadership through constant class discussion and team project and presentation assignments.

Course Content
   Week 1 Introduction: What is Civil Society?
   Week 2 Civil Society as Associational Life
   Week 3 Civil Society as Good Society
   Week 4 Civil Society as the Public Sphere
   Week 5 Civil Society, Education and NGOs
   Week 6 Civil Society, Media and Cyberspace
   Week 7 Civil Society and Gender I
   Week 8 Civil Society and Gender II
   Week 9 Civil Society, Indigenous Rights and Environmentalism I
   Week 10 Civil Society, Indigenous Rights and Environmentalism II
   Week 11 Civil Society and Violence I
   Week 12 Civil Society and Violence II
   Week 13 Civil Society and Anti-Globalization I
   Week 14 Civil Society and Anti-Globalization II
   Week 15 Conclusion: So What is to be Done?

Textbooks
   There is no required textbook for this course, however, the following resources may assist you in understanding some key concepts of this course.

• Edwards, Michael. (2004) Civil Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Hann, Chris. & Dunn, Elizabeth. (eds) (1996) Civil Society: Challenging Western Models. London: Routledge.

Grading Policy

• Case study presentation (in group) 30%
• Project Report (Individual) 60%
• Class participation 10%