This open access book focuses on the role of civil society in the creation, dissemination, and interpretation of knowledge in geographical contexts. It offers original, interdisciplinary and counterintuitive perspectives on civil society. The book includes reflections on civil and uncivil society, the role of civil society as a change agent, and on civil society perspectives of undone science. Conceptual approaches go beyond the tripartite division of public, private and civic sectors to propose new frameworks of civic networks and philanthropic fields, which take an inclusive view of the connectivity of civic agency across sectors. This includes relational analyses of epistemic power in civic knowledge networks as well as of regional giving and philanthropy. The original empirical case studies examine traditional forms of civic engagement, such as the German landwomens associations, as well as novel types of organizations, such as giving circles and time banks in their geographical context. The book also offers insider reflections on doing civil society, such as the cases of the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong, epistemic activism in the United States, and the #FeesMustFall movement in South Africa.
Chapter
1. The Place of Civil Society in the Making of Knowledge.- Part
I: (Re-)Thinking Civil Society.
Chapter
2. The Dialectic of Civil and
Uncivil SocietyFragility, Fault Lines, and Countervailing Forces.-Chapter
3.
Civil Society as an Agent of Change.
Chapter
4. Undone Science and Smart
Cities: Civil Society Perspectives on Risk and Emerging Technologies.- Part
II: Analyzing Civil Society Organizations.
Chapter
5. Specialists for
Crumble Cakes? The German LandFrauen Organizations in Social Innovation and
as Educational, Social, and Political Institutions.
Chapter
6. Schools of
Democracy? Giving Circles and the Civic and Political Participation of
Collaborative Philanthropists.
Chapter
7. Time Banks as Transient Civic
Organizations? Exploring the Dynamics of Decline.- Part III: Spaces, Networks
and Fields.
Chapter
8. Civil Society as Networks of Issues and Associations:
The Case of Food.
Chapter
9. The Geography of Giving in the Philanthropic
Field.
Chapter
10. Global Authenticity, Local Authority: Epistemic Power,
Discursive Geographies, and the Creation of Civil Society Knowledge
Networks.- Part IV: Doing Civil Society.
Chapter
11. Democracy Movement and
Alternative Knowledge in Hong Kong.
Chapter
12. Epistemic Activism in the
United States: Examining Meetings Across the Silos of Civil Society.
Chapter
13. Seeding a New World: Lessons From the #FeesMustFall Movement for the
Advancement of Social Justice.
Chapter
14. Civility, Education, and the
Embodied MindThree Approaches to a New Sentimental Education.
Johannes Glückler is Professor of Economic and Social Geography and Fellow of the Marsilius Center for Advanced Studies at Heidelberg University, Germany. In his research he follows a relational perspective and builds on theories of social networks and institutions in the study of the geography of knowledge and regional development. He is a founding board member of the German Society for Social Network Research DGNet and co-founder of the M.Sc. Governance of Risks and Resources at the Heidelberg Center for Latin America in Santiago de Chile.
Heinz Dieter Meyer is Professor of Education Governance and Policy (MA Sociology, Goettingen University, Germany; PhD Organization Theory, Cornell University, USA. Interests: Theory, Policy, Civil Society; Mindfulness in Education. Authorships: The Design of the University: German, American, 'World Class'; Meyer / Benavot: PISA, Power, Policy (w/ Benavot); Meyer / Rowan: "The New Institutionalism in Education". Meyer / Boyd: "Education between States, Markets, and Civil Society". Awards: National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH); Harman Fellow, Harvard University.Laura Suarsana is research associate at the University of Bremen, Germany, where she works on regional innovation and regional network governance. Before, she was research associate at the Economic Geography Research Group at the Institute of Geography at Heidelberg University and has been co-editor of several volumes of the Springer books series on Knowledge & Space. Her research focuses on the relation between civil society, innovation and regional development, as well as on the analysis of networks in civil society, philanthropy and corporate social responsibility. She also has experience as a practitioner in regional development, having worked several years for a regional development agency.
