Net-Space as Civil Society-Space?

Civil Society as Idea and Civil Society as Process : The Case of Ghana

The idea of civil society contains a set of assumptions about the unity of civil society, the civility of civil society, the ‘separateness’ of civil society and the state, and the intrinsic relationship between civil society and democracy. All of these assumptions can be questioned by examining civil society in a specific country context. In the case of Ghana, processes in civil society have al...

Globalisation and health inequalities: can a human rights paradigm create space for civil society action?

While neoliberal globalisation is associated with increasing inequalities, global integration has simultaneously strengthened the dissemination of human rights discourse across the world. This paper explores the seeming contradiction that globalisation is conceived as disempowering nations states' ability to act in their population's interests, yet implementation of human rights obligations req...

Rethinking Strangeness: from Structures in Space to Discourses in Civil Society

Simmel develops his concept of the stranger in an overly structural and reductionist manner. Contrary to Simmel’s suggestion, there is an indeterminate relation between structural exclusion and the attribution of strangeness. After showing that ‘the stranger’ must be rethought in a culturalsociological way, this essay demonstrates an alternative approach. Articulating a ‘discourse’ that structu...

Citizenship and Transnational Space: Argentine Civil Society and the Context of Mercosur JAMIE

Gendered political space: civil society, contingency theory, and the substantive representation of women

Whilst existing civil society studies generally fail to systematically examine the way that contextual factors shape women’s representation in the civil sphere, political science has predominantly focused on legislative settings. This article responds to the resultant knowledge-gap by examining the hitherto underexplored role of civil society as a political space integral to the substantive rep...