Interpretative Frames, Phenomenology, and the Question of the Republican Character of Polish and Czech Dissident Movements of the 1970s and 1980s

The Polish Solidarity movement of 1980–1981 and the Czechoslovak dissident movement both developed an original model of democracy. The dissidents sought to reconcile the tensions between the individual and the community—personal independence and engagement with public affairs—by building a pluralist, debating civic community entrenched in objective values. Calling upon on the phenomenological tradition and the interpretative frames perspective used in social movement studies, the author seeks to interrogate the intellectual roots of the dissident vision of democracy and the reasons behind one of its future interpretations, which viewed it through the lens of the republican political tradition. Drawing on the popularity and the character of the phenomenological tradition, the author explains the differences in the understanding of community in Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Civic agriculture in review: Then, now, and future directions

“Civic agriculture,” a term first coined by rural sociologist Thomas Lyson, refers to forms of agriculture that occur on a local level, from production to consumption, and are linked to a community’s social and economic development. Sixteen years since its original articulation, the term “civic agriculture” has taken on greater significance in research, political activism, and community organizing. Grown from the roots of civic community theory, civic agriculture functions as a new branch of civic community theory that is ripe for theorization. In revisiting the foundations of the term, this review paper seeks to consolidate current and future research in the field of civic agriculture with a focus on its link to social welfare. This begins by reviewing the foundations of civic community theory and discussing how they influence research related to civic agriculture. As we report in this paper, there remain considerable gaps in understanding of how civic agriculture can be fomented by—or is related to—indicators such as demographics, concentration of power, community cohesion, and civic engagement. Consequently, the assumed links between local food systems and social welfare must continue to be studied to determine correlation and causality. This understanding is particularly important during this time of global pandemic, when the flaws and inequities of global supply chains are exposed and where, in many cases, civic agriculture met the increasing interest in local food. The COVID-19 pandemic has amply demonstrated the fragility and instability of global food supply chains, making the need for local food systems more significant and more relevant to communities across the world.

Reconciliation and a Just Peace

This chapter re-examines reconciliation and the concept of just peace. Reconciliation is typically accepted as an aspirational goal, namely as a means to re-establish trust in norms, institutions, and civic community. Drawing on Dworkin’s theory of integrity, this chapter argues that reconciliation should be primarily understood as civic discourse in a post bellum context, namely as an instrument to empower affected victim-survivors and to identify legitimate areas of disagreement. Ultimately, this chapter argues the role of the international community in reconciliation, setting forth a holistic and critically engaged concept of it and the need of interdisciplinarity to assess such meaning.

Manumission, Citizenship, and Acculturation in the Roman World

This chapter examines the manumission and acculturation of freedpersons in the Roman world, especially through the lens of citizenship and community building. It analyses how the long-standing practice of granting citizenship to freed slaves shaped the institution of manumission in general as well as the specific factors contributing to the decision to manumit individual slaves. Finally, it examines the means by which freed slaves were incorporated in the civic community. While Roman law marked freedpersons as a lesser category of citizens, denying them access to the highest echelons of Roman society, it still accorded them important rights and abilities that made them more similar to fellow citizens than distinct.

A desire for the civic: Community cinemas and volunteer work

This chapter explains how film exhibition works as a civic amenity, by examining the community cinema sector. Going back to the itinerant beginnings of film exhibition, this chapter considers specific examples of non-theatrical screening in the 16mm era in Scotland, as a vanguard of ‘useful’ cinema and a point of reference for contemporary phenomena. Focusing on exhibition activity in Scotland’s rural areas, this chapter foregrounds the village hall or public hall as a screening space, and discusses the organizational models that tend to produce it. The focus on provision and access to first-run films challenges metropolitan perspectives on pop-up exhibition which have tended to frame it in the context of a saturated cultural market.