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Author(s):  
Marvin T. Brown

AbstractThe social is constituted by on-going communication and behavior patterns that influence participants perceptions, expectations and moral boundaries. For some, moral boundaries protect the racial hierarchy of American prosperity by calling natural what is actually social. Controversary about the meaning of sex, race, and ancestry can help us understand this difference, and thereby sharpen our awareness of our experiences of the social from social diversity to social amnesia. Social amnesia eliminates any awareness of the climate of injustice. In this context, a disturbing trend is our increasing reliance on private philanthropy to solve social problems, which moves us toward a new form of feudalism instead of a civic democracy. In a civic space that arises from the connections between our shared humanity and social differences, it is possible to listen to diverse voices and to make incoherent stories coherent.


Author(s):  
Marvin T. Brown

AbstractTo change the course of the unsustainable trends of American Prosperity, we must change the social climate of injustice that allows it to continue. This change entails three operations: create an interpretive framework that covers the key components of our living systems, tell coherent stories that include past injustices and places to repair them, and create a civic space that enables us to create a climate of justice. The four components of the interpretive framework are the Earth, our humanity, the social, and the civic. The historical narratives are stories guided by the principle of coherence, which reveal opportunities to change the current course of history. Making such changes involves civilians entering civic spaces where they can invite citizens to care for justice and for future generations.


Author(s):  
Marvin T. Brown

AbstractIn the civic space, citizens with access to resources must learn how to respond to the civilians who need them in such a way that it changes the unjust social climate to a climate of justice. This Chapter explores three options of citizens responding to civilians: empathy, a commons approach, and the ethics of care. Jeremy Rifkin has argued that we have evolved to “the age of empathy,” but this approach ignores the difference between those who are privileged and those who are not. The commons approach invites all to become “commoners,” sharing and shaping a common future. This approach has attractions, but it ignores past injustices and the role of the rule of law in protecting civilians. The ethics of care does invite privileged citizens to listen to civilian claims to join them in repairing broken relationships and caring about justice.


2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-575
Author(s):  
Rupert Graf Strachwitz
Keyword(s):  

Zusammenfassung Der bürgerschaftliche Raum ist in der politischen Wissenschaft zwar keine Neuentdeckung, aber hat in den letzten Jahrzehnten besonders in Deutschland nicht die Aufmerksamkeit erfahren, die er verdient hätte. Er droht, heute einerseits von Kräften gekapert zu werden, die ihn für undemokratische Ziele instrumentalisieren wollen, während andererseits verkannt oder sogar abgestritten wird, dass seine Stärke die Voraussetzung für die Entwicklung der Demokratie bildet. Zugleich steht er insbesondere, aber keineswegs nur in autoritär regierten Systemen unter erheblichem Druck. Es erscheint daher notwendig, theoretische, auch normative Fragestellungen zu diesem Raum aufzugreifen und in die Debatte einzuführen.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Kallas

Dominant narratives promoting economic growth at the expense of state institutions and basic social services have long underpinned a neoliberal model of spiralling debt and austerity in the MENA region. This exacerbates political capture and inequality and takes shape in an environment of media concentration and shrinking civic space. It is important for change movements to understand dominant narratives in order to challenge and shift them. With the right tools, civil society organizations, activists, influencers and alternative media can start changing the myths and beliefs which frame the socio-economic debate and predetermine which policy options are accepted as possible and legitimate, and which are not.


Protest ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-108
Author(s):  
Janjira Sombatpoonsiri ◽  
Thammachat Kri-aksorn

Abstract The year of 2020 witnessed the eruption of Thailand’s largest and longest-lasting mass demonstrations since the 2014 military putsch. Despite threats of crackdown, protesters leveraged a host of innovative nonviolent actions to reclaim political space that the regime had previously squeezed. This article sheds light on key mechanisms that underpin nonviolent actions’ ability to push back against a trend of shrinking space. We argue that the logic of nonviolent action, tactical and digital creativity, and counteracting repression operates in tandem. First, specific forms of nonviolent action carved out space for popular protest and increased public participation in it despite regime hindrances. Second, particularly tactical and digital creativity sustained this mass participation by reversing some effects of repression. Third, nonviolent responses to this repression encouraged further anti-regime mobilization. We conclude our analysis with some caveats. The Thai case shows that keeping regained space can be difficult.


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