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Eleven Theses on Markets and Civil Society
1. The Centrality of Markets During the modernization of the concept of civil society that took place in the Atlantic region between the years 1776 and 1848, every commentator on commodity production and exchange thought of markets as an organizing principle of civil society. Some praised, some criticised, some remained ambivalent about markets and their [...]
Civil Society: Monitory Democracy and Media in John Keane
An English synopsis of the PhD by Ramón Feenstra University Jaume I of Castellon (Spain) January 2010 INTRODUCTION There are essentially two basic reasons for the preeminent position that reflection on civil society has acquired among theorists of democracy today. The first of these is directly linked to the problems and crises experienced by different [...]
Old Age Without Wretchedness’: Thomas Paine’s Vision of Growing Old
Final Public Lecture, Tom Paine 200 Celebrations, Thetford, 7 November 2009, Norfolk Summary Written during a period when the gap between rich and poor was fast widening in post-Jacobin France, Thomas Paine’s Agrarian Justice opposed to Agrarian Law, and to Agrarian Monopoly (1795/6) is among his most far-sighted writings. It sketched an entirely original plan for [...]
Children and Civil Society
Presentation for ‘Neglecting Children and Youth: Democracies at Risk’, a seminar held at The University of Sydney, 5 November 2008. -> Read lecture in PDF format -> The article is published as a book chapter in The Golden Chain: Family, Civil Society and the State, edited by Jürgen Nautz, Paul Ginsborg, and Ton Nijhuis, Berghahn Books (2012)
Civil Society and Ageing
Comments delivered by John Keane at the Conference ‘Aging, Family, Civil Society, Politics’, Dresden, 1st February 2008. Abstract With life expectancy continuing to rise steadily, questions concerning the social and political conditions of the elderly move to the centre of contemporary democratic politics. The trend has old European roots, traceable to the 16th-century emergence of [...]
Reflexions o Imperio e a Transicion A Democracia
Lecture prepared for the II Encontros de Mondariz Balneario – Organized by Fundación Carlos Casares . Second Session – Tuesday 21st September 2004 The text of this lecture is in Spanish.
Can Civil Societies Become More Civil?
A Place for All? Comparing Civil Societies in Scotland and Northern Ireland , Wednesday 8th September 2004 Some months ago, atop a red double-decker bus near my home in north London, I overheard a mother reprimand her young teenage son, who was grumping about money, or the lack of it. ‘Civility doesn’t cost a penny’, [...]
Reflections on the Transition to Democracy
Draft lecture prepared for the 9th Open Society Forum, Democracy in Europe, in America, in the World, 23 April 2004, Tallinn, Estonia. Systematic reflection on the transitions to democracy – on the problem of how democratic institutions can be built and sustained – came relatively late in the history of democracy. Beginning with Plato, Thucydides [...]
In Praise of Meekness – Essays on Ethics and Politics
Translated by Teresa Chataway (Polity Press, 2000). (This book review first appeared in CSD Bulletin Volume 9, Number 1, Winter 2001-2002_ PDF Version) _________________________________ Sadly, these essays by the 90-year-old mano maestra of Italian political philosophy may prove to be among his last. Sadder still is the way in which his careless English copy editor [...]