The Civil Sphere in Latin America

Cambridge University Press, 5/3/2018
EAN 9781108426831, ISBN10: 1108426832

Hardcover, 275 pages, 23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm
Language: English

Social thinkers have criticized Latin American development as incomplete, backward, and anti-modern. This volume demonstrates that, while often deeply compromised and fragmented, Latin American civil spheres have remained resilient, institutionally and culturally, generating new oppositional movements, independent journalism, rebellious intellectuals, electoral power, and critical political parties. In widely different arenas, dissidents have employed the coruscating language of the civil sphere to pollute their oppressors in the name of justice. In the 1970s and 1980s, political thinkers heralded the resurrection of Latin American civil society, envisioning a new world of freedom and stability. Corruption, inequality, racism, and exclusion become pressing and urgent 'social problems', not despite the promises of democracy, but because of them. The premise of this volume is that Latin American civil spheres are powerful, even as they are compromised, creating challenges to anti-civil culture and institutions that trigger social reform. It is the first of three volumes that place civil sphere theory in a global context.

Introduction
for democracy in Latin America Jeffrey C. Alexander and Carlo Tognato
Part I. Scandals and Civil Indignation
1. The civil sphere in Mexico
between democracy and authoritarianism Nelson Arteaga and Javier Arzuaga
2. Shaping solidarity in Argentina
the power of the civil sphere in repairing violence against women María Luengo
3. Civil indignation in Chile
recent collusion scandals in the retail industry M. Angélica Thumala
Part II. Militancy, Civility, and Polarization
4. La Joven Cuba
confrontation, conciliation, and the quest for the civil through blogging Liliana Martínez Pérez
5. ¿La Clase Media en Positivo? The civil and uncivil uses of 'the Middle Class' in Venezuela, 1958–2016 Celso M. Villegas
6. The civil life of the university
enacting dissent and resistance on a Colombian campus Carlo Tognato
Part III. Law, Order, and Solidarity
7. Police officers in contradiction
anti-civility in the São Paulo state military police Mayumi Shimizu
8. Citizenship and the established civil sphere in provincial Mexico Trevor Stack
Part IV. Commentary and Conclusion
Commentary
is civil society dangerous for democracy? New directions for civil sphere theory in Latin America Isabel Jijón
Conclusion
democracy and the civil sphere in Latin America Peter Kivisto and Giuseppe Sciortino.