Civil society: Berlin perspectives

At the moment, no other European city attracts so much fascination as the city of Berlin. An unrivalled symbol of modern urban life, Berlin is a dynamic city whose inhabitants, in the course of the past two centuries, have lived through both the rapid growth and the violent destruction of the institutions of civil society, several times over. This volume situates itself within these developments by presenting, for the first time in English, a sample of the best, recently written essays on contemporary civil societies, their structural problems, and their uncertain future, written by scholars

Introduction: cities and civil society / John Keane -- Civil society in historical perspective / Jürgen Kocka -- Corporate responsibility and historical injustice / Susanne-Sophia Spiliotis -- The faces of social inequality / Paul Nolte -- Civil society: desperate wishful thinking? / Herfried Münkler -- Transformations of German civil society: milieu change and community spirit / Hans Joas and Frank Adloff -- Civility, violence and civil society / Sven Reichardt -- Is there, or can there be, a 'European society'? / Claus Offe -- Social movements challenging neoliberal globalization / Dieter Rucht -- Entangled histories: civil society, caste solidarities and legal pluralism in post-colonial India / Shalini Randeria -- The temptations of unfreedom: Erasmus intellectuals in the age of totalitarianism / Ralf Dahrendorf -- Notes on contributors