Helliker on Debunking Civil Society

[Richard Pithouse]

The 2012 Critical Studies Seminar Series hosted by the Departments of

Politics & International Studies and Sociology at Rhodes University

Presenter: Dr. Kirk Helliker, Department of Sociology, Rhodes University


Topic: Debunking civil society in Zimbabwe and 'most of the world'


Venue: Department of Politics & International Relations Seminar Room


Date & Time: Friday 5 October 2012: 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.


Summary:

Until the so-called 'Arab Spring,' the one African country with arguably the
most international visibility was Zimbabwe. This was due mainly to its
radical land redistribution programme - 'fast track' - which began in the
year 2000. Post-fast track Zimbabwe continues to be marked by polarising
social conflicts and, over the past decade, Zimbabwean studies have been
characterised by acrimonious debates about agrarian transformation and
political change. This has brought to the fore important questions about the
significance (and indeed very existence) of civil society as a social
phenomenon in contemporary Zimbabwe, as well as raising key concerns about
the conceptual framing of civil society under its specific socio-historical
conditions.

This paper re-visits the notion of civil society in what Partha Chatterjee
(2004) calls 'most of the world' (beyond the capitalist
metropoles) and, in so doing, uses Zimbabwe (and Africa more broadly) as an
entry point into the literature on civil society. The chapter consists of
four main sections. First, I discuss literature on civil society in Africa
which, in the main, dichotomises civil society and the state empirically
without any sustained theoretical reflections.
Second, I provide an overview of Zimbabwean society and politics over the
past decade and the ensuing debate, which in many ways produces a Manichean
dualism whereby civil society is equated with progression and the state with
regression. Third, I locate this conceptualisation of civil society within
the broader international literature on civil society. These three sections,
as a whole, highlight slippages in defining and understanding civil society:
between civil society as a set of empirically-identifiable organisational
formations and civil society as a social space marked by civil liberties and
voluntary arrangements in bourgeois society. Finally, I re-imagine civil
society in relation to 'most of the world'.


It will be assumed that all participants have read the attached paper.

If you would like to present a paper in this seminar series, or to suggest a
presenter, please contact Kirk Helliker in the Sociology Department or
Richard Pithouse in the Politics Department.


ALL WELCOME.