Faith and Civil Society
This blog is linked to an ESRC funded project located in Wales UK, and associated with the WISERD (Wales Institute for Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods) Civil Society centre.
Nick Johns (Cardiff University) and I (Alison Green, Open University) are currently looking at the role of faith groups in social welfare provision in Wales. More broadly we are interested in their role in so called 'civil society' and in creating social cohesion and social capital. In conducting this research we are observing and interviewing both faith groups themselves and clients of their work. We are targeting street pastors, foodbanks, soup kitchens and similar and also homelessness support. Although we are focusing on three main geographical locations, we are interested in the pan Wales picture, and also UK, European and International comparisons.
The first problem we encountered was defining Civil Society. Colleagues at WISERD spent a considerable time discussing this and I don't think we reached a consensus!
The origins of civil society go back to Aristotle's politike koinonia (political community), but are more commonly associated with the work of Hobbes, Locke and Montesquieu. The thing that they all have in common is that they conceive if it as a very broad concept.
It was Tony Blair's Labour government from 1997 onwards which really drew attention back to the notion of civil society, although the phrase itself was properly publicised by David Cameron and the Coalition government from 2010 onwards. Although the term 'civil society' has been largely politicised and discredited there is a large body of academic work that underpins the concept and is worth inspecting. Interestingly the current PM of the UK Theresa May uses the term 'shared society' in preference.
Herbert sees it as 'the network of associations and organisations situated between, on the one hand, the state and political society (political associations and parties), and, on the other, kinship networks. Clearly this is a very broad definition taking in all kinds of different organisations, associations and networks, both formal and informal. For Gellner, the State cannot control civil society (although it can regulate), and the essential component is free choice in deciding to join together in such a way. Given this relationship with freedom of choice it is easy to see the links with democracy (Habermas). However, Marx linked civil society with capitalism and the domination of the working classes by the capitalist elite. As Alexander expressed it: 'not only is civil society now simply a field of play of egotistical, purely private interests, but it is now treated as a superstructure, a legal and political arena produced as camouflage for the domination of commodities and the capitalist class'. Moreover, Gramsci sees civil society as a mechanism by which the State maintains control and becomes entrenched.
The bad press that civil society got under David Cameron's premiership perhaps reflects this latter view that civil society is actually about controlling the poor, saving money and ensuring that business interests are at the fore. But many would argue that this is an overly simplistic and cynical view, and that there is a lot of 'social capital' being generated from the actions of civil society which is for the benefit of all members of society, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable.
So what is the role of religion and faith groups in all this? The relationship between religion and the State varies across different countries largely depending on the historical separation of the two and the dominance of the religious affiliation which prevails. This explains the lack of consensus amongst certain authors. So for example, for Casanova democracy and a strong religion/state relationship is totally incompatible. Whereas many North American writers would not subscribe to this, because the two were constitutionally separated.
More to follow............
