Book contents
- Breaching the Civil Order
- Breaching the Civil Order
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Wedging Open Established Civil Spheres
- 2 Radical Protest on a University Campus
- 3 Antiracism Movements and the US Civil Sphere
- 4 The Civil Sphere and Its Variants in Light of the Arab Revolutions and Jihadism in Europe
- 5 Restaging a Vital Center within Radicalized Civil Societies
- 6 Anti-immigrant Movements and the Self-Poisoning of the Civil Sphere
- 7 The Civil Sphere and Revolutionary Violence
- 8 “We All Came Together That Day”
- 9 Disobedience in Civil Regeneration
- Commentary
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
9 - Disobedience in Civil Regeneration
Radical Transformations in the Civil Sphere
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 November 2019
By
Book contents
- Breaching the Civil Order
- Breaching the Civil Order
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Wedging Open Established Civil Spheres
- 2 Radical Protest on a University Campus
- 3 Antiracism Movements and the US Civil Sphere
- 4 The Civil Sphere and Its Variants in Light of the Arab Revolutions and Jihadism in Europe
- 5 Restaging a Vital Center within Radicalized Civil Societies
- 6 Anti-immigrant Movements and the Self-Poisoning of the Civil Sphere
- 7 The Civil Sphere and Revolutionary Violence
- 8 “We All Came Together That Day”
- 9 Disobedience in Civil Regeneration
- Commentary
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
Civil disobedience is ethically motivated law-breaking within a political context, and the specific political context to which it belongs is that of a “democratic project” that shapes and structures the “civil sphere” (Alexander 2006); it is described by Jeffrey Alexander as a mode of “civil repair.” But is civil disobedience a form of radical sociopolitical action? And, if it has a radical potential, is this well captured by the term “repair?” The term’s reformist connotations may make it unsuitable to describe radical interventions, should we wish to include civil disobedience within this category. Since the possible radical character of civil disobedience should not be ruled out by definition, I regard the term “civil regeneration” as more appropriate. It not only conveys the forward-looking, dynamic character of the civil sphere as a democratic project, but it also more readily accommodates interventions concerned with radical transformations in the civil sphere.
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- Information
- Breaching the Civil OrderRadicalism and the Civil Sphere, pp. 235 - 260Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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