Learning Civil Societies: Shifting Contexts for Democratic Planning and Governance (Green College Thematic Lecture Series)

As public issues stretch out to affect an ever expanding population, democratizing planning and governance becomes increasingly important. How localized communities embrace the progressive qualities of civil society is a critical topic in an era where diverse and divergent forces often counteract civil society formation and community initiatives. This collection explores the theoretical underpinnings of democratic planning and governance in relation to civil society formation and social learning. The contributors to this volume use multiple lenses to uncover the challenges of democratizing planning and governance, helping to create a better understanding of how civil societies learn from their experiences, and how these lessons might be applied in other contexts. Learning Civil Societies provides insights for developing a critical methodology for studying civil societies and their formations and suggests that new organizational mechanisms within and outside civil societies must be created if more democratic forms of planning and governance are to emerge, be revitalized, and become institutionalized in the coming decades. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Learning Civil Societies for Democratic Planning and Governance Part 1. Planning, Citizenship, and Civic Engagement in a Postmodern World 1 Postcolonialism and Planning: Where Has It Been? Where Is It Going? 2 Localities and Cultural Citizenship: Narratives of Racialized Girls Living In, Through, and Against Whiteness 3 Creating Digital Public Space: Implications for Deliberative Engagement 4 Rationality and Surprise: The Drama of Mediation in Rebuilding Civil Society Part 2. Civil Society Learning for Democratic Governance 5 Social Movements, Civil Society, and Learning in a World at Risk 6 Learning and Teaching for Transformation: Insights from a Collaborative Learning Initiative 7 The Myth of Community? Implications for Civil Society Organizations and Democratic Governance 8 Renegotiating Decentralization and State–Civil Society Relations: A Reinterpretation of Naga City’s Experiment in Participatory Governance Contributors "Learning Civil Societies explores democratic planning and governance in relation to civil society formation and social learning. In analysing the shifting contexts and perspectives that need to be considered in understanding engagement in civil societies, the contributors to this volume use multiple lenses to uncover the challenges of democratizing planning and governance."--Jacket