Description
Book Synopsis In Serbia, as elsewhere in postsocialist Europe, the rise of “civil society” was expected to support a smooth transformation to Western models of liberal democracy and capitalism. More than twenty years after the Yugoslav wars, these expectations appear largely unmet. Frontiers of Civil Society asks why, exploring the roles of multiple civil society forces in a set of government “reforms” of society and individuals in the early 2010s, and examining them in the broader context of social struggles over neoliberal restructuring and transnational integration.
Trade Review “Marek Mikuš’ book expands an important tradition of empirically-based critical research on one of the main ideational and institutional concepts of post-socialist transition: civil society.” • Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe
“All in all, Frontiers of Civil Society is an empirically rich book which provides a wealth of theoretical arguments that will be of interest to a wide range of disciplines and fields… Apart for the more obvious audiences of the book, all scholars interested in Europeanisation processes should read this book as it provides an important critical account of the reforms pursued by the European integration agenda, which to date has received scant scholarly attention.” • Southeastern Europe
“A significant contribution to a number of fields—postsocialist “transition” studies, the emerging forms of social organization in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, and debates about civil society. It is welcome on all those fronts, and contributes via a strong combination of very rich empirical work in Serbia and a commitment to theorizing the patterns, relations, and formations that the fieldwork reveals.” • John Clarke, The Open University
Table of Contents List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration
List of Acronyms
PART I: INTRODUCTIONS
Introduction: What and Whose Reform? Civil Society and Serbia's Endless Transition
Chapter 1. Historicizing ‘Civil Society’: Hegemonic Struggles and State Transformation after Tito
PART II: STRUGGLES OVER TRANSNATIONAL INTEGRATION
Chapter 2. ‘Europeanization’ and the Liberal Civil Society
Chapter 3. The Counterhegemonic Project of the Nationalist Civil Society
PART III: NEOLIBERALIZATION AT THE STATE-CIVIL SOCIETY FRONTIER
Chapter 4. The Rise of ‘Partnerships’ and the Politics of Transparency
Chapter 5. Welfare Restructuring and ‘Traditional’ Organizations of People with Disabilities
PART IV: LIBERAL CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE WIDER SOCIETY
Chapter 6. Philanthropy Development: Indigenizing ‘Civil Society’, Reshaping the Public Realm
Chapter 7. Public Advocacy: Engaging Actually Existing Local Politics
Conclusions
Epilogue: Civil Society and Hegemonic Re-alignments after Crisis
Bibliography
Index
