Description
Book SynopsisAgainst the bleak backdrop of pressing issues in today’s world, civil societies remain vibrant, animated by people’s belief that they should and can solve such issues and build a better society. Their imagination of a good society, their understanding of their engagement, and the ways they choose to act constitute the cultural aspect of civil society.
Central to this cultural aspect of civil society is the “culture of democracy,” including normative values, individual interpretations, and interaction norms pertaining to features of a democratic society, such as civility, independence, and solidarity. The culture of democracy varies in different contexts and faces challenges, but it shapes civic actions, alters political and social processes, and thus is the soul of modern civil societies.
The Culture of Democracy provides the first systematic survey of the cultural sociology of civil society and offers a committed global perspective. It shows that, as everyone is eager to have their voice heard, cultural sociology can serve as an “art of listening,” a thoroughly empirical approach that takes ideas, meanings, and opinions seriously, for people to contemplate significant theoretical and public issues.
Trade Review“A refreshingly beyond-Western viewpoint on civil society in its cultural contexts. [… A] key insight of the book is interwoven throughout and crystallizes in the conclusion. This is the point that cultural sociology is the ‘art of listening’.”
Voluntas, journal of the International Society for Third-Sector Research“Bin Xu has written a fine work, subtle, clearly written, and analytically precise, and with great outreach to the wide scope of contemporary discussion. Xu demonstrates why cultural sociology is necessary if we are to understand not only democracy but its enemies.”
Jeffrey C. Alexander, Yale University“Bin Xu has written the book I’ve been waiting for. Ranging across sociologies and their kin, using empirical cases of civil societies both within democracies and struggling against authoritarianisms, and invoking a theoretical sophistication that is respectful of variety but focused on driving culture’s significance home, he elaborates both the scholarly sense and public consequence of civil society’s mobilization. I know what my students will be reading next.”
Michael D. Kennedy, Brown UniversityTable of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction: The Culture of Democracy
Chapter 2 Values, Codes, and Styles in the Public Sphere
Chapter 3 Culture in Associational Life
Chapter 4 Culture in Civic Engagement
Chapter 5 The Culture of Democracy Under Undemocratic States
Chapter 6 Global Civil Society
Chapter 7 Cultural Sociology as an Art of Listening
