The Civil Sphere

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to Jeffrey C. Alexander’s Civil Sphere Theory (CST). It reconstructs the development and key features of this theory and explains why it offers an original and compelling way of thinking about civil society. The book reveals the ways in which the various components of CST come together to offer an illuminating framework for making sense of the complexities, ambiguities, and tensions inherent in modern democracies located in highly differentiated and pluralistic societies. It compares CST to civil society theories from the past and present, along with the idea of the societal community and Habermas’s theory of the public sphere. Among the topics addressed are the relationship between CST and Alexander’s approach to cultural sociology; the binary character of cultural codes; normative philosophy; the role of social movements in effecting civil repair; and the idea of multiculturalism as a new mode of incorporation that makes possible a politics of recognition. The book assesses the main criticisms of CST and concludes by showing how it has proven to be an ongoing, evolving project that has generated a wide range of empirical research and stimulated further theoretical refinement and development.