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Article
The Spirit of the Civil Sphere: Activating Static Conceptions of Volunteerism and Citizenship
Comparative Social Research (2009)
  • Thomas Janoski, University of Kentucky
Abstract
Tocqueville's theory emerged from a social movement–infested society rather than from the rather bucolic and static American democracy that he sometimes portrays. And while Putnam (2001) and others try to resurrect this cooperative view of society using the concept of social capital, this approach is inadequate to explain major changes in society and, indeed, only repeats power resources theory with a different linguistic cloak.
Keywords
  • sociology,
  • citizenship,
  • volunteerism,
  • civil sphere
Publication Date
2009
Citation Information
Thomas Janoski. "The Spirit of the Civil Sphere: Activating Static Conceptions of Volunteerism and Citizenship" Comparative Social Research Vol. 26 (2009)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/thomasjanoski/50/