The Disjunctive Logic of the World: Thinking Global Civil Society with Hegel (Transmission)

There is today a cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural recognition of the need to reconceptualize the complexities of the global reality. In this study the authors present the view that a rethinking of Hegel's concept of Civil Society has the potential to meet this need. They argue that the standard interpretations of Hegel are largely misplaced and that a properly systemic reading of the concepts of Civil Society, the State and their relationship, has the potential to shed new light on our understandings of the normative implications of global processes ranging from the effects of economic globalization to the global activism of NGOs and social movements, to international relations and the question of global governance. The authors also engage with discussions of (global) civil society from a range of disciplines and cultural and intellectual traditions to illustrate the benefits of rethinking the Hegelian concept of Civil Society.