Contested Civic Spaces

Introduction

Siri Hummel

Rupert Grad Strachwitz

“Civil society is often characterised as one of three spheres of action, along with government and the private sector. It has been defined as a sphere of uncoerced human association within which individuals implement collective action to address shared needs, ideas and interests that they have identified in common […] Civil society is thus considered to be the collection of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and other semior non-formal forms of people associating or of associations, as well as the sphere or space in which these interact with each other and with others. Reference is also made to the civil society or CSO sector, just as government is referred to as the public sector and business ...