At the moment, no other European city attracts so much fascination as the city of Berlin. An unrivalled symbol of modern urban life, Berlin is a dynamic city whose inhabitants, in the course of the past two centuries, have lived through both the rapid growth and the violent destruction of the institutions of civil society, several times over. This volume situates itself within these developments by presenting, for the first time in English, a sample of the best, recently written essays on contemporary civil societies, their structural problems, and their uncertain future, written by scholars with a close, long-standing relationship with the city. They are pre-occupied with a broad sweep of substantive themes, but in each case they focus upon one or other of the key trends that are shaping actually existing civil societies.

John Keane is founder of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, Professor of Politics at the University of Westminster and Research Professor at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB). Born in Australia and educated at the universities of Adelaide, Toronto and Cambridge, he is a frequent contributor to media around the world. He is the author ofGlobal Civil Society? (2003) andViolence and Democracy (2004) and is currently preparing a full-scale history of democracy - the first for over a century.

Editors PrefaceDieter Gosewinkel andJürgen Kocka

Introduction: Cities and Civil SocietyJohn Keane

Chapter 1. Civil Society in Historical PerspectiveJürgen Kocka

Chapter 2. Corporate Responsibility and Historical InjusticeSusanne-Sophia Spiliotis

Chapter 3. The Faces of Social InequalityPaul Nolte

Chapter 4. Civil Society: Desperate Wishful Thinking?Herfried Münkler

Chapter 5. Transformations of German Civil Society: Milieu Change and Community SpiritHans Joas andFrank Adloff

Chapter 6. Civility, Violence and Civil SocietySven Reichardt

Chapter 7. Is There, or Can There Be, a European Society?Claus Offe

Chapter 8. Social Movements Challenging Neoliberal GlobalizationDieter Rucht

Chapter 9. Entangled Histories: Civil Society, Caste Solidarities and Legal Pluralism in Post-colonial IndiaShalini Randeria

Chapter 10. The Temptations of Unfreedom: Erasmus Intellectuals in the Age of TotalitarianismRalf Dahrendorf

Notes on Contributors Index