This article is situated in the humanistic sociology and social anthropology approach. In this approach, civil society is viewed as a society’s style of culture with respect to individual participation in group life based on common moral order. Its objective is to try to determine the extent to which western conceptions of civil society can be transferred to Chinese culture. It also strives to reconstruct civil behaviour patterns in China from a historical perspective. The basic tenet of this article is that, in the course of its evolution, Chinese culture developed various motivation and action patterns which may be the beginnings of a civil engagement. It is possible to formulate such a tenet on the assumption that civil society in contemporary China is largely based on tradition. It is tradition which defines the forms of non-institutional, self-organizing “second society.” One of the consequences of the adoption of this tenet is this article’s focus on analysis of the barriers against, and opportunities for, further development of civil society in contemporary China.
The following discussion is an attempt to respond to the growing need for a renewed reflection on civil society, which has become increasingly evident in recent years. By interpreting the intentions of researchers and theoreticians working on the topic of civil society, we can find new sources of inspiration both for the civic idea and for the further development of the study of the ways in which people come together in civic alliances in the modern world. To this end, we propose that researchers (re)focus on the category of patterns of civic engagement as a basis for both associative relations and the recognition of certain products of these relations as “relational common goods.” In our opinion, patterns of civic engagement should be seen as a process of acquiring certain traits (such as skills, personality dispositions, attitudes, etc.) rather than as a closed set of qualities of a “good citizen.”
PL
Artykuł stanowi próbę reakcji na rosnącą potrzebę odnowienia refleksji nad społeczeństwem obywatelskim, która staje się coraz bardziej widoczna w ostatnich latach. Interpretując intencje badaczy i teoretyków zajmujących się tematyką społeczeństwa obywatelskiego, możemy odnaleźć nowe źródła inspiracji zarówno dla idei obywatelskiej, jak i dla dalszego rozwoju nauki o sposobach, w jakie ludzie łączą się w obywatelskie sojusze we współczesnym świecie. Proponujemy (ponowne) skupienie uwagi badaczy na kategorii wzorów obywatelskich jako podstawy zarówno dla relacji stowarzyszeniowych, jak i uznawania pewnych wytworów tych relacji – „relacyjnych dóbr wspólnych”. Naszym zdaniem, wzory obywatelskie powinny być traktowane raczej jako proces nabywania pewnych cech (takich jak umiejętności, dyspozycje osobowościowe, postawy itp.) niż jako zamknięty zestaw właściwości „dobrego obywatela”.
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