Civil society, social capital, and development: Dissection of a complex discourse

This article tries to understand the ongoing intellectual discourse on civil society and related concepts in political science, other social science disciplines as well as among policy-makers and practitioners. It suggests that there are four prominent philosophical lineages going back to the nineteenth century from which most of the contemporary debate draws its inspiration. Thus, there are at least four major schools or approaches to the study of civil society, social capital and development that compete for recognition. The article also draws attention to the need for analyzing these issues, not only at the national but also the associational and global levels. The interaction between these three levels has become increasingly important in the light of the globalization of many conservation and development issues. Finally, the author identifies the principal challenges facing students interested in doing research in this area, focusing, among other things, on the varying implications for civil society that different regime types have.