Conferences

Civil society is in many ways a foundational concept in sociology and social policy. In many studies of civil society, therefore, researchers find it expedient to make use of survey data which have already been collected for a broader or different purpose than focusing specifically on civil society. Indeed, a great deal of information about civil society can be gleaned from existing surveys. However, it is often the case that their items are not quite as closely focused as we would wish them to be to capture civil society; or conversely that they are too closely focused on certain manifestations of it to enable comprehensive international comparisons to be made from them.

This paper will provide an overview of the types of questions which have been used to date in international surveys to capture civil society, and will suggest which theoretical models of civil society do and do not fit with them. Its aim is to provide the background for the subsequent papers and discussions, with a view to developing and improving survey items for international studies of civil society.