Taking Liberties

Abstract

Civil society is an increasingly important concept for anthropology, encountered both in the social theories we employ, and in the discourses and practices of the people we study. This introductory article was written in dialogue with the articles in this issue and attempts to highlight and begin to theorize key themes emerging from those articles. These include: the dialectical relationship between civil society and the state; the important role of middle classes in civil society; and the suffusion of civil society discourses with normative messages of modernization, reform, and salvation. It is argued that the long-standing custom-ary conduct of ethnography amid the organizations, associations, and institutions of daily life has equipped anthropology with conceptual tools that can contribute to a grounded and critical perspective on civil society.

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