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Planning Theory
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The Desire Called Civil Society: A Contribution to the Critique of a Bourgeois Category

Kanishka Goonewardena

University of Toronto, Canada, kanishka{at}geog.utoronto.ca

Katharine N. Rankin

University of Toronto, Canada, rankin{at}geog.utoronto.ca

How does ‘civil society’ serve the Washington Consensus while also attracting the aspirations of left political activists and progressive planners? We address this troubling question by interrogating the concept of civil society, with due respect to the actual role played by civil society in the development of capitalism. Based on close readings of Hegel, Marx and planning theory dealing with it, we also argue that the discourse of civil society now serves neoliberalism quite well, but provides dubious support for ‘radical’ or ‘insurgent’ planning. As an ideal for the latter, we propose instead the radical democratization of both the economy and the state.

Key Words: civil society • Hegel • Marx • neoliberalism • radical planning • Tocqueville

Planning Theory, Vol. 3, No. 2, 117-149 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1473095204044778
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