Subject(s): Civil society. -- Contests over civil society : Differences, commercial society, paradoxes of totality, praxis and theory -- Emergent properties of civil society : Civil society as political society, sectarianism, freemasonry, Christianity, civility, sociability and associational life, gender and public life in a history of civilization, self help and regulation- women's friendly society, paradoxes of commercial life, civilizing force of commerce, burden of civilization, social benefits of deception, civil society, war and cosmopolitan peace, threat of commerce to republics, commercial sources of military power, civil society, nation, cosmopolitanism -- Civil society in midst of modern ideologies : Radicalism v/s conservatism, religion and social order, liberalism and empire, public functions of associations, danger of public tranquility, legacy of spearation of classes, barbarous and anti social passion of Hindu, imperial Mission, corporation and ethical life, split consciousness, natural hierarchies, associational practices- moral order, popular emancipation and escapism : Girl's friendly society cooperation and emancipation, organic associationism and critique of liberalism- gemeinschaft and gesellschaft, communal life and limits of state, federalism, guide socialism, corporatism -- Under assault : Socialist repudiation, parliamentary democracy, hegemony, social nationalism, state as a moral project, liberal threat to self government -- Revival : Power of powerless, pitfalls of civil society for post communism, human self identity, maternal voices, churches, peace and human rights, social visibility, deliberative politics -- Contemporary debates : Communitarian controversies, civic reconstruction, civil society and public sphere in China, hegemonic ideas and class in Chinese associations, vitality of Islam, religious, ethnic and informal associations, pockets and deficits of civility in middle east, civil society and political imagination in Africa, postcolonial perspectives, global civil society, non governmental organizations in the Untied nations