The transnational civil sphere: Maintaining resilience through civility

Abstract

Can civil spheres extend beyond the nation state? This question lies behind the essay written by Jeffrey C. Alexander that reconstructs ‘The civil sphere in war and peace: From Athens to Kyiv’. This article argues that the twenty-first century and the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine teach us that freedom and democracy, but also war and trauma, are intricately entangled with both nation-bound and transnational civil spheres in wartime Europe. Uncivil events such as war and trauma can give rise to civil spheres, which remain fragile and vulnerable if not safeguarded by institutions. Ukraine's defence, resilience and solidarity, however, show that civil spheres can extend beyond the nation state – and that civil sphere theory could be at the nucleus of a contemporary sociology of international relations and transnational complexity.