The civil sphere is a distinctively democratic field in modern societies, one that sustains universalizing cultural aspirations and organizational structures and that has tense and uncertain boundaries with other spheres of social life, like the economy, religion, family, and state. Unlike the latter, which are more particularistic and hierarchical in character, the civil sphere defines itself in terms of solidarity - the feeling of being connected with every other person in the collectivity. The utopian ideals of democratic solidarity shape every modern society, even if they are often compromised by the messy realities of social life.This volume uses the theory of the civil sphere to shed new light on Nordic societies, while at the same time drawing on the distinctive experiences of the Nordic nations to reflect on and advance the theory of the civil sphere. Nordic societies have long been admired for creating a distinctive form of social democracy, but this admirable achievement has not been well conceptualized theoretically. Most attempts to explain Nordic social democracy focus on material and organizational factors. This volume, by contrast, emphasizes the cultural foundations and characteristics of social democracy, demonstrating how civil sensibilities are necessary for the creation of an egalitarian and democratic state. Nordic civil spheres, however, are not only pro-civil but also white in color, European in ethnicity, secular in character and gender-equal in a subtly restrictive manner. Such primordialization of state civility is vividly on display in the sometime tense relationships that develop among natives and "foreigners" in Nordic countries, relationships that expose the primordial undersides of the social democratic codes and civil values that constitute the Nordic civil sphere.A major contribution to the theory of the civil sphere and to our understanding of the cultural and normative underpinnings of social and political life, this volume will be of particular interest to students and scholars of sociology and politics.

Preface and AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Civil Spheres, Pro-Civil States, and their ContradictionsJeffrey C. Alexander, Anna Lund and Andrea VoyerPart I. Social Democracy and Civil Sphere1 The Civil Sphere and the Welfare StateHenrik Enroth and Malin Henriksson2 Nordic Civil Spheres and Pro-Civil StatesFredrik Engelstad and Håkon Larsen3 Complicated TranslationsLiv EgholmPart II. The Struggle for Recognition: Performing Civility4 You Can't Liberate the Free: Gender, Work and Swedish HijabisHenrik Nilsson and Åsa Trulsson5 Arts Difference and Incorporation: Swedish Hip-hop as a Site for Civil RepairCarly Elizabeth Schall6 Sámi Sport in the Nordic Civil Sphere: Assimilation, Multiculturalism and Multiple Axes of MembershipEivind Å. Skille and Trygve B. BrochPart III. Civil and Uncivil Immigrant Identities7 'They're immigrants who are kind of Swedish': Universalism, Primordialism, and Modes of Incorporation in the Swedish Civil SphereAnna Lund and Andrea Voyer8 Immigrant Incorporation in Education: High School Students' Negotiation of BelongingStefan LundPart IV. Nativism and Extremism in the Pro-Civil State9 Global terrorism and the Civil Sphere in Norway: Renegotiating Civil CodesMarte Slagsvold Winsvold and Kari Steen-Johnsen10 The True Finns/Finns Party: A Right-wing Populist Party and the Backlash against Multiculturalism in a Consensus-oriented Civil SpherePeter Kivisto and Pasi SaukkonenCommentary: The Civil State in the Nordic Region, and BeyondCarlo TognatoConclusion: Developing Civil Sphere Theory the Nordic WayGiuseppe Sciortino and Trevor Stack