The privileged public: who is permitted citizenship?

Social movements are manifestations of and facilitate human 'agency' (LaClau and Mouffe, 1987; Touraine, 1998). The past 20 years reveal a burgeoning number of service and advocacy organizations which focus on the specific needs, interests and issues of minority members of our society. In some cases these minorities represent a significant sector of the population yet continue to be regarded as minorities, as others, as less than full citizens. Full citizenship appears to be conferred differentially. Conceptually, citizenship reflects the idea that citizens act in the public sphere, they contribute to, and shape the discourses which, in turn, and in part, structure our society. All of the members of the society are, conceptually and theoretically, entitled to this participation. Practically, however, citizenship appears to be increasingly exclusively conferred. This paper explores these issues theoretically and conceptually, first examining the relationship between civil society and social movements and the public sphere; how these realms might be understood to intersect and interrelate. In short, the paper explores the question of whether the actions and agency of citizens in civil society effects the public sphere. Whether these persons and their activities contribute an alternative discourse which is a discourse of the public, or only of a marginal realm, is a question critical to understanding the relationship between community development, civil society and social change. While this paper can not claim to answer this question, it explores these ideas and our contemporary experience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]