Examples would include Partha Chatterjee's argument that the poor in the global do not really form part of civil society as the state treats them as populations to managed for their well-being rather than citizens bearing equal rights. Instead the poor are adversely incorporated into rule through political parties and patronage in 'political society'.
Another example is Asef argument that the urban poor often seek to avoid the state rather than engage it to claims rights as they live illegally. He terms this a practice of 'quiet encroachment'.
Both these analyses call the mainstream liberal ontology of state-civil society-citizen into question by questioning (i) the conception of rights-based advocacy of the poor by civil society and (ii) the concept of democratic citizenship respectively.
Can you assist with other examples and theories?
I wrote a paper related to this topic and it is forthcoming in an English journal. Basically, I argue that many people, especially the poor, don't reveal their preferences about urban governance until some events ignited the revelation of their preferences in an explosive way. That is called the flash preference problem. Both social control, which appears to be what you mean in the question, and civil society can be regarded as methods/institutions to solve the flash preference problem. I think this approach integrates the Western concept of civil society and the reality in many developing countries. It also provides an economic analysis of civil society and social control. By the way, the paper's title is "Stakes, Stakeholders, and Urban Governance: A Theoretical Framework for the Chinese City" and it is available on RG.
Thanks Feng, I'll have a look. I like the focus on events, which is historically not that central to institutionalist views of politics. I'm particularly interested in what you term social control, and the different forms of kinds of this.
Asef Bayat's concept of quite encroachment is increasingly challanged. The poor gradually mobilize and form trans-local networks with grassroots, NGOs and global institutions, weaving networks of collaborations to fight for their causes and demand formalization and incorporation into the wider social apparatus. See:
"Formalizing infrastructures, civic networks and production of space: Bedouin informal settlements in Be'er-Sheva metropolis" in Land Use Policy.
Thanks Tomer, I also think the point that Bayat was speaking of non-democratic countries with more repressive state apparatuses is important. So for example, my current work on land invasions or occupation in South Africa suggests that poor occupiers expect the state to try and remove them and prepare to resist this knowing that the state will not become too violent (usually). The strategy is not only to move as many as possible and build shacks quickly but also take furniture and children to up the costs of the state removing the shacks. Some have use the terms 'rebellion of the poor' (Alexander 2010) or insurgency (Holston 2008, Pithouse 2009) to describe this, but I am not convinced that the poor imagine themselves as democratic citizens asserting rights. At least not entirely. Hence my interest in alternative theories.
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