ABSTRACT
The idea of government in democratic societies is closely connected to the concept of a representative democracy. However, limitations of this concept have become visible and the necessity to shift from government to governance has been emphasised since the 1990s. Governance has been defined as a move beyond the traditional mode of democratic rule (Evans et al. 2005: 33), or, more detailed, ‘a process of participation which depends on networks of engagement, which attempts to embrace diversity in contemporary society, which promotes greater responsiveness to service users and, in so doing, seeks to reshape accountability relationships’ (Lovan et al. 2004: 8). The rather simple system of elections that transfer decision rights from the individual to a representative authority is replaced by complex processes-like engagement, responsiveness, consultation and accountability. Civil society has been used as a term to describe this far more complex system. Civil society is ‘the social space in which individuals are able to engage in a range of activities through informal association’ (Lovan et al. 2004: 8). In another definition, Friedmann and Douglas (1998: 2) describe civil society as ‘that part of social life which lies beyond the immediate reach of the state and which must exist for a democracy state to flower’. However, it is not only the space between the state and the economy, where citizens can engage and associate themselves freely; the actions taken within this space should be influencing the structures of government and also business. In the case of urban development and urban planning, civil society thus ‘is a collective actor in the construction of our cities and regions, in search of a good life’ (Friedmann 1998: 21).
