Civil society around the world increasingly deals with global questions and starts to assume transnational forms of organization. The arts can play a key role in addressing public and political problems, with their ability to project alternative realities and communicate ideas. Looking at different artistic platforms, activist groups and new forms of citizen initiatives, this book asks how cultural and art initiatives can question and strengthen the civil domain; how their approaches put the ‘art’ of civil action into practice? Which strategies and forms of organization can such initiatives use in order to sustain their activities and increase their local influence and global significance? Social scientists, cultural theorists, activists and artists explore how arts and culture can offer the building blocks for a locally rooted civil society in a globally connected context.

Contributors: Andrew Barnett, Llorenç Bonet, llya Budraitskis, Giuliana Ciancio, Philipp Dietachmair, Milena Dragićević Šešić, Pascal Gielen, Max Haiven, Stefan Kaegi, Ivan Krastev, Thijs Lijster, Tomislav Medak, Borka Pavićević, Yudhishthir Raj Isar, Igor Stokfiszewski, Hakan Topal