Civil Economy

Abstract

The expression “civil economy” is now recurrent in academic discussion as in the media, but it carries multiple, sometimes conflicting meanings. Some confuse it with the expression “social economy,” while others maintain that “civil economy” is just a different, older name for “political economy.” There are those who identify the term with the variegated world of nonprofit organizations, and others who go so far as to see civil economy as an intellectual project opposed to the economy of solidarity. Misunderstandings and incomprehension of this sort not only complicate dialogue between thinkers who legitimately espouse different worldviews; what is worse is that ignorance of what civil economy is, instead of inducing intellectual humility, often feeds ideological prejudices and is used to justify sectarian closed-mindedness.