Civil society as shadowland, mediations among structure, agency and space

grantor: University of TorontoSimmel claimed that boundaries are the precondition of existence (as cited in Tester, 1992). This research creates new conceptual boundaries and then inquires into the nature of the human activity and life practice thus revealed, suggesting that these activities only become distinct and analyzable through the creation of these new boundaries. The dissertation has two primary goals, the first of which is a reconceptualization of our social structure which move beyond the false dualisms of the concepts of public and private which are inadequate to describe our social structure and the range of human activity which occurs within it. A third 'social' realm corrects for this problem and creates a conceptual "boundary" in which we can see the activities and life practices related to civil society. Thus, follows the second research goal--the study of the period of urban reform in Toronto from 1968 to 1974--to inquire at two levels, first about the juxtaposition of and mediation between the spheres of state, marketplace and civil society and to examine the life practices which were threatened, proposed and ultimately preserved by this period of reform. This inquiry occurs while also acknowledging the urban form--the spaces of the city--not just as backdrop but as 'shaping context', providing "a spatial mirror of the structures of society" (Bourne, 1982) and also in turn impacting on those structures. The study explores the complex interrelationship between the built form--our urban environment--and human life practices, the relationship between structure and agency, in the context of urban space. In addition to the substantive issues which this study addresses, it also establishes a methodological process which seeks to expose life practices--social knowledge--lost to view through out social constructions and the limits to inquiry suggested thereby. As Simmel indicated, the creation of a conceptual boundary enables purposeful examination which can in turn legitimate previously ignored life practices.Ph.D