Civil Landscapes and changing modes of participation

The culture of citizen involvement is rapidly changing in most European countries and it has to be proved, if this will be true for other post-industrial societies, too. The philosopher Juergen Habermas argued, in the 80's of the last century, that State bureaucracy and economic organisations will colonize the lebenswelt and jeopardize the basis of social innovation and democratic involvement. Lebenswelt in this context means the level of self-organised knowledge and pattern of communication people have in their own control. This paper argues that this has been true in the period of Fordism, but does mot properly reflect the present situation and the trends we can observe now. The regime of flexible regulation makes the lebenswelt a more important factor for social and economic development than fordistic regulation has done. (author)