"A decent society is a society of civility" (Rudolph Giuliani, 2002)

There has been very extensive intellectual debate on civility over many centuries. In recent years, civility has been a frequent subject of media, public and political discourse, often centring on issues of respect and antisocial behaviour. Politicians from across the world utter the word ‘civility’ in the context of a changing society and the loss of long lost values of mutual respect and cooperation. There are certainly very clear signs that the concept is set to rise up public agendas over the next 2-5 years. Increasingly, civility is being understood through the need to investigate what actions can best promote pro-social behaviour.

Yet there is much needed understanding of what civility may actually mean. Despite the wealth of interdisciplinary work that has been done through the centuries there is no shared definition of what civility means. Discussions on civility all too often fall on anecdotal evidence, prejudices and assumptions about changing Britain. The term is often conflated with other concepts - fairness, courtesy and even hypocrisy. And overall there is still widespread disagreement on the basic facts and whether British society is actually more or less civil than 20, 50 or 100 years ago. 

Key reading:

This project builds on the Young Foundation book Civility Lost and Found, authored by Alessandra Buonfino and Geoff Mulgan, which looks at the nature of civility in British society and, through a mix of research and contributions from a number of eminent people addresses what we mean by civility and looks at what can be done now to cultivate a more civil society.

Download a full pdf of the publication.