“‘A decent society is a society of civility’ (Rudolph Giuliani, 2002)

The Young Foundation/AHRC project seeks to understand whether and how civility matters in contemporary Britain, and whether British society is becoming more or less civil.

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.  

The overall aim of the project was to address this gap in understanding, and generate debate around the subject.

Read the book – Civility Lost and Found

Civility Lost and Found, authored by Alessandra Buonfino and Geoff Mulgan, 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. Published by the Young Foundation with the support of the AHRC it points to a wide range of actions that could help to make Britain a more civil society, all of which build on projects already underway: powerful institutions taking more responsibility for the impact of their actions, and those of their leaders; the Internet offering civility checks for emails; firms and public services offering apologies when things go wrong, rather than oscillating between defensiveness and financial compensation; teenagers playing roles as civil guardians on the streets; schools teaching mindfulness; police forces providing on the spot prizes as well as spot fines for young people. The book includes commentaries from leading politicians and thinkers.

To view the full pdf version of the book, please click here or to buy a hard copy click here.

For more information, please email: alessandra.buonfino@youngfoundation.org