Remaking public spaces for civil society

The collective action predicaments of the time require citizens to participate in remaking the governance of civil society so that they can become engaged and cooperate together. Can citizens become makers of civil society? This article draws upon Hannah Arendt's On Revolution to provide a theory of remaking in which citizens come together to constitute a body politic that secures their freedom to deliberate and act on their shared public concerns. Contemporary theories seeking to democratise the governance of civil society - Bang, Newman and Bevir - are undermined by flawed dualities of structure and action. This article considers Archun Fung's studies of experimental community governance provide potentially an Arendtian model for remaking civil society based on democratic participation and deliberation.