Dhaka, Dec. 27 -- Every five years I squirrel away everything I can find on the changing contours of civil society, and then try to make some sense of it all in relation to larger trends in politics and culture. It's always tough because the universe of voluntary, collective action and interaction isn't a 'thing' that is static or owned by one particular geography or ideology; it's constantly being contested and reshaped in both theory and reality, though there are always some dominant themes. Last time it was the impact of the digital revolution. This time it's polarization.

But beyond these obvious headlines, the task has become especially challenging for two other reasons. The first is that the contexts in which civil society operates...