This paper argues that the notion of ‘civil society’ has become a category of practice, indicating that specific organisations ‘between the state and people’ strategically utilise this notion in their self-identification and the normative framing of their social role ¬– e.g., in the sphere of poverty alleviation. To critically analyse such practices and related claims, however, needs different categories. 

The paper illustrates this argument using the example of struggles for land in parts of rural Sindh in Pakistan. A political-economic approach shows that masses of small farmers, tenants and landless agricultural labourers (often bonded) are in dire need of access to land (including secured use-rights) that allows for a living. A glance at grassroots actions highlights that a whole array of groups/organisations/networks ‘between the state and people’ support them in their struggles. However, the nature of this support varies based on these groups’ perceptions of the underlying causes for contemporary inequalities, the measures required to overcome them (e.g., land reform, or off-farm employment, etc.), and the concrete actions to be taken towards these objectives (e.g., project-based direct support, or struggles for structural changes, relations with the state, etc.). At times, some groups cooperate with each other for certain actions. At times, groups heavily critique each other, e.g., by blaming ‘the others’ as being the apolitical product of NGOisation. 

Thus, the social space ‘between the state and people’ escapes the homogenising category of ‘civil society’. Understanding corridors to development requires this space to be analysed as one of contention, of diverse struggles by rural subalterns, and of competing practices of social mobilisation. This also requires a shift of attention from organisational categories (what can civil society do?) to the political economy of ‘corridors to development’.