Reviews
Citizenship in Social Movements: Constructing Alternatives in the Anti-Privatization Forum, South Africa
This paper explores how social movements construct citizenship and redefine the very notion of the political realm. Social movements have quickly become powerful actors within South Africa’s civil society. They are largely contesting the basis upon which South Africa’s post-apartheid reality has been constructed according to specific policies
Contesting the Role of Social Movements in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Treatment Action Campaign
This article contests the role of social actors within a democratic context by looking at post-apartheid social movements in general and the case study of the Treatment Action Campaign in particular. By illustrating the structure, activities, goals and accomplishments of the Treatment Action Campaign up until the end of 2006, this work will argue that it represents an innovation in social movements in South Africa via its unique strategies and networks that have transformed the issue of HIV/A...
Open Access Publication: Participation for What?
Hereby we present you the digital version of the book: "Participation For What, Social Change or Social Control?". The publication is special, both content-wise and process-wise, as it is entirely produced by (alumni and present) ISS PhD students, and Open Acces available. The book contains seven articles that were carefully selected out of the contributions for the Development Dialogue, which was held at ISS in 2008. All the articles question participatory processes and practices i...
The End or the And?
Can civil society organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa succesfully advocate, lobby and mobilize to fight poverty and corruption, and to bring development and democracy? Have citizens’ organizations in the new roles of policy making and participation in service delivery been able to realize the high hopes and aspirations surrounding their explosive growth. And how has international assistance promoted or hindered their struggle to catalyze social change and pro-poor development?...
Mobilising Social Justice in South Africa - perspectives from Researchers and Practitioners
How do civic actors in South Africa deal with contemporary developmental challenges such as socio-economic inequality, limited access to basic services, xenofobic tensions and governance constraints. At a time of rising social tensions, the country’s institutions are in danger of losing the legitimacy they gained in the wake of democratic dispensations of the 1990s.Seizing and Stretching Participatory Space: Civil Society Participation in Tanzania’s Policy Processes
Civil society participation in PRSP processes has become part and parcel of modern aid modities. Assumed benefits include stronger checks and balances, inclusion of marginalized interests, and a broader support base for implementation. This hints at transformative potential. Yet, where governments or donors drive the process, participation hardly ever surpasses a mere consultative role and risks of cooption loom large.Framing and Claiming Reproductive Rights: A Case Study of Civil Society Actors in Tanzania
How do grassroots organizations engage with, understand and use human rights discourses? In the current development context many civil society actors have adopted a ‘rights based approach’ (RBA). However, ‘human rights’ are often articulated at the international level, but understood, experienced and practiced in a local context. What does this dynamic imply for the way local civil society actors lobby the state to implement global human rights at a national policy level?
Social movements and NGO interaction
Are we entering a post-NGO era in development? Aid critics very much suggest so. Hailed as a magic bullet for development two decades ago, NGOs are increasingly criticized for being ineffective agents of change, out of touch with broader social currents in society and operating in a fragmented way. Under pressure to show results, NGOs and their donors are increasingly attempting to align with social movements in a bid to scale up their impact. Social movements are an older, looser form of org...
Avatar meets the Amazon: how to support indigenous movements?
Movies can prove to be a powerful tool to raise awareness for a certain cause. Recently the buzz around blockbuster Avatar is being used by environmental, indigenous and human rights organizations to create global media attention for their struggle. In Avatar the indigenous Na’vi people fight to save their land and traditional way of living on planet Pandora from human beings who want to destroy it to extract minerals for energy supply on planet Earth. The story in Avatar is based on fiction,...
Claims to Success: ICT based Advocacy for the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa
How can the internet be used to promote the advocacy efforts by civil society organizations? In this paper, Caroline Kemp reflects on this question by examining the Solidarity for Women’s Rights Coalition (SOAWR) and their work towards promoting the Protocol for Women’s rights in Africa. The African Union adopted this protocol in 2005, but to date the ratification, popularization and implementation by member-states has been a slow process. SOAWR been instrumental in civic efforts to promote t...