1st Edition

Eruptions, Initiatives and Evolution in Citizen Activism Civil Societies at Crossroads

Edited By Rajesh Tandon, L. David Brown Copyright 2015
    203 Pages
    by Routledge

    214 Pages
    by Routledge

    Eruptions, Initiatives and Evolution in Citizen Activism is the result of a collaborative research project spanning Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe. The book analyses internal and external challenges to civil society in more than twenty countries. It investigates through studies of ountries that include South Africa, India and the Netherlands of civil society evolution; examinations of citizen activism, such as Occupy London, the Chilean student movement, the Cambodian farmers campaign against land grabs; regional overviews such as the Southern Cone of Latin America, Southern Africa, and Russia. The studies identify changing roles, capacities, contributions and limitations of civil society in response to changing political, economic and social contexts. The book goes on to present selected studies, identifies patterns and lessons that emerge across countries and regions. It articulates implications of those lessons for practitioners and policy makers concerned with civil society contributions to national and regional development.



    This book was published as a special double issue of Development in Practice.

    1. Introduction: Civil societies at crossroads: eruptions, initiatives, and evolution in citizen activism  2. Struggles for systems that nourish: southern Africa civil society contributions and challenges to the creation of flourishing societies  3. Struggles against systems that impoverish: South African civil society at the crossroads  4. Kampala city traders (KACITA) strike for action  5. Civil society at multiple crossroads in Asia  Kaustuv 6. Civil society in changing India: emerging roles, relationships, and strategies  7. Changing civil society in Cambodia: in search of relevance  8. Is civil society in the Southern Cone of Latin America at a crossroad?  9. Protest and proposal, participation and representation: the Chilean student movement, 2011–12  10. From embarrassing objects to subjects of rights: the Argentine LGBT movement and the Equal Marriage and Gender Identity laws  11. The emergence and re-emergence of civil society: a brief history of civil society in Europe, from the Magna Carta to the Eurozone crisis  12. Occupy London as pre-figurative political action  13. Dutch civil society at crossroads  14. Treading new ground: a changing moment for citizen action in Greece  15. Russian civil society: background, current, and future prospects  16. Civil societies at crossroads: lessons and implications

    Biography

    Rajesh Tandon is the founder President of the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), an India-based NGO that provides civil society research and capacity building. He has been active in regional and international initiatives to strengthen civil society, democratic governance, and active citizenship.



    L. David Brown is a retired Senior Research Fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University. He was co-Founder and President of the Institute for Development Research, a civil society research and capacity-building center in Boston. He works on civil society development, cross-sector collaboration, and transnational civil society organizations.