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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism > Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
Managing As Mission pushes the boundaries of what it means to be a nonprofit manager by making the case that managing, as a reflection of the organizational mission - the cornerstone of any nonprofit - can bring about the change nonprofits were created to achieve: a better world for all. This book contains real-world examples, interview excerpts from nonprofit managers and directors, and a series of self-reflection and organization-wide tools to develop managers and managing as a mirror of the mission. Themes within this book include: a discussion of the history of nonprofit missions; management tasks and approaches; aligning values; building working relationship and trust; and creating organizational structures and interactions that mirror the organizational mission. It is written in an informal first-person style, utilizing humor that will, hopefully, allow the reader to see themselves in the examples and stories.
It is increasingly being accepted that there is a benefit to both parties when a relationship is established between an NGO and a company. Consequently a considerable number of strategic alliances have been established. It must be accepted that such alliances are not necessarily mutually beneficial but little research has been undertaken to determine the factors which facilitate or mitigate against such mutual benefit. Indeed it is only recently that such relationship shave started to be examined at all. The contributions in this volume seek to redress this by researching various aspects of such relationships in order to arrive at some conclusions regarding the potential benefits and pitfalls of such relationships. The various contributors speak from different perspectives and different locations around the world and have different experiences and interpretations to offer. The results therefore present a diverse but balanced picture of the potential of any relationship between NGOs, companies and corporate social responsibility.
Ambitious humanitarian military, economic and social interventions, undertaken by Western actors acting in defence of liberal values, have today become indelible features of Africa's engagement with the world. Yet the continent's long, complex historical relationship with Western humanitarian intervention, dating back to the origins of imperial engagement with the continent, is often overlooked in the study of contemporary African security and development issues. This volume responds to a need for greater historical grounding in the study of humanitarian intervention, by bringing together a wide and interdisciplinary range of contributors who explore the history, theory, and practice of humanitarian intervention in Africa. In doing so, it traces continuities in the discourse and practice of the concept as it evolved from the colonial past to the present, and argues that the West's colonial relationship with Africa is crucial for better understanding humanitarian intervention and how the legacies of colonialism continue to impact emerging international policy.
This book is an ethnographic exploration of slum children's participation in NGO programs that centres children's narratives as key to understanding the lived experience of development in India where 50% of the population is under the age of 25. Weaving theoretical and methodological interventions from anthropology, childhood studies and development studies with children's own narratives and images, the author foregrounds children's lifeworlds whilst documenting the extent to which these lifeworlds are shaped by the twin forces of marginalisation and aspiration. The book documents NGO campaigns targeting child marriage, sanitation and hygiene, gendered violence and bullying, and depicts and examines children's sometimes enthusiastic, sometimes reluctant, and sometimes indifferent approach to narrating and performing development. It assesses the way in which children from four slum communities in New Delhi navigate the multiplicities and contradictions of development by analysing the stories, posters and performances children produce for NGOs. Moreover, the book argues that engagement with children's narratives and performances provide valuable insights into how development attains meaning, garners consensus, fails, succeeds and circulates in a myriad of unexpected ways which consistently defy any assumptions about 'underdeveloped' subjectivities. The first book to interrogate the substance and subjectivities produced in the development of NGO organisations offering extra-curricular programs directed towards more intangible and experiential ends, it will be of interest to researchers working in anthropology, development studies, childhood studies and South Asian studies. The book also speaks to scholars working on issues of poverty, rural-urban migration, gender justice, slums and youth.
Drawing on over a decade of fieldwork in rural South India, the book uses a 'class-relational' approach to analyse continuity and change in processes of accumulation, exploitation and domination. By focusing on the three interrelated arenas of labour relations, the state and civil society, it explores how improvements can be made in the conditions of labourers working 'at the margins' of global production networks, primarily as agricultural labourers and construction workers. Elements of social policy can improve the poor's material conditions and expand their political space where such ends are actively pursued by labouring class organisations. More fundamental change, though, requires stronger organisation of the informal workers who make up the majority of India's population. -- .
The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound and persistent impact. A tragic loss of life, change to established patterns of life and social inequalities laid bare. It brought out the good in many and the worst in others and raised questions around what is truly important in our lives. In this book, academics, activists and artists come together to remember and to reflect on the pandemic. What lessons should we learn? And how can things be different when this is over? Sensitive to inequalities of gender, race and class, it highlights the experience of marginalised and minority groups and the unjust and uneven spread of violence, deprivation and death. It combines academic analysis with personal testimonies, poetry and images from contributors including Sue Black, Led By Donkeys, Lucy Easthope, Lara- Rose Iredale, Michael Rosen and Gary Younge. Taken together, this truly inclusive commemorative overview honours the experience of a global disaster lived up close and suggests the steps needed to ensure we do better next time.
What is the role of elites in shaping foreign policy? Did
unaccountable foreign policy elites shape the post-1945 world
order? Chatham House and the Council on Foreign Relations were
vital in America's shift from isolationism to globalism, and in
Britain's shift from Empire to its current pro-American orientation
and were also fundamental in engineering public backing for a new
world order. Inderjeet Parmar presents new evidence to show how
well-organized and well-connected elite think tanks helped to
change the world.
A career in the non-governmental organization (NGO) sector is an ideal and ambitious choice for anyone who is committed to applying their skills and professional effort to identifying, examining, and helping to resolve the problems confronting the world around them. From combatting human abuses, alleviating famine, working to save the environment, protecting animals, ensuring a safe world for children-locally, nationally, or internationally, a career within the NGO sector can make you a part of the solution. This book walks you through the steps of deciding whether an NGO career is right for you and understanding the types of roles available within the sector. It also explains the educational requirements you will need to fulfill as well as how to plan your academic track, as well as get your career started after graduation. A career within the NGO sector is an exciting one. A competitive field, it offers the opportunity for life-long learning and challenge.
The Politics of Expertise offers a challenging new interpretation of politics in contemporary Britain, through an examination of non-governmental organisations. Using specific case studies of the homelessness, environment, and international aid and development sectors, it demonstrates how politics and political activism has changed over the last half century. NGOs have contributed enormously to a professionalization and a privatization of politics, emerging as a new form of expert knowledge and political participation. They have been led by a new breed of non-party politician, working in collaboration and in competition with government. Skilful navigators of the modern technocratic state, they have brought expertise to expertise and, in so doing, have changed the nature of grassroots activism. As affluent citizens have felt marginalised by the increasingly complex nature of many policy solutions, they have made the rational calculation to support NGOs, the professionalism and resources of which make them better able to tackle complex problems. Yet in doing so, support rather than participation becomes the more appropriate way to describe the relationship of the public to NGOs. As voter turnout has declined, membership and trust in NGOs has increased. But NGOs are very different types of organisations from the classic democratic institutions of political parties and the labour movement. They maintain different and varied relationships with the publics they seek to represent. Attracting mass support has provided them with the resources and the legitimacy to speak to power on a bewildering range of issues, yet perhaps the ultimate victors in this new form of politics are the NGOs themselves.
Examining the involvement of religious NGOs (RNGOs) at the UN, this book explores whether they polarize political debates at the UN or facilitate agreement on policy issues. The number of RNGOs engaging with the United Nations (UN) has grown considerably in recent years: RNGOs maintain relations with various UN agencies, member-state missions, and other NGOs, and participate in UN conferences and events. This volume includes both a quantitative overview of RNGOs at the UN and qualitative analyses of specific policy issues such as international development, climate change, business and human rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, international criminal justice, defamation of religions, and intercultural dialogue and cooperation. The contributions explore the factors that explain the RNGOs' normative positions and actions and scrutinise the assumption that religions introduce non-negotiable principles into political debate and decision-making that inevitably lead to conflict and division. Presenting original research on RNGOs and issues of global public policy, this volume will be relevant to both researchers and policy-makers in the fields of religion and international relations, the United Nations, and non-state actors and global governance.
Daniela Irrera explores the relationship between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs).The author reviews the issue of NGO's participation in the decision-making processes of intergovernmental IGOs and investigates new activities undertaken by NGOs, including their participation in multilateral humanitarian intervention operations, crisis management and conflict resolution. Theoretical discourse is underpinned by empirical data from a survey of representatives from 28 humanitarian NGOs and networks of NGOs that are active in the fields of humanitarian assistance and peace building, as well as conflict transformation and mediation. It demonstrates that the role of non-state actors in the deployment of humanitarian interventions is destined to grow in the near future and promotes our understanding of such a development. Academics in a wide range of fields including development, international studies and public policy will find this book to be an enlightening read. It will also prove to be of great relevance to practitioners and policymakers in NGOs, IGOs, research centres and regional agencies. Contents: Introduction 1. Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organisations: Theoretical Overview 2. The Dialogue with the United Nations and the European Union 3. Non-Governmental Organisations and Humanitarian Action 4. Humanitarian NGOs and the UN Peace and Security Institutions 5. Humanitarian NGOs and the EU Security and Foreign Policy Institutions 6. NGOs' Roles in Peace Operations. A Survey Analysis Conclusions References Appendix 1: List of Humanitarian NGOs' Representatives Appendix 2: HNGOSRep Questionnaire: NGOs' Roles in Peace Missions and Humanitarian Interventions Index
After World War II dozens of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) emerged on the global scene, committed to improving the lives of the world's most vulnerable people. Some focused on protecting human rights; some were dedicated to development, aimed at satisfying basic economic needs. Both approaches had distinctive methods, missions, and emphases. In the 1980s and 90s, however, the dividing line began to blur. In the first book to track the growing intersection and even overlap of human rights and development NGOs, Paul Nelson and Ellen Dorsey introduce a concept they call "new rights advocacy." New rights advocacy has at its core three main trends: the embrace of human rights-based approaches by influential development NGOs, the adoption of active economic and social rights agendas by major international human rights NGOs, and the surge of work on economic and social policy through a human rights lens by specialized human rights NGOs and social movement campaigns. Nelson and Dorsey draw on rich case studies of internationally well-known individual NGOs such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, CARE, ActionAid, and Save the Children, and employ perspectives from the fields of human rights, international relations, the sociology of social movements and of complex organizations, and development theory, in order to better understand the changes occurring within NGOs. In questioning current trends using new theoretical frameworks, this book breaks new ground in the evolution of human rights-development interaction. The way in which NGOs are reinventing themselves has great potential for success--or possibly failure--and profound implications for a world in which theenormous gap between the wealthiest and poorest poses a persistent challenge to both development and human rights.
Robert J. Alexander traces organized labor from its origins in colonial Cuba, examining its evolution under the Republic, noting the successive political forces within it and the development of collective bargaining, culminating after 1959 in its transformation into a Stalin-model labor movement. In Castro's Cuba, organized labor has been subordinate to the Party and government and has been converted into a movement to control the workers and stimulate production and productivity instead of being a movement to defend the interests and desires of the workers. Starting with the organization of tobacco workers and a few other groups in the last years of Spanish colonial rule, Robert J. Alexander traces the growth of the labor movement during the early decades of the republic, noting particularly the influence of three political tendencies: anarchosyndicalists, Marxists, and independents. He examines the generally unfavorable attitudes of early republican governments to the labor movement, and he discusses the first central labor body, the CNOC, which was at first under anarchist influence, and soon captured by the Communists. The role of the CNOC vis-a-vis the Machado dictatorship, including the deal with Machado in 1933 is also discussed. Alexander then looks at the unions during the short Grau San Martine nationalist regime of 1933 and the near-destruction of organized labor by the Batista dictatorship of 1934-1937; the revival of the labor movement after the 1937 deal of the Communists with Batista and the establishment of the Confederacion de Trabajadores de Cuba, as well as the struggles for power within it, resulting in a split in the CTC in 1947, with the dominance of the Autentico-party controlled group. During this period regular collective bargaining became more or less the rule. He then describes the deterioration of the Confederacion of Trabajadores de Cuba under the Batista dictatorship of 1952-1959. Alexander ends with a description of organized labor during the Castro regime: the early attempt of revolutionary trade unionists to establish an independent labor movement, followed by the Castro government's seizure of control of the CTC and its unions, and the conversion of the Cuban labor movement into one patterned after the Stalinist model of a movement designed to stimulate production and productivity--under government control--instead of defending the rights and interests of the unions' members. Based on an extensive review of Cuban materials as well as Alexander's numerous interviews, correspondence, and conversations with key figures from the late 1940s onward, this is the most comprehensive English-language examination of organized labor in Cuba ever written. Essential reading for all scholars and students of Cuban and Latin American labor and economic affairs as well as important to political scientists and historians of the region."
Over the last thirty years, social entrepreneurship has boomed in the People's Republic of China. Today there are hundreds of thousands of legally registered NGOs, and millions more unregistered, working in the areas of the environment, education, women's issues, disability services, community development, LGBTQ rights, and healthcare. The rise of these Chinese NGOs and their implications for civil society merits the focus of significant scholarly attention. This book draws upon the personal stories of social entrepreneurs in China, as well as their supporters and beneficiaries, in order to examine what the rapid growth of social entrepreneurship reveals about China's complex and dynamic society in the 21st century. It discusses the historical, cultural, and political circumstances that allowed and inspired people to become social entrepreneurs and create new forms of democratic engagement. Examining what social entrepreneurship with Chinese characteristics looks like, the book explores how it is changing the relationship between Chinese citizens and the state, and goes on to explain the subsequent effect on Chinese society. Highlighting the importance of citizen activism in the PRC from an interdisciplinary perspective, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, Chinese Politics, Civil Society and Sociology.
This book explores what difference development aid has made to the size, complexity, style of functioning, values and future direction of the NGO sector in India. It does this, first, by giving a comprehensive documentation of the experience of Indian NGOs with foreign aid since Independence. Simultaneously, it also analyses, in a broad historical perspective, some of the issues which are the subject of contemporary debate regarding the voluntary sector and aid, such as who decides 'what' is development and 'how' it should be brought about; whether foreign donors have hidden agendas, and if their aid amounts to cultural imperialism; and whether aid has made NGOs more self-reliant. The book also looks at the tripartite relationship between NGOs, donors, and governments, examining, for instance, whether the government is justified in imposing restrictions on receipt of funds by NGOs on the grounds that terrorist activities and religiously motivated communal strife are often financed with funds from abroad, with NGOs being used as fronts for both.
Examining the involvement of religious NGOs (RNGOs) at the UN, this book explores whether they polarize political debates at the UN or facilitate agreement on policy issues. The number of RNGOs engaging with the United Nations (UN) has grown considerably in recent years: RNGOs maintain relations with various UN agencies, member-state missions, and other NGOs, and participate in UN conferences and events. This volume includes both a quantitative overview of RNGOs at the UN and qualitative analyses of specific policy issues such as international development, climate change, business and human rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, international criminal justice, defamation of religions, and intercultural dialogue and cooperation. The contributions explore the factors that explain the RNGOs' normative positions and actions and scrutinise the assumption that religions introduce non-negotiable principles into political debate and decision-making that inevitably lead to conflict and division. Presenting original research on RNGOs and issues of global public policy, this volume will be relevant to both researchers and policy-makers in the fields of religion and international relations, the United Nations, and non-state actors and global governance.
As news organizations cut correspondent posts and foreign bureaux, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have begun to expand into news reporting. Why and how do journalists use the photographs, video, and audio that NGOs produce? What effects does this have on the kinds of stories told about Africa? And how have these developments changed the nature of journalism and NGO-work? Who's Reporting Africa Now?: Non-Governmental Organizations, Journalists, and Multimedia is the first book to address these questions-using frank interviews and internal documents to shed light on the workings of major news organizations and NGOs, collaborating with one another in specific news production processes. These contrasting case studies are used to illuminate the complex moral and political economies underpinning such journalism, involving not only NGO press officers and journalists but also field workers, freelancers, private foundations, social media participants, businesspeople, and advertising executives.
This volume brings together some of the most recent scholarship on government and civil society. It examines the axis of the relationship between national governments and civil society organisations (NGOs) by highlighting commonalities as well as differences among four key regions in the world. Using the stability vs. instability framework, the book explores a range of pertinent issues, including human rights, development, foreign policy, state-building, regime change, governance frameworks, wars and civil liberties. It studies diverse situations, from those entailing comprehensive cooperation to those involving politically contentious and revolutionary activities. With case studies from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of political science, global politics, international relations, sociology, development studies, global governance and public policy, as well as to those in the development sector and NGOs.
How should the countries in the Baltic Sea region and their allies meet the strategic challenges posed by an openly aggressive and expansionist Russia? NATO and the nonaligned states in the region are now more concerned about an external threat than they have been since the end of the Cold War. Russia has been probing air space, maritime boundaries, and even land borders from the Baltic republics to Sweden. Russia's undermining of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea worries former Soviet republics with Russian minority populations, nonaligned Sweden and Finland are enhancing their cooperation with NATO, and the Trump presidency has created some doubt about America's willingness to follow through on NATO's collective defense commitment. Ann-Sofie Dahl brings together an international group of experts to examine Baltic security issues on a state-by-state basis and to contemplate what is needed to deter Russia in the region. The contributors analyze ways to strengthen regional cooperation, and to ensure that security in the region stays at the top of the agenda at a time of many competing strategic perspectives in the transatlantic community. This book will be of great interest to foreign policy and defense practitioners in the US and Europe as well as scholars and students of international relations.
In a deeply iniquitous world, where the gains from trade are distributed unevenly and where trade rules often militate against progressive social values, human health, and sustainable development, NGOs are widely touted as our best hope for redressing these conditions. As a critical voice of the poor and marginalized, many are engaged in a global struggle for democratic norms and social justice. Yet the potential for NGOs to bring about meaningful change is limited. This book examines whether improvements in participatory opportunities for progressive NGOs results in substantive and normative policy change in one of the major trading powers, the European Union. Hannah advances a constructivist account of the role of NGOs in the EU's trade policymaking process. She argues that NGOs have been instrumental in providing education, raising awareness, and giving a voice to broader societal concerns about proposed trade deals, both when they take advantage of formal participatory opportunities and when they protest from the streets and in the media. However, the book also highlights how NGO inputs are mediated by the social structure of global trade governance. Epistemes-the background knowledge, ideological and normative beliefs, and shared assumptions about how the world works-determine who has a voice in global trade governance. Showing how NGOs succeed only when their advocacy conforms broadly to the dominant episteme, this book will be of value to scholars and students with an interest in NGOs and international trade negotiations. It will also be of interest to policymakers, national trade negotiators, government departments, and the trade policy community.
There is much controversy over the development of new dams for hydropower, where concerns for environmental protection and the livelihoods of local people may conflict with the goals of economic development. This book analyses the opportunities and barriers that NGOs and civil society actors face when conducting advocacy campaigns against such developments. Through a comparison of two NGO coalitions in Cambodia and Vietnam advocating against the Xayaburi hydropower dam on the Mekong River, the book explores the intricate interactions of formal and informal rules and norms and how they influence advocacy strategies. A framework for analysis is proposed which serves as a tool for analysis by civil society actors. The author generates fresh insights into the way in which opportunities and barriers are created for NGOs to influence state-centric decision-making processes. The book also discusses Mekong riparian states' negotiation process over the Xayaburi hydropower dam in detail, providing an analysis of the Mekong River's governance under the 1995 Mekong Agreement. The book concludes by suggesting ways to improve the engagement of civil society actors in the governance of transboundary rivers and development projects.
In the global emergencies our world faces, the strengths approach is needed now more than ever. Commonly misunderstood, its true power as a whole systems approach to release the potential of individuals, communities and their environments has been neglected. For those brave enough to embrace it, this book offers theoretical and practical encouragement. The authors use a case study of their work with a unique non-governmental organisation in the United Kingdom that combines student placements with support for refugees. They illustrate what it really means to adopt a strengths approach in practice. Chapters include the strengths approach to funding, organisational development, management and governance as well as immigration law, student learning and research. This book will give readers grounds for optimism as well as transferable practices for challenging social injustice.
"Taking Aim at the Arms Trade" takes a critical look at the ways in which NGOs portray the arms trade as a problem of international politics and the strategies they use to effect change. While NGOs have been pivotal in bringing the suffering caused by the arms trade to public attention and documenting its negative impacts on human rights, conflict, security and development around the world, their overall activity has the perverse effect of justifying the status quo in the arms trade. They unintentionally contribute to the generation of consent for a hierarchical and asymmetrical world military order, facilitating intervention in the global South based on liberal understandings of the arms trade and associated issues of conflict, development and human rights. As a consequence, their actions contribute to the construction of the South as a site of Northern benevolence and intervention, a stark contrast to NGOs' self-image and widespread reputation as progressive actors. In exposing the contradictions inherent in NGOs engagement with the arms trade, Stavrianakis argues forcefully for a change of approach that can avoid such damaging outcomes.
This title was first published in 2001. This sustained and rigorous theoretical treatment of the choices made by politicians regarding quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations (quangos) makes compelling reading for both practitioners and academics alike. |
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