As organized global actors, transnational advocacy networks (TANs) are an emerging way of people getting their voice heard and to make a change in global governance. Influencing policy-makers through advocacy has an identified connection to the legitimacy of the organization where the general assumption is that a higher legitimacy facilitates influence. In this thesis we have approached this situation from a strategic standpoint. Seeing as TANs – like most organizations – follow a strategy in order to achieve their goals, we wanted to see how legitimacy can be included as a part of the TANs strategy. This included describing the connections between the TAN as an organization and the legitimacy potential in both the organizational form and their actions. Our empirical findings suggested a close relationship between a TAN’s legitimacy and their stance with a policy-making institution, which led to a focus on these institutions as a target for TANs and their advocacy. We developed on this relation and outlined a suggestion for a strategic framework for TANs to consider when strategizing around legitimacy. We found that two main paths – named the Insider and the Outsider strategies – illustrate the options and implications a TAN is faced with on the topic of strategic legitimacy. The results constitute a contribution to the development of TAN strategy, a field that in the time of our writing this remains underexplored territory. We suggest that this field can be further developed by continuous research and we hope that this thesis is a contribution to that development.

This dissertation is a study of economic, political, and social reforms in contemporary Turkey and how they are experienced by the country's Romani ("Gypsy") population. By focusing on urban renewal projects, the pluralization of cultural identities, and the proliferation of civil society organizations, this dissertation analyzes these changes in urban Romani communities, examining how state and civil society initiatives impact identity and civic engagement. This research contributes broadly to work in anthropology studying the relationship between culture and power, specifically investigating how local cultural identities and practices intersect and interact with transnational political-economic processes. While the meaning and application of the concept of 'culture' has been much debated in the social sciences, this analysis is situated within studies that consider culture a site of governance. Many modern forms of governance work less through force than by subjecting culture to the political logic of empowerment and improvement. This study interrogates this process via ethnographic research with dislocated Roma and Romani rights civic actors in three Turkish cities, focusing in particular on one dislocated Romani community from a neighborhood in Istanbul known as Sulukule. The project is unique in that it addresses Romani identity, culture, and citizenship where they intersect with current politics around urban development in Turkey. While 'urban renewal' projects are incorporating the land of the urban poor into new plans for Istanbul as a global city, Romani residents find themselves increasingly dispossessed. More than interventions that aim to improve the conditions of Turkey's Roma, urban development has renewed the politicization of urban Romani communities, particularly the youth, who have begun participating in social movements and Romani rights activism. The study finds that, while the changes resulting from liberalization and democratization in Turkey are typically posed by scholars, politicians, and civil society actors as either positive or negative, the advantages and disadvantages for marginalized populations like the Roma are actually simultaneously produced and mutually constituted. While Turkey's Roma are being integrated into discourses, practices, and institutions of Turkish national belonging and transnational Romani rights solidarity, they are also facing the dissolution of their local communities, traditional occupations, and cultural life. This dissertation suggests broader repercussions for anthropological understandings of the impact of free-market liberalization and democratization in so-called 'developing countries,' and particularly interrogates the politics of 'openness', the relationship between civil society and 'political society', and the role of transnational networks in urban politics.

This study examines the changing context and implications for evaluation practice of social program and service delivery devolved to small nonprofit and grassroots organizations. The setting is explored through a critical reflection-on-practice of over twenty years experience conducting evaluation. Using a multiple case study approach, the dissertation examines nine broad themes through two broad composite scenarios and twenty-five detailed vignettes that portray the challenges of working as a consultant with and for small nonprofit and grassroots organizations as they grapple with growing demands for accountability through evaluation. The multiple case study analysis is complemented by an analysis of case studies in two broad areas of literature; one on the impacts of devolution in the nonprofit sector, and the other examining recent trends in evaluation conducted in challenging settings, including community-based and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The five broad themes addressed through the case studies and literature on devolution are: 1) accountability, 2) capacity, 3) mandate drift, 4) competition, and 5) complexity. The four broad themes addressed through case studies and literature on evaluation are: 1) theory-based evaluation, 2) inclusiveness (participatory approaches), 3) the changing and multiple roles of evaluators, and 4) the use of dialogue, deliberative and democratic approaches in evaluation practice. The study contends that the ‘rough ground’ of nonprofit settings provides a useful lens for understanding broader challenges and trends in evaluation practice; that evaluators provide more than just technical skills and knowledge, but undertake important roles in linking communities, mediating among stakeholders, fostering dialogue and deliberation about programming, and mitigating some of the more egregious impacts of devolution experienced by nonprofit and grassroots organizations. By acknowledging and supporting the development of such roles and responsibilities, the profession and evaluators working in these settings can provide meaningful contributions to public discourse about the nature of accountability, the broad context of social programming, the complex capacity challenges being faced by nonprofit organizations, and the role of evaluation in exacerbating or potentially mitigating such effects.

While much has been written in recent times on the concept of civil society, the idea that it is part of an Orientalist construct of West and non-West has not been explored. This dissertation addresses this lacuna in the literature by examining Western concepts of civil society and establishing the ways in which these concepts are constructed through the deployment of a mirroring construction of non-Western Others. I examine the work of three theorists (Montesquieu, Ferguson and Hegel) who wrote on civil society during the Enlightenment or in its aftermath. These theorists are emblematic of a discursive formation which differed from prior discursive formations in two related respects: their concept of civil society and their construction of non-Western Others. During the eighteenth century both constructions of the concept of civil society and of non-Western Others were undergoing significant changes leading eventually to a concept of civil society as distinct from the state and to what might be termed a "post-Enlightenment geographical imagination". To demonstrate the disjuncture between discursive formations, the work of two seventeenth-century theorists (Hobbes and Locke) is compared and contrasted with that of these writers. The work of three late twentieth-century social scientists (Shils, Gellner and Fukuyama) is examined and their concept of civil society and use of non-Western Others is contrasted with those of the prior discursive formation. I show how their concept of civil society is informed both by the concept of civil society developed in the Enlightenment and its aftermath and by the mirroring constructions of non-Western Others of the post-Enlightenment geographical imagination. Underscoring the work of all these theorists are methods of comparison and the representational practices they authorize. These are explored through two conceptions of alterity which have operated in Western thought and their connections to questions of comparison. An analysis is made of the relationship of the ideas of comparison and comparative method to questions of translation in Western philosophy and social science. The implications of this discussion of comparison and representation for theories of civil society and their constructions of non-Western Others is analyzed.

This thesis examines if and how Twitter can be used to organize protests by activists. Theoretically, it addresses several debates about Internet technology in approaches to Social Movement Theory, Network Theory, and Digital Politics Theory and synthesizes them to create an analytical framework to address Internet technologies effects, or lack thereof, on civil society. Through a case study examining protests in Kuwait empirical results indicate that Twitter does not have a significant impact on collective action efforts as it is not used to connect activists or create a forum for dialogue. Instead it is used to promote slogans and provide on-the-ground-reports of events, which do not have significant effects on organizing collective action. The reason for its relative insignificance is largely due to political, social and economic obstacles that polarize and fragment online collective action efforts.

No description available.

In a previous dissertation I argued that conceptions of citizenship and civil society have changed in three significant ways. Firstly, from being moral agents, citizens are now primarily rational agents. In other words, citizens now act in civil society when it best serves their own rational self-interest as opposed to recognising what I term the intrinsic moral worth of the public sphere. Secondly, the motivation for action by citizens used to be duty but is now instrumental: that is, citizens rarely act out of a duty to their country or their fellow citizen but instead act in order to achieve a certain end. Thirdly, while citizens used to act as a group, they now act individually, no longer pursuing a common good but each seeking their own individual good. In this dissertation, I move from the primarily theoretical nature of my honours dissertation to an empirical analysis of South Africa, establishing the validity of my theory while offering a more thorough analysis of South African citizenship and civil society. By looking at the empirical examples of the civil service in terms of Education, Bureaucracy, and the SANDF, this dissertation analyses both the state of South African civil society, and the underlying reasons for this state. Once it is clear how citizenship and civil society have changed and why this change is problematic, it then becomes important to establish why they have changed and who is responsible for the change. The attitudes of both citizens and the government are analysed as well as the influence they have on each other. I argue that the attitude of citizens is deeply influenced by governmental behaviour and thus if we want to alter the direction of citizenship and civil society, we need to change attitudes at the governmental level. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

The international community has followed up its 2001 invasion of Afghanistan with a complex multi-faceted peacebuilding project. However, informed observers believe the Western-led mission in Afghanistan has failed to address the inherent peacebuilding needs of Afghanistan and has hindered the formation of a locally experienced sustainable peace. In response, emerging peacebuilding theory and rhetoric has pointed to an urgent need for revised peacebuilding paradigms and strategies that hold local (Afghan) ownership of peacebuilding activities as a central concern. This research project utilised a qualitative grounded theory methodology to explore perceptions of Afghan ownership of peacebuilding activities in Afghanistan. Research data was gathered in early 2011 through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 63 local and international peacebuilding leaders in two Afghan urban centres. The participants included persons from the United Nations, the Afghan and foreign governments, local and international NGOs, a broad range of civil society groups, international donors, and the international military forces. Analysis of the interview narratives revealed several dilemmas on the journey towards increased Afghan ownership of peacebuilding. First, participants believed that the international community is performing important roles in Afghanistan, but is struggling to ensure Afghan ownership of peacebuilding activities. Second, international and Afghan peacebuilding actors have struggled to define who should be owning peacebuilding in at least two respects: (1) civil society or government; and (2) traditional- informal or democratic-formal institutions. Third, grassroots populations and Afghan civil society felt virtually no ownership of upper-level peace processes, and described a distinct lack of locally owned grassroots-level peace process activities. And fourth, inappropriate external forces and processes, the militarisation and politicisation of peacebuilding activities, local aid dependency, and inadequate local control over peacebuilding coordination have hindered the international-domestic inter-relationship in Afghanistan. However, the dilemmas of local ownership do not need to be viewed as unworkable barriers but can be re-conceptualised as holding constructive potential in designing sustainable peacebuilding solutions. To this end, this research study proposed the creation of a locally owned, broadly participatory, and strategic dispute resolution system that might transform international-local relations and forge the necessary space in which the transition to local authority and ownership might occur.

This study followed two similarly affected, but socio-economically disparate suburbs as residents responded to and attempted to recover from the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand, on February 22, 2011. More specifically, it focuses on the role of local churches, community-based organisations (CBOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), here referred to broadly as civil society, in meeting the immediate needs of local residents and assisting with the longer-term recovery of each neighbourhood. Despite considerable socioeconomic differences between the two neighbourhoods, civil society in both suburbs has been vital in addressing the needs of locals in the short and long term following the earthquake. Institutions were able to utilise local knowledge of both residents and the extent of damage in the area to a) provide a swifter local response than government or civil defence and then help direct the relief these agencies provided locally; b) set up central points for distribution of supplies and information where locals would naturally gather; c) take action on what were perceived to be unmet needs; and d) act as a way of bridging locals to a variety of material, informational, and emotional resources. However the findings also support literature which indicates that other factors are also important in understanding neighbourhood recovery and the role of civil society, including: local leadership; a shared, place-based identity; the type and form of civil society organizations; social capital; and neighbourhood- and household-level indicators of relative vulnerability and inequality. The intertwining of these various factors seems to influence how these neighbourhoods have coped with and taken steps in recovering from this disaster. It is recommended that future research be directed at developing a better understanding of how this occurs. It is suggested that a model similar to Yasui’s (2007) Community Vulnerability and Capacity model be developed as a useful way to approach future research in this area.

The evolution and impact of journalism in the developing world remains largely under-explored, especially in the Caribbean. This case study explores the role of the 21st century daily newspaper in Jamaica, during a period where the country endured its first widespread national crisis in almost three decades. This thesis deconstructs the coverage of Jamaica’s two daily newspapers and the role of civil society during the nine months prior to the extradition of alleged transnational drug dealer Christopher Coke to the United States. The extradition coverage of Coke, whom the American government deemed, one of the most wanted men in the world, highlighted growing concerns about the island’s diplomacy and its place in the global environment. It gave the news media an opportunity to focus on incidences of corruption, party-garrison clientelistic relationships and facilitate debates about good governance and a new vision for the island. In the aftermath of the Coke extradition, there have been questions about influence and who played what roles in the resolution of the crisis. This thesis considers the influence of the media and of wider civil society activism, specifically the way the newspapers and civic organizations shaped the extradition, opened a space for dialogue and created a shift in the nature of media/government relations on the island. An in-depth content analysis of the newspaper coverage leading up to the extradition forms the empirical basis for study. This is supplemented by interviews with journalists, academics and civic agents whose voices helped shape the Coke debate in the newspapers. This crisis provided a unique opportunity to assess the news agenda on the island along with the perspectives of community voices as they engaged to influence a peaceful resolution. The newspaper analysis of the extradition highlighted the political and social complexity of the island, in particular, the rampant political corruption, extreme social inequality, commonplace civil disobedience and criminality. The extradition revealed that there were obstacles to the cohesion of civil society groups in Jamaica. They were hampered by class and income disparities, political allegiances and questions of faith. These underlying concepts, along with newsroom culture, press-politics relationships, self-censorship, newspaper patronage, education, economic structures, and cultural identity can all be understood not by their individual meanings but as ways in which power is shaping the socio-political landscape of the island. The newspaper coverage of the extradition battle also exposed flaws in the island’s political and social fabric, this elevated government’s predicament from a routine extradition warrant to an armed conflict. This thesis reinforces the role of daily newspapers in ensuring governmental transparency and providing a space that facilitates differing views which ultimately allows democracy to work. The findings from the thesis contribute to an understanding of journalism outside of the context of the United States/ United Kingdom. It showed that in the Caribbean and especially Jamaica special considerations must be made for how socio-cultural factors impact newspaper journalism.