NGOs (Anthropology)

Since the Eurozone Crisis, many Southern European countries have faced unprecedented austerity measures amid soaring unemployment, social unrest, and one of the largest mass migrations since the end of World War II. These events, as well as European Union policies, have placed pressure on social, political, and economic relationships between Northern and Southern European nations. Further, they have challenged ideas of European unity and what it means to be European during an ongoing humanitarian crisis. This is especially the case in places such as Sicily, historically one of the poorest areas of Southern Europe, a region whose “Italianness” and “Europeanness” is often challenged. This paper, based on research conducted in 2015 and 2016, will explore the evolving conceptualization of Sicilians’ identities within the context of these developing events. Many times local administrators are the final enforcers of international law. The manner in which these laws are implemented shapes the on the ground reality of international and Italian policy and thus refugees’ experiences. I will argue that as the idea of a unified Europe begins to diminish, local actors may lose vested interest in the humanitarian and Enlightenment ideals which have contributed to Europe’s self-identification as a bastion of human rights. Consequently, many of the migrants arriving in Europe may find themselves in a progressively less welcoming environment. Findings in this paper have strong implications for the enforcement of policy in a humanitarian context. Further, this paper will contribute to the anthropologies of migration, identity, and political economy.

This paper examines humanitarian assistance practices to understand how approaches followed by various actors address-or fail to address-social vulnerability to disasters. This question is addressed through a study of humanitarian responses in two disaster-affected villages of Baltistan in northern Pakistan. Through analysis of key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews with men and women, group discussions and secondary data sources, we identify how government, non-governmental and faith-based organisations understand and seek to address underlying socio-political processes that define vulnerability. We analyse how knowledges and practices serve to legitimise authority relations between and among humanitarian organisations and local populations. The paper finds that a simplistic understanding of vulnerability-that people with higher losses are more vulnerable and deserve more assistance in comparison to those who suffer lower losses-tends to favour well-off people, as the...

The ethnographic case upon which this article is based concerns a project of "governability strengthening" implemented in the indigenous municipality of Todos Santos Cuchumatán by an international NGO. Throughout the voices of the NGO func-tionaries as well as those of the local authorities, I want to bring to surface the implications of a misunderstanding concerning hegemonic ways of perceiving Mayaʼs other-ness that are implied in multicultural neoliberalism, the new form of governance adopted by postwar Guatemala. The article focuses particularly on a performance of democratic skills that highlights an indigenous ritual appropriation of the development discourse , resulting in a process of acculturation/resistance. The article explores the ways local indigenous leadership is redefined as the capacity of mediating between the humanitarian reason of the International Cooperation, where the majority of the resources lies, and community rules of prestige and power, which is ultimately, where their legitimacy comes.

이영롱, 명수민, "한국 청년세대의 사회적 노동 경험: 2010년대 청년들의 자기 서사와 노동 서사를 중심으로", 청년허브 연구보고서, 1-142쪽, 2014.

““Social Labor” Experience of Young Generations in Korea: Self-Narratives and Work Experience of Young Social Activist-Workers,” Research Report, Seoul Youth Hub, pp. 1-142, 2014. (with Sumin Myung) (in Korean)

This paper is a precursor to an in-depth study being carried out with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and RMIT University, outlining the need for improved understanding of the challenges and opportunities of Military-NGO interaction in complex post-conflict spaces. It is well known that military and NGO operations occupy overlapping spaces in conflict environments, with distinct and divergent cultures and mandates for those operations. However, their understanding of and attitudes towards each other and their missions are equally significant in defining their capacity and willingness to work constructively in tandem. Indeed, the minimum requirement of civilian and military organisations is to work in the same location, if not necessarily cooperatively or collaboratively. Harris highlights that as a result of geo-political and combat developments globally, key actors now regularly find themselves outside of their traditional zones of operation - militaries as peacekeepers, transit...

Activism and advocacy have drawn academic interest as alternative ways of achieving collective ends outside established political institutions. However, there has been very little theoretical attention aimed at the interconnections between the two spheres. In Civil Becomings: Performative Politics in the Amazon and the Mediterranean, Raúl Acosta examines the manner in which progressive nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and activists act in a more intermingled and processual way than scholars have previously acknowledged.

Acosta focuses on networks from the vantage point of two NGOs: one in Brazil that concentrated on environmental issues in the Amazon and another in Barcelona called the Mediterranean Social Forum. The focus of this research is not on organizational aspects of collaboration, but rather on the practices and contexts in which such cooperation occurs. Three major aspects of activist and advocacy networks are analyzed: their communicative characters, their collective performances of the political, and the negotiations they engage in between vernacular and cosmopolitan values.

This volume theorizes the cooperative actions of activist and advocacy networks as legitimating processes for the work of participating groups. In doing so, Acosta argues, they address the issues that justify a joint campaign or effort and also crucially underpin each participating collective as a worthy organization of civil society.

Onderzoek naar de rol en de functie van de allochtone vrijwilligersorganisaties (migrantenorganisaties, zelforganisaties), hun ondersteuningsvragen en de wijze waarop ze door gemeenten en ondersteuningsinstellingen worden gefaciliteerd en ondersteund. Ook is er aandacht besteed aan de wijze waarop lokale overheden allochtone vrijwilligersorganisaties betrekken bij hun besluitvorming en wat daarbij succes- en faalfactoren zijn. Het zijn vragen die niet los kunnen worden gezien van (het verloop van) het integratiedebat de afgelopen jaren.

The number of street children in existence globally is increasing and with that, the vulnerabilities they face multiply. This dissertation has examined the lives of street children in Sierra Leone and the social protection measures put in place by NGOs during the Ebola outbreak in dealing with the vulnerabilities they encounter. As this group in society are often difficult to reach leading to neglect, it is therefore important for social protection measures to be specifically implemented to match their needs.

Through a review, analysis and evaluation of relevant secondary literature on street children, as well as literature on social protection approaches and the Ebola virus, the topic aimed to provide answers to the objectives and subsequent research questions. These questions related to the vulnerabilities faced by street children and during the Ebola crisis, the social protection approaches employed by NGOs in responding to their needs. The social protection framework adopted created an avenue to effectively assess the objectives and provide an enhanced understanding of street children in Sierra Leone.

The outcomes presented indicate, there are difficulties in defining street children and in determining the lives they live, due to their multifaceted livelihood activities. Additionally, gender differences amongst street children play an important role in how they are perceived and the vulnerabilities, in terms of activities they partake in; this also creates difficulties for NGOs and their response approaches. The findings also support the vulnerability concept which attests that street children remain one of the most vulnerable groups in society and require increased social protection measures. The Ebola virus has predominantly affected poor families which have led to the deaths of primary care-givers, leading to an influx of orphaned children and subsequent rise in the number of street children.

There are a wide range of forms of domestic violence in the North Caucasus. Recent years have shown the scale of its spread and the complexity of the fight against domestic violence in the region. The spread of domestic violence in the region is facilitated by the residents themselves, traditional institutions, and religious structures that increase their influence. In addition, the authorities are not interested in solving the problems of domestic violence, and they hinder the work of human rights organizations and activists in every possible way. This article describes the features of the fight against domestic violence in the North Caucasus. The role of NGOs that oppose extreme and specific forms of domestic violence practices (female genital mutilation and
honor killings) in the region is significant. The role and prospects of women's and NGOs’ activities in overcoming these problems are shown. This article is based on the primary and secondary analysis of the results of qualitative and quantitative research conducted by the project "Legal initiative" and the Center for Research on Global Issues of Modernity and Regional problems “Caucasus. Peace. Development.”

Este trabalho pretende fornecer elementos para a análise das relações entre experiências recentes de mapeamento participativo na América Latina e os debates sobre multiculturalismo, as estratégias dos movimentos sociais associadas às “políticas de identidade” que se firmaram nos anos 90 e os marcos regulatórios que têm possibilitado a ação consorciada de atores transnacionais, nacionais e locais na gestão de territórios, relacionados tanto a povos e comunidades tradicionais nas áreas rurais, quanto a populações subalternizadas em áreas urbanas. A análise estará baseada na literatura crítica sobre processos de mapeamento participativo produzida sobretudo por antropólogos e geógrafos, bem como na participação da autora em grupos de discussão e eventos sobre esta temática.

Is 'development' a solution for positive social change or a cynical western strategy for maintaining inequality? Do African NGOs represent a flourishing civil society or the strategic allocation of external resources by local elites? Moving beyond an increasingly polarized debate about the role of NGOs, this book reveals the practices and social relations through which ideas of development are concretely established. Rather than reducing these to a single, encompassing development 'logic', Yarrow argues for the need to understand the multiple and conflicting epistemologies through which development interventions practically proceed. Through ethnographic description, he brings to life the everyday realities of development professionals in Ghana. The result is a profound challenge to theories of development and public culture in Africa and beyond.

My journey into the world of the rural artisan communities was not with the intention of 'developing' them or educating them. I went to them to regain that which I had lost in the process of getting educated.  To learn from them. Having escaped 'education' and 'development' they were still original and authentic and were holding on to the culture and world-view, which sustained them for centuries. I perceived the rural / tribal communities as being wise and evolved. And recognized that only by learning from them could we lead sustainable lives.

So the documentation of the Aruvacode project is not about how I 'developed' them, but about what I have learnt from them. In that sense, it is a critique of the modern paradigm of life. It is also about what harm we, the 'educated' are doing in the name of 'development' and 'education'.

This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.

It is not easy to build an efficient culture of teamwork in an organisation. More than that, it is definitely not trouble-free to bring individuals that have different mindsets and ways of doing things together to form a team in order to work for a common purpose or goal. However, it all comes down to a leader who is expected to possess such qualities that easy the process of building up a team and making the team reach its highest productivity at the end of the day. This paper critically analyses the theories of teamwork and team leadership, with an analysis of my personal experience as the leader of YUVA, one of the largest NGOs of Africa.

In Pakistan, one of the most significant celebrations on the Muslim calendar, Eid al-Azha (Feast of the Sacrifice), is marked by two major rituals. At the center of the festival is the animal slaughter remembering the prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. The second, dating to Pakistan’s earliest days as a nation, is the collection of animal hides from the sacrifice. NGOs, political parties, and madrasas annually compete to collect and auction the sacrificial skins. This paper examines how Alkhidmat Foundation–the social welfare branch of the Islamist party Jama’at-e-Islami–invests in a risky fundraising ritual that animates the value of sacrifice in their humanitarian work. While historically the auction of animal hides has been lucrative, over the last decade, the income has come under threat due to the rise of synthetic leathers on the global market, inflation, and climate change, which have left Pakistan’s leather commodity in peril and, with it, the fate of a major source of income for the country’s social services. Pakistan’s skins collection offers insight into a fundraising practice that instantiates sacrifice writ large: of time, safety, and resources, and sometimes, of intimate relations. Sacrifice is the motivating value that underpins dedication to the annual hide collection and articulates Alkhidmat’s humanitarianism through the human capability of sacrifice.

لقد كان لمشاركة المجتمع المدني دور كبير في تحقيق التنمية في الدول العربية. وقد أثّر التحول السياسي على دور المجتمع المدني بشكل عام وعلى أدائه بشكل خاص، وكان هذا بمثابة دافع لتشجيع الجمعيات للتنافس مع الحكومة للعمل على مهمتها بتوفير احتياجات المجتمع التي فشل القطاع العام والخاص بتوفيرها. فقد سنّت السلطات المصرية "قانون تنظيم عمل الجمعيات وغيرها من المؤسسات العاملة في مجال العمل الأهلي" رقم ٧٠ لعام ٢٠١٧، لكن من الملاحظ أن ليس هناك فرق جوهري بين هذا القانون وما سبقه من قوانين لما فيه من محاولة للسيطرة على عمل المجتمع المدني، فمثلما كانت القوانين السابقة تحوي بنودًا من شأنها التدخل في الإدارة الداخلية وهيكلة الجمعيات بدلًا من التركيز على تقديم نظم للحوكمة الداخلية والمساءلة لمساعدة هذه الجمعيات في بناء كوادر وتراكم خبرات تنظيمية ومهنية، بل قام القانون بالتركيز على وضع شروط على التمويلات والشركات مع الجهات المانحة والانتخابات الداخلية للجمعيات لتكوين مجلس الإدارة و شروط اختيار أعضاء الجمعية العمومية.

تتناول الورقة كيفية تعامل منظمات المجتمع المدني مع التضييقات الأمنية في مصر والاستراتيجيات التي اتبعتها الجمعيات للتصدي لهذه القيود، فقد عملت منظمات المجتمع المدني في مصر على استمرارية نشاطها على الرغم من التضييقات الأمنية من جانب الدولة والتي اتّسمت بقيود تشريعية وتنفيذية وملاحقات قضائية.

Book Titles 2017
Available from
The Green Economics Institute
Social and environmental justice from diverse voices all around the world
   
Economics Books
1. Handbook of Green Economics: A Practitioner's Guide (2012) Edited By Miriam Kennet, Eleni Courea, (Cyprus)  Alan Bouquet & Ieva Pepinyte (Lithuania)  ISBN 9781907543036
2. Green Economics Methodology: An Introduction (2012) Edited By Tone Berg (Norway), Aase Seeberg (Norway) and Miriam Kennet ISBN 978190754357
3. The Green Economics Reader  (2012) Edited By Miriam Kennet ISBN 9781907543265
4. Rebalancing the Economy (2014) Edited by Christopher Brook, Cambridge University and Miriam Kennet. ISBN9781907543845
5. Economics of Social Justice: A Handbook for Students (2015) Edited by Miriam Kennet, Iolanda Cum (Italy) and Sabeeta Nathan ISBN 9781907543463
6. Growth for Sustainability – A Critique of Economics for the Post Oil Age (2016) Edited by Keissi Prendushi (Italy and Albania), Miriam Kennet (UK) and Federica Oriana Savarino (Sicily, Italy) ISBN 9781907543135
Finance Books
1. The Greening of Global Finance: Reforming Global Finance c (2013) Edited By Professor Graciela Chichilnisky (USA and Argentina), Michelle S. Gale de Oliveira (USA and Brazil), Miriam Kennet, Professor Maria Madi (Brazil) and Professor Chow Fah Yee (Malaysia) ISBN 9781907543401
2. The Reform of Global Banking by Professor Maria Madi and Kamile Buskavaite (Brazil and Lithuania) (2015) ISBN 9781907543203
Geographies of Green Economics
1. Greening the Global Economy (2013) Edited by Sofia Amaral (Portugal) and Miriam Kennet ISBN 9781907543944
2. Green Economics: The Greening of Asia and China (2012) Edited by Miriam Kennet (UK) and Norfayanti Kamaruddin (Malaysia) ISBN 9781907543234
3. Green Economics: Voices of Africa (2012) Edited By Miriam Kennet, Amana Winchester, Mahelet Mekonnen (Ethiopia)  and Chidi Magnus Onuoha (Nigeria) ISBN 9781907543098
4. The Greening of Eastern Europe (2013) Edited By Miriam Kennet and Dr Sandra Gusta (Latvia) ISBN 9781907543418
5. Green Economics: The Greening of Indonesia (2013) Edited By Dr Dessy Irwati and Dr Stephan Onggo (Indonesia) ISBN 9781907543821
6. The Greening of Latin America (2013) Edited By Michelle S. Gale de Oliveira (USA and Brazil), Maria Fernanda Caporale Madi (Brazil), Carlos Francisco Restituyo Vassallo (Dominican Republic) and Miriam Kennet ISBN 9781907543876
7. Africa: Transition to a Green Economy (2013) Edited By Dr Chidi Magnus (Nigeria) ISBN 9781907543364
8. Green Economics & India (2014) Edited by Professor Natalie West, Professor Indira Dutta, Odeta Grabauskaitė, Kanupriya Bhagat (India)  and Miriam Kennet ISBN 9781907543500
9. The Greening of the Mediterranean Economy (2013) Edited by Miriam Kennet, Dr Michael Briguglio, (Malta) Dr Enrico Tezza, (Italy) Michelle S Gale de Oliveira (Brazil and USA) and Doaa Salman (Egypt)  ISBN 9781907543906
10. The European Economy: Crisis and Recovery (2014) Edited by Miriam Kennet ISBN 978190754346
11. The Eastern European Economy, Policy and Practise for Recovery, (July 2014) Professor Dr Dzintra Astaja (Latvia) and Odeta Grabauskaitė (Lithuania) ISBN 9781907543890
12. The Greening of Italy: Crisis and Recovery (2014) Edited by Alberto Truccolo (Italy)  ISBN 9781097543920

Աշխատությունը նվիրված է Հայաստանի Հանրապետությունում երիտասարդական հասարակական կազմակերպությունների գործունեությանը, առանձնահատկություններին, ՀԿ դաշտի հիմնախնդիրներին, այս ոլորտում միջազգային կազմակերպությունների, պետության դերի ու գործունեության լուսաբանմանը։ Նախատեսվում է ՀԿ սեկտորի ներկայացուցիչների, հասարակագետների, քաղաքագետների և ընթերցող լայն շրջանակների համար։

Phronetic organizational research is an approach to the study of management and organizations focusing on ethics and power. It is based on a contemporary interpretation of the Aristotelian concept phronesis, usually as ‘prudence’. Phronesis is the ability to think and act in relation to values, to deliberate about ‘things that are good or bad for humans’ in the words of Aristotle (1976:1140a24–b12). Phronetic organizational research effectively provides answers to the following four value-rational questions, for specific problematics in management and organization studies: 1. Where are we going with this specific management problematic? 2. Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? 3. Is this development desirable? 4. What, if anything, should we do about it?

The Aalborg Project may be interpreted as a metaphor of modern politics, modern administration and planning, and of modernity itself. The basic idea of the project was comprehensive, coherent, and innovative, and it was based on rational and democratic argument. During implementation, however, when idea met reality, the play of Machiavellian princes, Nietzschean will to power, and Foucauldian rationality-as-rationalization resulted in the fragmentation of the project.

At the same time that case studies are widely used and have produced canonical texts, it may be observed that the case study as a methodology is generally held in low regard, or is simply ignored, within the academy. For example, only 2 of the 30 top-ranked U.S. graduate programs in political science require a dedicated graduate course in case study or qualitative methods, and a full third of these programs do not even offer such a course. In contrast, all of the top 30 programs offer courses in quantitative methods and almost all of them require training in such methods, often several courses. In identifying this paradox of the case study’s wide use and low regard, Gerring rightly remarks that the case study survives in a “curious methodological limbo,” and that the reason is that the method is poorly understood. In what follows, we will try to resolve Gerring’s paradox and help case study research gain wider use and acceptance.

This was the first-ever article to describe and analyze the possibility of a One-State Solution for Palestine/Israel from a Mizrahi positionality both in the Hebrew original and the English translation. Its composition -- like all of Lavie's writing about the Mizrahi feminist struggle in the context of the Question of Palestine -- has been fraught with all manner of relentless campaigns by those elements in academia that
would rather have Lavie and her research disappear. Needless to say that shortly after this article saw print in the Hebrew original in 2008 its analysis of the possibility for a one state solution for the Israel/Palestine conflict was appropriated and published without proper quotation or citation.

In this paper we argue that the use of the communicative theory of Jürgen Habermas in planning theory is problematic because it hampers an understanding of how power shapes planning. We posit an alternative approach based on the power analytics of Michel Foucault which focuses on ‘what is actually done’, as opposed to Habermas’s focus on ‘what should be done’. We discuss how the Foucauldian stance problematises planning, asking difficult questions about the treatment of legitimacy, rationality, knowledge and spatiality. We conclude that Foucault offers a type of analytic planning theory which offers better prospects than does Habermas for those interested in understanding and bringing about democratic social change through planning.

The article documents some of the transformations to the women’s movement
in India in the post-independence period. Given the empirical and ideological
centrality of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) on the terrain of Indian
feminism, the article focuses on dominant feminist responses to ‘NGOization’
in the form of critiques of the alleged cooption and professionalization of the
women’s movement and the loss of political autonomy, a key ideal amongst
Indian feminists. As a response to these criticisms, I suggest that there is a need
to go beyond the ‘NGOization paradigm’ in evaluating a new feminist landscape,
especially after the Delhi rape of 2012. ‘NGOisation’ offers limited conceptual
tools to make sense of the present moment if not entirely hiding from view the
political possibilities that it offers for feminist reflection and (re) mobilization.

This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of cost escalation in transportation infrastructure projects. Based on a sample of 258 transportation infrastructure projects worth US$90 billion and representing different project types, geographical regions, and historical periods, it is found with overwhelming statistical significance that the cost estimates used to decide whether such projects should be built are highly and systematically misleading. Underestimation cannot be explained by error and is best explained by strategic misrepresentation, that is, lying. The policy implications are clear: legislators, administrators, investors, media representatives, and members of the public who value honest numbers should not trust cost estimates and cost-benefit analyses produced by project promoters and their analysts.

This paper expands on recent debates over the merits of online crowdfunding platforms (CFPs) by looking at the extent to which these sorts of funding sites have the potential to contribute to the development of civic society ideals in Europe. In particular, it looks at how online CFPs and other peer-to-peer lending sites are beginning to alter the way in which charities and non-governmental organisations finance their activities. In addition, it also discusses how these sorts of investment platforms have the capacity to affect the way in which individual actors engage with one another at both the local and transnational level. Overall, then, what this paper shows is that, aside from their evident financial and economic benefits, CFPs also have the capacity to help foster and strengthen non-parliamentary democratic structures and practices. As such, they should be supported and encouraged as part of a framework of further European democratisation and civic integration.

There are around 40,000 NGOs and charities (registered and non-registered) in Bangladesh. Many of them actively engaged in religious proselytizing to convert them from their current faith to something different. The two different faith systems that are being promoted are Christianity and Salafi extremism (Muslim). Bangladeshi Government recently cancels the licenses of 6,000 NGOs and charities due to their activities. Here only 2,333 NGOs in Bangladesh are registered by the Government. This list will be helpful for NGO researchers and readers.

This article presents the theoretical and methodological considerations behind a research method which the author calls ‘phronetic planning research’. Such research sets out to answer four questions of power and values for specific instances of planning: (1) Where are we going with planning? (2) Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? (3) Is this development desirable? (4) What, if anything, should we do about it? A central task of phronetic planning research is to provide concrete examples and detailed narratives of the ways in which power and values work in planning and with what consequences to whom, and to suggest how relations of power and values could be changed to work with other consequences. Insofar as planning situations become clear, they are clarified by detailed stories of who is doing what to whom. Clarifications of that kind are a principal concern for phronetic planning research and provide the main link to praxis.

A comparative study on spatial planning and regional development, and territorial restructuring in developing countries shows few general trends mixed in different patterns. Amongst them those on territorial dynamics constitute the focus of this book.
The methodology of the comparison is based on the use of a common set of frameworks by the experts of the different national cases including emerging countries and less developed countries from three continents and several cultural areas. Territorial authorities, institutions, projects, local governments and spatial initiatives with their relative areas and jurisdictions are positioned according to their origins. level  and scales on a set of figures. The figures are used to differentiate territorial objects and stakeholders by levels (from international to local), tier and scales and by nature, origins and functions. Using a model of the relationship and financial links, three spheres of territorial powers are distinguished, each with its own set of dynamics: the sphere of state territories emanating from the central state apparatus and from devolution (local government); the sphere of operational territories driven by private or public sector; and the sphere of emergent territories with area based development projects, ranging from community based to interregional cooperation.
Five main tendencies characterize developing countries in the era of globalization:
devolution, participation, concession, regionalization and autonomization. Those trends are not always represented and are combined in different national configurations.
For instance Morocco and South Africa, two African emergent countries present contrasting patterns with some common trends. Their respective nexus deal with their different historical and political backgrounds and the resulting contrasted approaches to spatial planning and territorial management despite the present common context of devolution and promotion of stakeholders and spaces for civil society and the private sector.