The Real World of NGOs Discourses, Diversity and Development

by Hilhorst, Dorothea

• ISBN13: 9781842771648
• ISBN10: 1842771647
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-07-18
• Publisher: Zed Books

Summary

Dorothea Hilhorst provides for the first time an empirically rooted and theoretically innovative understanding of the actual internal workings, organizational practices, and discursive repertoires of NGOs. Her evidence and insights lead to a different picture of NGOs from the one prevailing in the literature. Her model of NGOs--not as clear-cut organizations, but often with several different faces, fragmented, and consisting of social networks whose organizing practices remain in flux--is helpful to understanding not just these bodies, but official development agencies too.

Author Biography

Dorothea Hilhorst is Lecturer, Centre for Rural Development, Waginingen Agricultural University, The Netherlands.

Table of Contents

Figures and tables	vii
Acknowledgements	viii
Acronyms	ix
Glossary	xi
Map	xiv
Introduction: The Politics of NGO-ing	1	(27)
Why this book?	3	(1)
An actor-orientation to the organization of NGOs	4	(7)
Philippine NGOs: a history of turbulent politics	11	(7)
Cordillera Day	18	(7)
Organization of the book	25	(3)
Damning the Dams: Social Movements and NGOs	28	(23)
Social movements: theoretical perspectives	29	(4)
The Chico river struggle	33	(11)
Movement for regional autonomy	44	(4)
Discourse and power	48	(3)
The Power of Discourse: NGOs, Gender and National Democratic Politics	51	(29)
Stories of NGOs in the Cordillera	52	(13)
Stories of gender in the National Democratic movement	65	(10)
Discourse at work	75	(5)
Village Experts and Development Discourse: `Progress' in a Philippine Igorot Village	80	(23)
Development discourse	81	(3)
Meanings of development in Kayatuan	84	(6)
The Kayatuan Ladies' Association, Inc.	90	(5)
Dynamics within the KLAi	95	(5)
Development discourse and social change	100	(3)
Modelling Development: NGO Room for Manoeuvre	103	(22)
Taking it step-by-step	104	(2)
Room for manoeuvre	106	(4)
Luaya: constituting NGO-PO relations	110	(6)
Alternative narratives in Luaya: analysis	116	(2)
Attributing identity to intervening agencies	118	(2)
The social life of policy models	120	(5)
Whose Reality Counts? Issues of NGO Accountability	125	(21)
Rational and moral modes of accountability	126	(2)
Accountability as a sense-making exercise	128	(2)
Shattering the dream of transparency	130	(2)
The case of the BPO women's weaving project	132	(5)
NGO accountability	137	(5)
An actor-oriented perspective on accountability	142	(4)
Making Sense of NGOs: in Everyday Office Life	146	(26)
Tour d'office	148	(4)
Locales for sense-making	152	(1)
The importance of social networks	153	(6)
Of backgrounds and social networks	159	(7)
Questions of Philippine culture in the office	166	(4)
Negotiating order in NGOs	170	(2)
NGO Leaders: A Social Analysis of `Fairly Unusual Human Beings'	172	(20)
Leadership in organization studies	173	(1)
Composing a life	174	(6)
The international delegate	180	(5)
Power at the funding interface	185	(4)
NGO leaders as brokers of meaning	189	(3)
Funding Agencies and NGOs: Peeping Behind Paper Realities	192	(21)
The SPRINC programme	194	(1)
Funding agent seeks indigenous woman, or vice versa?	195	(2)
UNA meets the people of the Cordillera	197	(5)
Problems in implementation	202	(2)
The meaning of partnership	204	(1)
SPRINC, NGOs and the POs	204	(6)
Multiple realities of funding agencies	210	(3)
Conclusion: NGO Everyday Politics	213	(14)
Everyday Politics	224	(3)
Epilogue: The Politics of Research	227	(6)
History of the project	227	(1)
Critique	228	(5)
Bibliography	233	(16)
Index	249