Citizenship and Social Movements Perspectives from the Global South

by Thompson, Lisa; Tapscott, Chris

• ISBN13: 9781848133884
• ISBN10: 184813388X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-02-15
• Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Summary

Past debates over social movements have suffered from a focus on Anglo-America and Europe, often neglecting the significance of collective actions of citizens in the Global South. This authoritative new title redresses this imbalance with case study material from movements for change in Brazil, India, Bangladesh, Mexico, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. In these examples, social movements have formed without the benefits of the structural or institutional resource base found in the North, and have persevered even when the state does not have the resources to effectively respond to collective demands. Each expert contribution points to the complexity of relationships that influence mobilization and social movements; unsettling the notion that social activism leads inexorably to democracy and development and questioning what motivates collective action and what does it achieve?

Author Biography

Lisa Thompson is acting director of the African Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (ACCEDE) at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Chris Tapscott is Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Abbreviations and acronyms	p. viii
Foreword	p. xi
Introduction: mobilization and social movements in the South - the challenges of inclusive governance	p. 1
Socio-economic rights and social movements
Social movements and rights claims: the case of action groups in the Niger Delta	p. 35
Why do garment workers in Bangladesh fail to mobilize?	p. 60
Mobilization through litigation: claiming health rights on asbestos issues in South Africa	p. 87
Social movements and global development discourses
Water and rights: state management in South Africa and India	p. 113
Environmental activism in Brazil: the rise of a social movement	p. 132
The struggle towards rights and communitarian citizenship: the Zapatista movement in Mexico	p. 160
Mobilization, social movements and inclusive governance
Participation, inclusion and development under conditions of social mobilization	p. 187
Popular mobilization, party dominance and participatory governance in South Africa	p. 212
Contesting development, reinventing democracy: grassroots social movements in India	p. 239
Social mobilization in Cape Town: a tale of two communities	p. 260
About the contributors	p. 279
Index	p. 283
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