Eleven Reconciling participation and power in international development: a case study
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Kate Newman
Abstract
This chapter draws on the experience of ActionAid, one of the largest INGOs originally headquartered in the UK, and now an international federation of national NGOs. The organisation transformed its form and structure in order to be more deeply rooted in national civil society and more able to involve the voices and perspectives of those living in poverty in debates that affected them. In doing this it recruited different staff and through doing this fundamentally altered the class make-up of the organisation, inadvertently recruiting staff from the elite class in various countries and thereby extending the distance between policy-makers and community organisers. The chapter argues that a lack of attention to class analysis undermined ActionAid’s theory of change and in fact moved the organisation further from the people it was hoping to represent and move closer to.
Abstract
This chapter draws on the experience of ActionAid, one of the largest INGOs originally headquartered in the UK, and now an international federation of national NGOs. The organisation transformed its form and structure in order to be more deeply rooted in national civil society and more able to involve the voices and perspectives of those living in poverty in debates that affected them. In doing this it recruited different staff and through doing this fundamentally altered the class make-up of the organisation, inadvertently recruiting staff from the elite class in various countries and thereby extending the distance between policy-makers and community organisers. The chapter argues that a lack of attention to class analysis undermined ActionAid’s theory of change and in fact moved the organisation further from the people it was hoping to represent and move closer to.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Table of contents vii
- Rethinking Community Development ix
- Acknowledgements x
- Notes on contributors xi
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Contested concepts of class, past and present
- Class, inequality and community development: editorial introduction 3
- Competing concepts of class: implications and applications for community development 23
- Community development in the UK: whatever happened to class? A historical analysis 39
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Class, inequality and community development in context
- Working-class communities and ecology: reframing environmental justice around the Ilva steel plant in Taranto (Apulia, Italy) 59
- Race, class and green jobs in low-income communities in the US: challenges for community development 77
- Community development practice in India: Interrogating caste and common sense 93
- The impact of gender, race and class on women’s political participation in post-apartheid South Africa: challenges for community development 107
- What happens when community organisers move into government? Recent experience in Bolivia 121
- Community development: (un) fulfilled hopes for social equality in Poland 137
- Rural–urban alliances for community development through land reform from below 153
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Reconnecting class and inequality through community development
- Reconciling participation and power in international development: a case study 171
- Transformative education and community development: sharing learning to challenge inequality 189
- Community development and class in the context of an East Asian productivist welfare regime 205
- Community organising for social change: the scope for class politics 219
- Community unionism: looking backwards, looking forwards 235
- Index 251
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Table of contents vii
- Rethinking Community Development ix
- Acknowledgements x
- Notes on contributors xi
-
Contested concepts of class, past and present
- Class, inequality and community development: editorial introduction 3
- Competing concepts of class: implications and applications for community development 23
- Community development in the UK: whatever happened to class? A historical analysis 39
-
Class, inequality and community development in context
- Working-class communities and ecology: reframing environmental justice around the Ilva steel plant in Taranto (Apulia, Italy) 59
- Race, class and green jobs in low-income communities in the US: challenges for community development 77
- Community development practice in India: Interrogating caste and common sense 93
- The impact of gender, race and class on women’s political participation in post-apartheid South Africa: challenges for community development 107
- What happens when community organisers move into government? Recent experience in Bolivia 121
- Community development: (un) fulfilled hopes for social equality in Poland 137
- Rural–urban alliances for community development through land reform from below 153
-
Reconnecting class and inequality through community development
- Reconciling participation and power in international development: a case study 171
- Transformative education and community development: sharing learning to challenge inequality 189
- Community development and class in the context of an East Asian productivist welfare regime 205
- Community organising for social change: the scope for class politics 219
- Community unionism: looking backwards, looking forwards 235
- Index 251
