The Real World of NGOs

Discourses, Diversity and Development

Dorothea Hilhorst author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:1st May '03

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Real World of NGOs cover

The book attempts to develop a theoretical model for understanding organizational cultures in civil society.

Against an international context where NGOs are still seen, in contrast to many official development agencies, as the saviours and sources of hope for an otherwise disappointing development process, Dorothea Hilhorst provides for the first time an empirically rooted and theoretically innovative understanding of the everyday politics, actual internal workings, organizational practices and discursive repertoires of this kind of organization. Her evidence and insights lead to a different picture of NGOs from the one prevailing in the literature. Hilhorst develops a model of NGOs not as clearcut 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.

'Hilhorst goes beyond an unravelling of simplistic notions about NGOs and brings to life a detailed picture of everyday practices within them.' Emma Crewe, University College London 'This story of indigenous women involved in transformation work provides significant insights for social activists and social scientists.' Victoria Tauli Corpuz, Executive Director, TEBTEBBA Foundation (Indigenous Peoples‘ International Centre for Policy Research and Education) 'This study of the everyday politics of a Philippine NGO is both entertaining and hard-hitting.‘ Norman Long, Wageningen University 'This book makes a vital contribution to a critical anthropology of development and the comparative study of everyday politics.' Vicente L. Rafael, Professor, University of Washington

ISBN: 9781842771655

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

272 pages