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Structuring People

The Myth of Participation and the Organisation of Civil Society in Development

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Part of the book series: Sozialwissenschaftliche Zugänge zu Afrika (SZA)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

Participation has become an orthodoxy in the field of development, an essential element of projects and programmes. This book analyses participation in development interventions as an institutionalised expectation – a rationalized myth – and examines how organisations on different levels of government process it. At least two different objectives of participation are appropriate and legitimate for international organisations in the field: the empowerment of local beneficiaries and the achievement of programme goals. Both integrate participatory forums into the organisational logic of development interventions. Local administrations react to the institutionalised expectation with means-ends decoupling, where participatory forums are implemented superficially but de facto remain marginalised in local administrative processes and activities. The book furthermore provides a thick description of the organisationality of participation in development interventions. Participatory forums areshown to be a form of partial organisation. They establish an order in the relationship between administrations and citizens through the introduction of rules and the creation of a defined membership. At the same time, this order is found to be fragile and subject to criticism and negotiation.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Berlin, Germany

    Eva Marie Schindler

About the author

Eva Marie Schindler completed her doctorate in political sciences at the University of Potsdam in 2021. She works for the public sector in the state of Berlin.

 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Structuring People

  • Book Subtitle: The Myth of Participation and the Organisation of Civil Society in Development

  • Authors: Eva Marie Schindler

  • Series Title: Sozialwissenschaftliche Zugänge zu Afrika

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-35903-4

  • Publisher: Springer VS Wiesbaden

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-658-35902-7Published: 10 December 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-658-35903-4Published: 09 December 2021

  • Series ISSN: 2662-6071

  • Series E-ISSN: 2662-608X

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVII, 254

  • Number of Illustrations: 3 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Social Sciences, general, African Politics, Public Administration, African Culture

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