Doing Good? The Politics and Antipolitics of NGO Practices

Abstract

This review surveys current literature concerned with the growing numbers, changing functions, and intensifying networks of nongovernmental organizations which have had significant impacts upon globalization, international and national politics, and local lives. Studies of these changes illuminate understandings of translocal flows of ideas, knowledge, funding, and people; shed light on changing relationships among citizenry, associations, and the state; and encourage a reconsideration of connections between the personal and the political. Attention is given to the political implications of discourses about NGOs, the complex micropolitics of these associations, and the importance of situating them as evolving processes within complexes of competing and overlapping practices and discourses. If I knew someone was coming over with the expressed intention of doing good, I would flee.

Making it last? Analysing the role of NGO interventions in the development of institutions for durable collective action in Indian community forestry

“…Ostrom and Nagendra, 2006;Andersson, 2013). NGOs are often commended by both economists and development specialists for alleviating rural poverty, but Fisher (1997) argues that generalisations about the advantages of NGOs need to be empirically researched in order to critically evaluate their aim of 'doing good'. Baviskar (2001) and Kudva (2005) also report that in the Indian context we know little of what NGOs are actually doing on the ground.…”

The Pentecostal Ethic and the Spirit of Development

“…As part of the so-called 'New Policy Agenda' there was a drastic reduction in foreign aid given directly to African governments as bilateral assistance, and a concomitant increase in the amount channelled through international and domestic NGOs (Edwards and Hulme 1996b: 961). This change in aid funding, combined with the new political space opened up by the weakening of the state, has led to what has been termed a 'global associational revolution' -an explosion of NGOs, civil society organisations and grassroots associations around the world (Fisher 1997, Salamon 1994. Since the 1980s the number of NGOs worldwide has skyrocketed.…”

“…The term NGO has been applied to groups providing social welfare services, organisations promoting development initiatives, social action groups struggling for social justice, groups lobbying for environmental protection and groups providing legal research and advocacy, to name just a few. In size and scale, NGOs range from small, loosely organised groups with a few unpaid staff members to huge organisations with multimillion dollar budgets and hundreds of salaried employees (Fisher 1997). Development NGOs can be broadly grouped into three categories:…”

“…Most of the chapters in this book consider the second category of NGOs, those with a focus on small-scale local development, and there are examples of international NGOs (chapters by Piot (5), Smith (6) and Freeman (7) The characteristics that were most expected to make NGOs effective agents of change were a focus on participation and empowerment and a close working relationship with the community (Fisher 1997: 442, Hearn 2007: 1096. It was believed that NGOs, as grassroots organisations, would be able to stimulate the participation of local people in their own development and empower them to take up new activities that would increase their wellbeing and lead to economic growth.…”

Understanding Chinese rural protests through a social movement lens: a study of the Wukan protest

“…This is because, with more funding and material resources, mobilising organisations could recruit skilled professionals into paid jobs to mobilise more participants. Their observation has been validated by the development of social movement organisations (Davis et al, 2005), especially the blooming of advocacy NGOs (Doh & Guay, 2006;Fisher, 1997;Reilly, 1995).…”