Synopses & Reviews
This book provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the developments which have brought about a new, global wave of inclusiveness and democracy.
From Brazil to Bangladesh, a new form of participatory politics is springing up. Featuring contributions detailing how such movements have worked in Latin America, Europe and Africa, the book analyzes the impact they have had on the democratic process. By opening up the political sphere in this way, the authors contend, these grassroots movements truly have created "spaces for change".
Synopsis
This book addresses one of the greatest challenges of our age: that of building democratic polities where all can realize their rights and claim substantive citizenship. In recent years, innovations in governance have created a plethora of new democratic spaces in many countries. Yet there remains a gap between the intention to institutionalize participation and the reality of exclusion of poorer and marginalized citizens.
Through case studies of a diversity of institutions - hospital facility boards in South Africa, a national-level deliberative process in Canada, sectoral management councils and community groups in Brazil, India, Mexico and Bangladesh, participatory budgeting in Argentina, NGO-created forums in Angola and Bangladesh, community forums in the UK, and new intermediary spaces created by social movements in South Africa - contributors examine how the democratic potential of these new spaces might be enhanced.
About the Author
Andrea Cornwall is a social anthropologist based at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Vera Schattan P. Coelho is a researcher and project coordinator at the Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP) in Sao Paulo.
Table of Contents
Foreword - John Gaventa
Acronyms
1. Spaces for Change? The Politics of Participation in New Democratic Arenas - Andrea Cornwall and Vera Schattan P. Coelho
Part I - The Challenge of Inclusion
2. Brazilian Health Councils: including the excluded? - Vera Schattan P. Coelho
3. Spaces for participation in health systems in rural Bangladesh: the experience of stakeholder community groups - Simeen Mahmud
4. Gendered subjects, the state and participatory spaces: the politics of domesticating participation in rural India - Ranjita Mohanty
5. Social change and community participation: the case of Health Facilities Boards in the Western Cape of South Africa - John J. Williams
6. Civil organizations and political representation in Brazil's participatory institutions - Graziela Castello, Adrián Gurza Lavalle and Peter P. Houtzager
7. Inclusion and representation in democratic deliberations: lessons from Canada's Romanow Commission - Bettina von Lieres and David Kahane
Part II - The Politics of Institutionalised Participation
7. Negotiating participation in a Brazilian Municipal Health Council - Andrea Cornwall
8. Subverting the spaces of invitation? Local politics and participatory budgeting in post-crisis Buenos Aires - Dennis Rodgers
9. Participation, mutation and political transition: new democratic spaces in peri-urban Angola - Sandra Roque and Alex Shankland
10. Participation, mutation and political transition: new democratic spaces in peri-urban Angola - Sandra Roque and Alex Shankland
11. Citizen participation in South Africa: land struggles and HIV/AIDS activism - Bettina von Lieres
12. Whose spaces? Contestations and negotiations in health and community regeneration forums in England - Marian Barnes