Synopses & Reviews
Popular participation, local democracy and grassroots organizing have become watchwords not only for social movements the world over but even for official development agencies. In refreshing contrast to the tendency to skate over the internal divisions and stratification that characterise all communities, this book asks the hard questions - about the power of central bureaucracies, the lack of local skills and organizational experience, the impact of national and transnational structures, and social divisions.
Not only does the reader learn an immense amount about the limits as well as potential of community initiatives in the South, but the new social movements approach is skilfully married with resource mobilization theory to develop a more nuanced and inclusive theoretical paradigm. This can help us to understand and advance community-based forms of popular power in all their rich variety as one part of the solution to the development crisis.
Table of Contents
1. Community Power, Grassroots Democracy and the Transformation of Social Life
PART I: Country Studies
2. Participation and Popular Democracy in the Committees for the Struggle for Housing in Costa Rica
3. Participation and Development in Cuban Municipalities
4. Popular Organizations in the Dominican Republic: The Search for Space and Identity
5. Popular Organizations and the Democracy in Haiti
6. The Hidden Politics of Neighbourhood Organizations: Women and Local Participation in the Poblaciones of Chile
PART II: Theme Studies
7. Differential Participation: Men, Women and Popular Power
8. Political Decentralization and Popular Alternatives: A View from the South
9. New Social Movement Theory and Resource Mobilization Theory: The Need for Integration