FYI. All the best,AK--------
NGOs, Grass-root Activism andSocial Movements: Understanding Novel Entanglements of Public Engagement
Session at 6th Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference
Bergamo(Italy) – June 8-11, 2016, http://www.etnografiaricercaqualitativa.it
Convenors: FilippoZerilli (University of Cagliary) & Alex Koensler (Queen’s UniversityBelfast)
In recent yearsnon-governmental organizations (NGOs) became an important vehicle to rethinkthe political sphere and, in particular, to theorize changing forms of publicengagement, both in sociology and anthropology (among many initiatives see forinstance the “NGO-graphy” conferences). A number of scholars observe how NGOshave assumed functions and responsibilities that were usually managed by statesor governmental organizations, arguing that (some) NGOs are now powerful globalactors operating consistently with neoliberal governmentality (e.g.Transparency International) and unintentionally reproducing existing socialdivisions and power relations.
In this session, wewill focus on a less explored area of research: How do NGOs interact withvarious forms of grass-root activism and spontaneous social movements? We aimto address questions of how these connections might reveal uneven and novelconfigurations of public engagement, including a study of the multifaceted andunintended consequences of social justice, development or human rights. Whileaccording to some scholars traditional social movements have now been absorbedby “the culture of projects” (Sampson 2002), others argue that the growingnumber of NGOs around the world also generates new, unprecedented forms ofactivism that challenge existing forms of engagement that pose new questionsabout the “collective fiction” of the state (Bourdieu 2015). Based onethnographic research, we would also like to draw specifically attention tothese emerging forms of public engagement. Ethnography is uniquely situated toilluminate both “emerging forms of life” (Fischer 2009) and the complex webmicro-politics surrounding the intersections between NGOs, activism andmovements. Albeit we do have in mind our own ethnographic experiences with activismand NGOs related to themes such as agro-food activism, property restitution, orpolitical tourism, this session does not intend to focus on a particular topicor geographic region.
In particular, weask: On which particular ground NGOs and activist groups meet and cooperate (orrefuse cooperation) one with each other, and why? What sort of tensions andcontradictions their alliances and collaborations have produced in specificsettings? How to assess the success (and the failure) of similar encounters atdifferent scales? Is member affiliation to a specific NGO influencingparticular forms of social activism and excluding others? How people negotiatecomplex interdependencies between the logic of organizations they belong to,and their social and political aspirations in everyday life? What sort ofcompromises, collisions, and collusions such intersections produce? How dolocal, national and supranational actors intersect in such encounters? How doesthe evolving processes between NGOs and grass-root practices enable spaces ofresistance and/or complicity? In a broader web of social relations, what arethe unintended consequences of these new forms of public engagement?
Deadline: Proposal must be submitted by January 15,2016.
To submit your proposalplease send an e-mail to the convenors Filippo Zerilli ([log in to unmask]) and Alex Koensler ([log in to unmask]) and to the conference committee ([log in to unmask]), indicatingthe title of the chosen session.
Please send:
• the titleof your talk and an abstract of maximum 1000 words (.doc, .docx, .odt, .txt,.rtf);
• yourcontact details (full name, e-mail, post address and affiliation) and those ofyour co-author/s, if any.
Acceptance of proposalswill be notified by March 8, 2016.
Further informationabout the conference at www.etnografiaricercaqualitativa.it
*************************************************************
* Anthropology-Matters Mailing List
* http://www.anthropologymatters.com *
* A postgraduate project comprising online journal, *
* online discussions, teaching and research resources *
* and international contacts directory. *
* To join this list or to look at the archived previous *
* messages visit: *
* http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/Anthropology-Matters.HTML *
* If you have ALREADY subscribed: to send a message to all *
* those currently subscribed to the list,just send mail to: *
* [log in to unmask] *
* *
* Enjoyed the mailing list? Why not join the new *
* CONTACTS SECTION @ www.anthropologymatters.com *
* an international directory of anthropology researchers
*
* To unsubscribe: please log on to jiscmail.ac.uk, and *
* go to the 'Subscriber's corner' page. *
*
***************************************************************
|