Cultivating change
Subtitle: NGOs and neoliberal democracy in rural Mexico
By: Analiese Richard
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Stanford, California
Language: eng
Number of pages: 218
ISBN-13: 9780804797986; 9780804799164; 9780804799195
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Citizenship; Democracy; Non-governmental organizations; Neoliberalism; Rural conditions; Rural development
Description: In late-twentieth-century Mexico, the NGO boom was hailed as a harbinger of democratic transition, with NGOs poised to transform the relationship between states and civil society on a global scale. And yet, great as the expectations were for NGOs to empower the poor and disenfranchised, their work is rooted in much older civic and cultural traditions and complexly implicated in neoliberal governance. Analiese Richard examines what the growth of NGOs means for the future of citizenship when a widening chasm between rich and poor threatens democratic ideals and institutions. Analyzing the growth of NGOs in Tulancingo, Hidalgo, from the 1970s to the present, The Unsettled Sector explores NGOs' evolving network of relationships with donors, target communities, international partners, state agencies, and political actors. It reaches beyond the campesinos and farmlands of Tulancingo to make sense of the NGO as an institutional form. Richard argues that only if we sec NGOs as they are-bridges between formal politics and public morality-can we understand the opportunities and limits for social solidarity and citizenship in an era of neoliberal retrenchment.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Developing rural citizens : old and new liberalisms; title: The birth of Tulancingo's "third sector"; title: Withered milpas : rural development after neoliberalism; title: Mediating dilemmas : compromising NGO work; title: "Bridges of love" : building North-South NGO networks.