Sovereignty Struggles

Sovereignty Struggles analyzes trends in both hyper-local civic organizing and global foreign aid reforms.Using field research spanning over a decade, this book analyzes how contemporary civic organizations are mobilizing grassroots communities for change and considers the promise and potential pitfalls of international donors' efforts to support this type of locally embedded work. Today, young people around the world are disillusioned with how formal nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have depoliticized civil society by taking responsibility for social change out of the hands of everyday people. As a result, youth are forming new types of organizations that aim to revitalize civil society as a sphere of citizen engagement and empowerment. Focusing on the case of Palestine, Catherine E. Herrold investigates this latest evolution in civil society in rich ethnographic detail. Just as this hyper-local social change mobilization is happening, international donors are increasingly localizing their foreign assistance. Drawing on Herrold's expertise in foreign aid policy and practice, Sovereignty Struggles proposes policy reforms designed to help donors construct a relational form of aid localization relevant for contemporary international development trends.