Bokus
Michelle Reddy - Unraveling of Civil Society, Inbunden

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

Unraveling of Civil Society

Peacebuilding, Health Crises, and Aid in Twenty-First-Century Guinea and Sierra Leone

Av Michelle Reddy

Del i serien Series in Human Security

895 kr

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Beskrivning
In recent years, the capacity of civil society to respond to crises has been increasingly constrained by rising authoritarianism. Yet in West Africa, where civil society has historically played a pivotal role in democratization, this trend reveals deeper structural challenges. Unraveling of Civil Society examines how international aid strategies emphasizing technical capacity and professionalization have inadvertently contributed to the politicization and fragmentation of civil society in Guinea and Sierra Leone.Drawing on extensive fieldwork-including interviews with representatives of more than a hundred locally led organizations, analysis of 260 strategic plans, and collection of cross-national survey data-this book offers a rare longitudinal and comparative study of civil society in the region. It traces how donor-driven models have led organizations to become sector specific, mimic donor institutions, or align with political interests-ultimately reducing organizational diversity and weakening the social infrastructure necessary for collective action and crisis resilience.The book situates these findings within broader debates on democratic backsliding, noting that three of the nine countries that transitioned to autocracy between 2021 and 2023-Guinea, Chad, and Mali-are in West Africa. Despite significant international investment, “coup culture” and unconstitutional power shifts have resurged, raising urgent questions about the effectiveness of aid and the role of civil society in sustaining democratic norms.Combining comparative historical analysis with a mixed-methods approach, Unraveling of Civil Society challenges prevailing assumptions about capacity building and offers practical recommendations for democratizing local organizations from within. It advocates for participatory governance and funding mechanisms and engages with ongoing conversations around the localization and decolonization of aid in a shifting geopolitical landscape.This book is essential reading for scholars of African studies, political science, development studies, and global civil society as well as for practitioners in crisis management and political reform.
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Michelle Reddy teaches political science at the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University. She has taught at Stanford University, Sciences Po, and the University of California, Berkeley. Reddy has also worked at the United Nations Office for West Africa, UNESCO, the Stanford Center for Deliberative Democracy, the Earth Institute, and the Paris School of International Affairs, as well as directed a global nonprofit.

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"Michelle Reddy’s amazing book-the result of remarkable field research-makes a significant contribution to understanding NGO operations in countries with weak states, the conflict between international and local NGOs, the role that women play in these organizations, and how women’s roles are affected by outside pressures. It is rare to find a study that so successfully gets inside a crisis and dissects its resulting struggles for political power." - Martin Carnoy, Lemann Foundation Professor of Education, Stanford University "In Unraveling of Civil Society, Michelle Reddy reminds us that civil society is not an abstract concept; it is the actions, aspirations, and advocacy of people who, while constrained by historical legacies and international resources, are creatively responding to the public health and democratic crises they face locally. This rigorously researched comparative study is a must read for anyone interested in the potential and perils of international aid in the current moment, in Africa and globally." - Rebecca Tarlau, author of Occupying Schools, Occupying Land: How the Landless Workers Movement Transformed Brazilian Education

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