Pascale Dufour - Böcker

Since the 1960s, participatory discourses and techniques have been at the core of decision making processes in a variety of sectors around the world – a phenomenon often referred to as the participatory turn. Over the years, this participatory turn has given birth to a large array of heterogeneous participatory practices developed by a wide variety of organizations and groups, as well as by governments. Among the best-known practices of citizen participation are participatory budgeting, citizen councils, public consultations, etc. However, these experiences are sometimes far from the original 1960s’ radical conception of participatory democracy, which had a transformative dimension and aimed to overcome unequal relationships between the state and society and emancipate and empower citizens in their daily lives. This book addresses four sets of questions: what do participatory practices mean today?; what does it mean to participate for participants, from the perspective of citizenship building?; how the processes created by the participatory turn have affected the way political representation functions?; and does the participatory turn also mean changing relationships and dynamics among civil servants, political representatives, and citizens? Overall, the contributions in this book illustrate and grasp the complexity of the so-called participatory turn. It shows that the participatory turn now includes several participatory democracy projects, which have different effects on the overall system depending on the principles that they advocate. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Civil Society.

Scholars of social movements tend to overlook the achievements and political significance of women's movements. Through theoretical discussions and empirical examples, Solidarities Beyond Borders demonstrates the creativity and dynamism of transnational women's movements around the world.These timely case studies from North America, Latin America, and Southeast Asia introduce feminists, activists, and scholars to the benefits and challenges of building relationships, dialogues, and perspectives that extend beyond the boundaries of nation-states and disciplines. The contributors open a dialogue between feminist theorists and scholars of social movements in other disciplines in order to foster mutual recognition of common interests and identities. Although feminists and women's groups face challenges as they build solidarities beyond borders, this book makes the case that these links can be extended to embrace other progressive movements and their goals.

The past few years have seen an unexpected resurgence of street-level protest movements around the world, from the uprisings of the Arab Spring to the rise of the anti-austerity Indignados in Spain and Greece to the global spread of the Occupy movement. This collection is designed to offer a comparative analysis of these movements, setting them in international, socio-economic, and cross-cultural perspective in order to help us understand why movements emerge, what they do, how they spread, and how they fit into both local and worldwide historical contexts. As the most significant wave of mass protests in decades continues apace, this book offers an authoritative analysis that could not be more timely.

Since the 1960s, participatory discourses and techniques have been at the core of decision making processes in a variety of sectors around the world – a phenomenon often referred to as the participatory turn. Over the years, this participatory turn has given birth to a large array of heterogeneous participatory practices developed by a wide variety of organizations and groups, as well as by governments. Among the best-known practices of citizen participation are participatory budgeting, citizen councils, public consultations, etc. However, these experiences are sometimes far from the original 1960s’ radical conception of participatory democracy, which had a transformative dimension and aimed to overcome unequal relationships between the state and society and emancipate and empower citizens in their daily lives. This book addresses four sets of questions: what do participatory practices mean today?; what does it mean to participate for participants, from the perspective of citizenship building?; how the processes created by the participatory turn have affected the way political representation functions?; and does the participatory turn also mean changing relationships and dynamics among civil servants, political representatives, and citizens? Overall, the contributions in this book illustrate and grasp the complexity of the so-called participatory turn. It shows that the participatory turn now includes several participatory democracy projects, which have different effects on the overall system depending on the principles that they advocate. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Civil Society.

Conditions for global solidarities and social movements have changed radically since their high point in the 1990s United Nations conferences. This collection considers how political solidarities are being understood and constructed in a variety of cross-border struggles and for what ends under twenty-first century conditions. In studies grounded in different world regions at a variety of scales, authors address: how the Cold War divide and its aftermath have structured contemporary asymmetries in European LGBT movements and in ‘global’ feminisms; how ‘colonial difference’ in Latin America confronts feminist and social justice movements with problems of translation across worlds; how travelling concepts essential to constructing solidarities across distance and difference traverse linguistic divides and attendant power imbalances in world cities and transnational networks; how rurality as a form of colonial difference challenges established categories of intersectional feminism. Feminist politics of power and difference, and attention to gendered agency, are at the centre of this inquiry into the possibility of twenty-first century solidarities across borders.

Conditions for global solidarities and social movements have changed radically since their high point in the 1990s United Nations conferences. This collection considers how political solidarities are being understood and constructed in a variety of cross-border struggles and for what ends under twenty-first century conditions. In studies grounded in different world regions at a variety of scales, authors address: how the Cold War divide and its aftermath have structured contemporary asymmetries in European LGBT movements and in ‘global’ feminisms; how ‘colonial difference’ in Latin America confronts feminist and social justice movements with problems of translation across worlds; how travelling concepts essential to constructing solidarities across distance and difference traverse linguistic divides and attendant power imbalances in world cities and transnational networks; how rurality as a form of colonial difference challenges established categories of intersectional feminism. Feminist politics of power and difference, and attention to gendered agency, are at the centre of this inquiry into the possibility of twenty-first century solidarities across borders.