From Revolution to Rights in South Africa

Social Movements, NGOs and Popular Politics After Apartheid
Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-1-84701-202-9
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, 208 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 590 g

The author argues for the continued importance of NGOs, social movements and other 'civil society' actors in creating new forms of citizenship and democracy in South Africa.

Critics of liberalism in Europe and North America argue that a stress on 'rights talk' and identity politics has led to fragmentation, individualisation and depoliticisation. But are these developments really signs of 'the end ofpolitics'? In the post-colonial, post-apartheid, neo-liberal new South Africa poor and marginalised citizens continue to struggle for land, housing and health care. They must respond to uncertainty and radical contingencies on a daily basis. This requires multiple strategies, an engaged, practised citizenship, one that links the daily struggle to well organised mobilisation around claiming rights. Robins argues for the continued importance of NGOs, socialmovements and other 'civil society' actors in creating new forms of citizenship and democracy. He goes beyond the sanitised prescriptions of 'good governance' so often touted by development agencies. Instead he argues for a complex, hybrid and ambiguous relationship between civil society and the state, where new negotiations around citizenship emerge.
Steven L. Robins is Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of Stellenbosch and editorof Limits to Liberation after Apartheid (James Currey).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Robins, Steven L

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Interessengruppen, Lobbyismus und Protestbewegungen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Activist mediations of 'rights' & indigenous identity
Citizens & 'bushmen': the khomani San, NGOs & the making of a new social movement
'Civil society' & popular politics in the postcolony: 'deep democracy' & deep authoritarianism at the tip of Africa?
AIDS, science & the making of a social movement
AIDS activism & biomedical citizenship in South Africa
Rights passages from 'near death' to 'new life': AIDS activism & new HIV-identities in South Africa
Sexual rights & sexual cultures: AIDS activism, sexual politics & 'new masculinities' after apartheid
Conclusion: beyond rights & the limits of liberalism