The next IPID talk will be on Wednesday, November 3rd at 11:00am in Room 70 of the Minnesota Population Center (50 Willey Hall). Click here for a campus map: http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/maps/WilleyH/
The topic will be: Silences in NGO discourse: The current and future role of NGOs in Africa. Hindolo Pokawa from the Comparative & International Development Education (CIDE) program track will be the host.
Context of the discussion: We will discuss the Relationship between Civil Society and the states in Africa.
"...the transformation from a colonial subject society to a bourgeois society in Africa is incomplete, stunted and distorted. We have the continued domination of imperialist reproduction of the colonial model in different forms currently labeled globalization or neoliberalism. Within this context, NGO's are neither a third sector, nor independent of the state. Rather, they are inextricably implicated in the neoliberal offensive, which follows on the heels of the crisis of the national project. Unless there is awareness on the part of the NGOs of this fundamental moment in the struggle between imperialism and nationalism, they end up playing the role of ideological and organisational foot soldiers of imperialism..." Issa Shivjee
Questions:
1. How do you understand civil society?
2. In your view, is civil society a servant of the people or an extension of the broad social formations that reproduce privilege?
3. What is your critical evaluation of Shivjee's claim (above)?
4. Can civil society ever be free from the state?
5. Are there other ways of thinking about the role and practice of civil society?
To participate:
- Read this short article (attached) by Shivjee and come prepare to discuss international development.
Reading: Shivji on civil society.pdf
- Because these are broad questions, our time will be spent discussing these issues as they affect and relate to our worldviews and experiences.
Agenda:
11:00 Introduction of the topic and quick summary of the reading.
11:10 Structured discussion.
11:50 Last thoughts.
