Civil Society, NGOs and the State

This subject is not offered in 2014.

120 hours

Students enrolling in this subject must be enrolled in a Masters by coursework degree.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Over the course of the last thirty years, an 'associational revolution' has swept the world, as more and more civil society organizations have taken over tasks formerly assigned to states, formed cross-boder advocacy campaigns to hold both states and corporations accountable for labor, environmental, and human rights violations, and formulated alternative development policies that run counter to the paradigms espoused by the World Bank and other multilateral lending organizations. While some argue that this associational revolution promises more particpatory, expedient, and decentralized forms of transnational governance, others contend that it reflects little more than the ongoing privatization of the public sphere at the hands of transnational capital. In this course, we evaluate these and alternative perspectives by exploring transformations in the structure of the global political-economy over the past thirty years; looking closely at the roles played by a variety of NGOs and CBOs as part of more multi-layered regimes of 'global governance'; analyzing the shifts in state structures that have made these regimes possible; and teasing apart the ongoing tensions between various factions of what some have called, an emerging 'global civil society'. Case studies will be drawn from Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.

Students who successfuly complete this subect will:

• Recognise and explain key theories of the state, NGO's and civil society;
• Demonstrate a knowledge of the strengths, weaknesses, and embedded assumptions of these theories;
• Critique these major approaches and their critics, both externally and on their own terms.

A 1500 word essay (30%) due in week 7, a 500 word research proposal (10%) due towards the end of sememster, and a 3000 word final research paper (60%) due during the examination period.

Hurdle Requirement: Students are required to attend a minimum of 75% of classes in order to qualify to have their written work assessed. Regular participation in class is required.

Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per working day. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

• Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left After the Cold War. (Castaneda, Jorge. ) New York: Knopf. 1993.
• 'Forward' in Whose voice? Participatory research and policy change. (CHAMBERS, ROBERT . Edited by Jeremy Holland with James Blackburn.) London: Intermediate Technology.1998
• It takes a village: And other lessons children teach us. (CLINTON, HILLARY R. ) New York: Simon & Schuster. 1996.
• Blurred boundaries: The discourse of corruption, the culture of politics, and the imagined state. (GUPTA, AKHIL. ) American Ethnologist 1995. 22:375-402.
• Change the World Without Taking Power. (HOLLOWAY, JOHN. ) Sterling VA: Pluto Press. 2002.
• Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital (PUTNAM, ROBERT D. J) Journal of Democracy. 1995. 6:1, 65-78.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Students who successfully complete this subject should:

• work independently;
• communicate knowledge effectively;
• think creatively;
• prepare a research paper.