Civil Society, NGOs and the State

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2016:

170 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 and civil society (liberal, post-Marxist, etc.).
• Demonstrate a knowledge of the strengths, weaknesses, and embedded assumptions of these theories.
• Demonstrate a critical awareness of the shifts in global governance that have contributed to the NGO ‘revolution.’
• Be able to analyse the range of challenges and opportunities facing civil society organizations in today’s policy environment.

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

Hurdle requirement: Students must attend a minimum of 80% of classes in order to pass this subject. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

Readings will be made available on the LMS.

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.