Non-governmental Public Action and Social Justice

The Arab Spring put non-governmental public action centre-stage in the drive for greater social justice. Governments, politicians and international institutions increasingly court non-governmental public actors, engaging them in policy dialogue, inviting them to participate in the delivery of social services, and looking to them to re-invigorate democratic politics. This unique collection explores the different organizational forms, strategies and tactics that activists adopt to pursue social justice goals and analyses how histories of resistance impinge on contemporary activism in both positive and negative ways. The authors examine how established corporatist trades unions struggle to reform as new forms of labour resistance challenge their legitimacy and proximity to government. They analyse how non-governmental public actors negotiate various 'civil society dilemmas' that emerge in the new spaces for collaboration opened up by government, focusing particularly on threats to their values, autonomy and legitimacy. They also explore the efforts of non-governmental public actors to secure greater justice in the sphere of production and distribution, be that through co-operatives or through consumer rights activism around access to essential drugs.

Jude Howell is Professor in International Development at the London School of Economics and Politics, UK and was the former director of the Centre for Civil Society (2003-2010). She has written extensively on civil society, development policy, security and gender, and China. Her recent books include The Global War on Terror, Aid and Civil Society (with Jeremy Lind, 2009) and Civil Society Under Strain (2010).

To come.