Papers by Margit van Wessel
Springer eBooks, 2023
Among scholars and practitioners working in international development, there is much interest in ... more Among scholars and practitioners working in international development, there is much interest in civil society advocacy. Seeking societal change through development projects may lead to results, but these do not address fundamental underlying conditions that shape development, such as legal rights, cultural understandings, or market relations. In contrast, advocacy is a way to address these, seeking to transform the legal, political, and social conditions that shape development. I define what I call advocacy for development as a "wide range of activities conducted to influence decision-makers at different levels" (Morariu & Brennan, 2009: 100) with the overall aim of combatting the structural causes of poverty and injustice. I include here as decision-makers not only people holding positions of power in public and private institutions, but also individuals and groups who hold more informal power, such as communities and
Reimagining Civil Society Collaborations in Development
Routledge eBooks, Dec 21, 2022
How to Grasp the Public?
Javnost-the Public, 2008
... Verhoeven, analyzing citizenship in the Netherlands, suggests that forms of political involv... more ... Verhoeven, analyzing citizenship in the Netherlands, suggests that forms of political involvement and participation have adapted themselves to the discontinuous rhythm of the private life of citizens and the unevenness of policy preparation and execution by the Page 7. 93 ...
NJAS Wageningen journal of life sciences, Nov 1, 2018
Climate change, (a) biotic stresses and environmental degradation are adversely affecting the sus... more Climate change, (a) biotic stresses and environmental degradation are adversely affecting the sustenance of farming communities in Africa. Addressing such challenges requires effective collective action and coordination among stakeholders, which often prove difficult to achieve. Timely and context-specific information on relevant environmental dynamics holds considerable promise to overcome these problems. This paper investigates the role of citizen science in facilitating knowledge co-creation and sharing between academia, development actors and users in developing country contexts. In our approach, we focus on information sharing platforms (known as Environmental Virtual Observatories, EVOs) and their potential to facilitate adaptive decision-making in six rural case-study areas in Africa. We complement the existing theory on EVOs with a focused exploration of the connective function of ICTenabled multi-stakeholder exchange. We propose that increased connectivity may enable new forms of collective action (labelled 'connective action'), relevant to addressing socio-ecological challenges. Along these lines, this paper presents the theoretical and conceptual grounding of a research program that aspires to develop Environmental Virtual Observatories for Connective Action (EVOCAs) and to explore their potential for improved crop, water, livestock and disease management in rural Africa.
EADI Global Development Series
This chapter argues that civil society organizations (CSOs) engage in continuous legitimacy negot... more This chapter argues that civil society organizations (CSOs) engage in continuous legitimacy negotiations that both shape and are shaped by civic space. It focuses on President John Magufuli’s term in Tanzania, which was labelled as an authoritarian turn characterized by shrinking civic space. The chapter employs broad definitions: of civic space as an arena for action by formal CSOs as well as groups and individuals; of legitimacy as a continuous negotiation of appropriateness; and of democracy as a dynamic form of governance with different manifestations. Drawing on interviews with both professional urban NGOs and rural self-help groups, the chapter investigates restrictions experienced by CSOs, analyses the central themes negotiation over CSO legitimacy, and reflects on these vis-á-vis the evolution of democracy in Tanzania over time.
Routledge eBooks, Dec 21, 2022
Routledge eBooks, Dec 21, 2022
Introduction: multi-country programming as a missing factor shaping civil society organization co... more Introduction: multi-country programming as a missing factor shaping civil society organization collaborations Over the past ten years, I have been involved with multiple research, c onsultancy, and evaluation projects on advocacy programmes administered by civil society organizations (CSOs) in the Netherlands, their partners in the Global South, and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the main donor for these programmes. I have also been closely involved in the debate on relations within the sector, seeking to contribute to the transformations that so many think are needed. As a researcher, I observe a major lacuna in the debate: Multi-country programming is not being discussed as a factor shaping collaborations among CSOs. In this chapter, I discuss why I think this is an important factor and how it could be addressed. Here, I speak from my experience, which is rooted in the Dutch context, especially related to advocacy programming. My focus in this chapter is on what I call 'advocacy for development', defined as 'a wide range of activities conducted to influence decision makers at different levels with the overall aim of combatting the structural causes of poverty and injustice' (drawing on Morariu & Brennan, 2009, p. 100). This can include activities such as lobbying or demonstrations, awareness raising, legal action, and public education, as well as capacity building, constructing networks and relationships, and articulating views and interests through these networks and relationships. In this chapter, I address the role of what I call 'Northern CSOs', which includes non-governmental organizations (NGOs) based in the North and international NGOs (INGOs) that have multiple offices worldwide but have programmes that may be led from the office in a single country, such as the Netherlands. The key feature to be addressed is the role from a distance of managing multi-country programmes, which is a typical role for a Northern CSO office. Below, I introduce
Advocacy in context: Stories from South Sudan, Nigeria, Burundi, Central African Republic and Afghanistan
Cordaid, 2021
Civil society advocacy collaborations and their contributions to CSO capacities and legitimacy to advance inclusive sustainable development and equality in the Indian context
Doen : nieuwe vormen van democratie
Dit boek gaat in op vragen over de relatie tussen burgers en overheid en hoe opkomende burgerinit... more Dit boek gaat in op vragen over de relatie tussen burgers en overheid en hoe opkomende burgerinitiatieven een rol spelen in representatieve democratie.
International Lobbying & Advocacy Evaluation
Chickens, Inc.: Was UK Newspapers’ Framing of the Chicken Meat Production Industry Compatible with Holding Corporate Power to Account?
Journalism Studies, Nov 20, 2022
Routledge eBooks, Dec 21, 2022
Taking advantage of CSO Diversity through collaboration
Interim findings Civil society advocacy collaborations in India
Sociologia Ruralis, 2017
The Dutch livestock farming sector faces complex challenges concerning its sustainability and soc... more The Dutch livestock farming sector faces complex challenges concerning its sustainability and social license to operate. Engaging with what is widely understood as a legitimacy crisis, the Dutch government organised a two-day multi-stakeholder meetings to explore future directions. Participants engaged with the public as a key but absent stakeholder, in ways that contributed to the outcome of the meetings in important ways. The paper charts and analyses how and with what consequences this happened. Findings are that participants discursively constructed citizens in terms of consumer roles, with deliberations turning citizen concerns about livestock farming into questions of consumer responsibility, sidelining citizens' political voices and discursively displacing the possibility of politics around livestock farming. This instance of network governance presents a case of depoliticisation of an issue of concern to citizens, closely related to market players being put in the driver's seat of change, with the government in a supporting role. The article argues that this raises significant questions on the nature and role of construction of publics in network governance.
Modernity and identity : an ethnography of moral ambiguity and negotiations in an Indian middle class
The Construction of (Non-)Responsibility in Governance Networks
SAGE Open, 2021
The notion of governance networks urges study of complex interaction processes rather than formal... more The notion of governance networks urges study of complex interaction processes rather than formal institutions. We argue that the study of interaction in governance networks should be widened to include different ways in which interaction shapes network outcomes. Here, we focus on a dimension of governance networks that is understood as fundamental and problematic, but that as yet has not been researched through the study of interaction: the construction of responsibility in such networks. We propose a model for the analysis of responsibility construction through (implicit) negotiation on the three proposed elements of responsibility and their links: stakeholder identities, contributions to reform, and norms. This model called “the triangle of responsibility in network governance” is the main result of our research. In addition, we offer an empirical case that illustrates both the problem of responsibility construction in network governance and the usefulness of our model, thereby p...
Cultural contractions and intergenerational relations
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Papers by Margit van Wessel