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Performing Agency in Shrinking Spaces: Acting Beyond the Resilience-Resistance Binary
[journal article]
Abstract Civil society occupies a significant space in any dynamic political landscape. However, in recent years, governments worldwide have attempted a shift away from activism and advocacy among civil society organisations (CSOs), favouring the apolitical service‐driven organisations while disabling those ... view more
Civil society occupies a significant space in any dynamic political landscape. However, in recent years, governments worldwide have attempted a shift away from activism and advocacy among civil society organisations (CSOs), favouring the apolitical service‐driven organisations while disabling those perceived as "political." This process has incapacitated civil society of its political habits, tendencies, and potentials and turned CSOs into infinitely malleable and adaptive subjects, tamed and governed by institutions. Not only has this functioned to create a discursive expansion and valorisation of the concept of "civil society resilience" as an alternative political vision for "resistance," but it has also led to the inclusion of CSOs in the political system on conditions of their exclusion from political participation. Using the case of India as an example of a shrinking welfare state—with its burgeoning poverty, repressed civic space, international non‐governmental organisations (INGOs) banned, and NGOs abrogated from foreign funding on "anti‐national," "anti‐developmental" charges - this article captures the rapid symptomatic depoliticisation of civil society, its resource dependency on CSOs, and their potential political exclusion and disengagement. The research builds on a qualitative exploration of the transformative journey of ten highly‐influential INGOs in India to offer a distinct perspective toward effecting systemic change by repoliticising CSO resilience as an enhanced strategy of practicing resistance. In doing so, the article bridges the gap between the neoliberal manifestation of resilience and resistance by reconceptualising how and if CSOs co‐exist and navigate between competing visions of resilience (as institutionalised subjects of neoliberalism) and resistance (as political subjects of change).... view less
Keywords
civil society; resistance; non-governmental organization; political change; neoliberalism; exclusion; development; politics; India; citizens' involvement; inclusion; resilience
Classification
Sociology of Developing Countries, Developmental Sociology
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Document language
English
Publication Year
2023
Page/Pages
p. 147-158
Journal
Social Inclusion, 11 (2023) 2
Issue topic
Effecting Systemic Change: Critical Strategic Approaches to Social Inclusion
ISSN
2183-2803
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed