From Revolution to Rights in South Africa

出版者:James Currey

作者:Steven L. Robbins

页数:192 pages

出版时间:2008-11-20

价格:695.00 元

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9781847012029

具体描述

Review

[A]n important book, setting out as it does a strong argument for rejecting some of the more cynical analyses suggesting an "end of politics". Based on some rich empirical case studies it offers some fascinating insights into the post-apartheid dilemmas in South Africa. --Ian Scoones, IDS, University of Sussex

Product Description

Critics of liberalism in Europe and North America argue that a stress on 'rights talk' and identity politics has led to fragmentation, individualisation and depoliticisation. But are these developments really signs of 'the end of politics'? In the post-colonial, post-apartheid, neo-liberal new South Africa poor and marginalised citizens continue to struggle for land, housing and health care. They must respond to uncertainty and radical contingencies on a daily basis. This requires multiple strategies, an engaged, practised citizenship, one that links the daily struggle to well organised mobilisation around claiming rights. Robins argues for the continued importance of NGOs, social movements and other 'civil society' actors in creating new forms of citizenship and democracy. He goes beyond the sanitised prescriptions of 'good governance' so often touted by development agencies. Instead he argues for a complex, hybrid and ambiguous relationship between civil society and the state, where new negotiations around citizenship emerge.