Curating Sovereignty in Palestine: Voluntary Grassroots Organizations and Civil Society in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
In: Middle East Law and GovernanceSearch for other papers by Catherine E. Herrold in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
This article extends the literature on “ngo-ization” in the Middle East and Global South to examine “voluntary grassroots organizations” (vgo s): groups that operate on a voluntary basis and position themselves outside of the formal ngo sector and foreign aid system. Based on nine months of ethnographic research in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the article examines how vgo s use heritage practices as a two-pronged challenge to the ngo-ization of Palestinian civil society. Whereas ngo-ization depoliticized civil society, vgo s resist depoliticization by mobilizing Palestinians to counter the Israeli occupation. And whereas ngo-ization professionalized civil society, vgo s resist professionalization by building large volunteer bases, emphasizing long-term processes of citizen mobilization rather than short-term outcomes, and remaining grounded in local communities and accountable to local citizens. Their work reflects larger trends around the world in which civic actors turn to informal organizing in an era of growing disenchantment with traditional ngo s.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
AbouAssi, Khaldoun. “Get Money Get Involved? ngo s’ Reactions to Donor Funding and Their Potential Involvement in the Public Policy Processes.” VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 25, no. 4 (2014): 968–90.
-
Almond, Gabriel Abraham, and Sidney Verba. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.
-
Allen, Lori. The Rise and Fall of Human Rights: Cynicism and Politics in Occupied Palestine. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013.
-
Atia, Mona, and Catherine Herrold. “Governing Through Patronage: The Rise of ngo s and the Fall of Civil Society in Palestine and Morocco.” VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 29, no. 5 (2018): 1044–54.
-
Bhungalia, Lisa. “Managing Violence: Aid, Counterinsurgency, and the Humanitarian Present in Palestine.” Environment and Planning A 47, no. 11 (2015): 2308–23.
-
Brown, Nathan J. Palestinian Politics After the Oslo Accords: Resuming Arab Palestine. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
-
Brown, Nathan J. “Palestine: The Fire Next Time?” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2011. https://carnegieendowment.org/2011/07/06/palestine-fire-next-time-pub-44948.
-
Bush, Sarah Sunn. The Taming of Democracy Assistance: Why Democracy Promotion Does Not Confront Dictators. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
-
Chahim, Dean, and Aseem Prakash. “NGOization, Foreign Funding, and the Nicaraguan Civil Society.” VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 25, no. 2 (2014): 487–513.
-
Dana, Tariq. “The Structural Transformation of Palestinian Civil Society: Key Paradigm Shifts.” Middle East Critique 24, no. 2 (April 3, 2015): 191–210.
-
De Cesari, Chiara. “Heritage beyond the Nation-State? Nongovernmental Organizations, Changing Cultural Policies, and the Discourse of Heritage as Development.” Current Anthropology 61, no. 1 (2020).
-
Diamond, Larry. “Rethinking Civil Society: Toward Democratic Consolidation.” Journal of Democracy 5 (1994): 4–18.
-
Edwards, Michael. Civil Society. 4th ed. Medford, MA: Polity Press, 2020.
-
Hammami, Rema. “ngo s: The Professionalisation of Politics.” Race & Class 37, no. 2 (October 1, 1995): 51–63.
-
Hammami, Rema. “Palestinian ngo s Since Oslo: From ngo Politics to Social Movements?” Middle East Report 214 (2000): 16–19 + 27 + 48.
-
Hanafi, Sari, and Linda Tabar. “The Intifada and the Aid Industry: The Impact of the New Liberal Agenda on the Palestinian ngo s.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and The Middle East 23 (January 1, 2003): 205–14.
-
Herrold, Catherine. Delta Democracy: Pathways to Incremental Civic Revolution in Egypt and Beyond. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
-
Henderson, Sarah L. Building Democracy in Contemporary Russia: Western Support for Grassroots Organizations. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003.
-
Hulme, David, and Michael Edwards. “Too Close for Comfort? The Impact of Official Aid on Nongovernmental Organizations.” World Development 24, no. 6 (1996): 961–73.
-
Jad, Islah. “ngo s: Between Buzzwords and Social Movements.” Development in Practice 17, no. 4/5 (2007): 622–29.
-
Jamal, Amaney A. Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
-
Jad, Islah. Palestinian Women’s Activism: Nationalism, Secularism, Islamism. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2018.
-
Kassis, Mudar. “Civil Society Organizations and Transition to Democracy in Palestine.” VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 12, no. 1 (2001): 35–48.
-
Kurd, Dana S. El. “The Legacy of Authoritarian Strategies: Repression and Polarization in the Palestinian Territories.” Middle East Law and Governance 10, no. 3 (October 23, 2018): 375–401.
-
Marei, Fouad Gehad, Mona Atia, Lisa Bhungalia, and Omar Dewachi. “Interventions on the Politics of Governing the ‘Ungovernable.’” Political Geography, 2018.
-
Putnam, Robert D. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
-
Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
-
Ragin, C. C. The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
-
Scott, James C. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.
-
Suarez, David, and Mary Kay Gugerty. “Funding Civil Society? Bilateral Government Support for Development ngo s.” International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, July 6, 2016.
-
Taghdisi-Rad, Sahar. The Political Economy of Aid in Palestine: Relief from Conflict or Development Delayed? Routledge, 2010.
-
Tartir, Alaa. “The Limits of Securitized Peace: The EU’s Sponsorship of Palestinian Authoritarianism.” Middle East Critique, 2018, 1–17.
-
Turner, Mandy. “The Political Economy of Western Aid in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Since 1993.” In Decolonizing Palestinian Political Economy: De-Development and Beyond, edited by Mandy Turner and Omar Shweiki. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
-
Wedeen, Lisa. “Conceptualizing Culture: Possibilities for Political Science.” American Political Science Review 96, no. 4 (December 2002): 713–28.
-
Wildeman, Jeremy, and Alaa Tartir. “Unwilling to Change, Determined to Fail: Donor Aid in Occupied Palestine in the Aftermath of the Arab Uprisings.” Mediterranean Politics 19, no. 3 (2014): 431–49.
-
Yanow, Dvora, and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea. Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Methods and the Interpretive Turn. M.E. Sharpe, 2006.
-
Zeira, Yael. The Revolution Within: State Institutions and Unarmed Resistance in Palestine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
-
Zencirci, Gizem, and Catherine E. Herrold. “Project-Think and the Fragmentation and Defragmentation of Civil Society in Egypt, Palestine, and Turkey.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 51, no. 3 (2022): 545–65.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1066 | 292 | 25 |
| Full Text Views | 187 | 55 | 5 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 354 | 114 | 11 |
Curating Sovereignty in Palestine: Voluntary Grassroots Organizations and Civil Society in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
In: Middle East Law and GovernanceSearch for other papers by Catherine E. Herrold in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
This article extends the literature on “ngo-ization” in the Middle East and Global South to examine “voluntary grassroots organizations” (vgo s): groups that operate on a voluntary basis and position themselves outside of the formal ngo sector and foreign aid system. Based on nine months of ethnographic research in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the article examines how vgo s use heritage practices as a two-pronged challenge to the ngo-ization of Palestinian civil society. Whereas ngo-ization depoliticized civil society, vgo s resist depoliticization by mobilizing Palestinians to counter the Israeli occupation. And whereas ngo-ization professionalized civil society, vgo s resist professionalization by building large volunteer bases, emphasizing long-term processes of citizen mobilization rather than short-term outcomes, and remaining grounded in local communities and accountable to local citizens. Their work reflects larger trends around the world in which civic actors turn to informal organizing in an era of growing disenchantment with traditional ngo s.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1066 | 292 | 25 |
| Full Text Views | 187 | 55 | 5 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 354 | 114 | 11 |