Presented by the Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment, the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs, and The Observatory on Latin America at the Schools of Public Engagement and The New School for Social Research
Please join us for the launch of Against NGOs A Critical Perspective on Civil Society, Management, and Development by Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment professor, Nidhi Srinivas.
What would development look like if its practitioners and scholars were ‘against NGOs,’ challenging common sense about them? This book presents a critical perspective on NGOs, describing how they emerged as key agents of development over time. Through an interpretative history based on Gramscian concepts, it shows how civil society organizations were gradually enlisted in development as non-state technocratic actors. The book argues that management studies and development studies emerged as commonsensical explanations for capitalist crises. Each offered complementary solutions to balance the needs of capital and society, in particular historical circumstances. These solutions also situated civil society as agents of development and vectors of management.
Against NGOs fills a gap within the literature of management and development studies through its original discussion of their historical interconnections and shared themes. The book raises provocative questions on what forms of knowledge-politics can respond productively to the crises of our contemporary moment.
Opening remarks by Mary Watson, Executive Dean, Schools of Public Engagement