Civil Society and Global Poverty: Hegemony, Inclusivity, Legitimacy (Routledge Studies in Globalisation)

The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is world’s largest civil society movement fighting against poverty and inequality, incorporating over 100 affiliated country-level coalitions. It has become a significant global actor and its annual days of mobilisation now attract over 175 million people around the world. This book seeks to explore GCAP’s power and its embodiment of emancipatory change. It develops a framework that assesses its external power as an actor by exploring how power works in it, and the relationship between the two. Gabay demonstrates that GCAP, and actors like it, may transcend some of the obstructions they face in navigating and proposing alternatives to dominant codes and practices of neo-liberal globalisation. Thematically, the book explores GCAP’s constitutive powers along three axes: hegemony, inclusion and legitimacy. It draws on a wide range of social and political theory, including Liberalism, Anarchism and postcolonial theory and featuring case studies on Malawi and India. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, international development, global governance, social movements and civil society. Cover 1 Title Page 7 Copyright Page 8 Table of Contents 9 List of boxes and tables 11 Acknowledgements 12 Abbreviations 13 1 Introduction 14 Something is happening here ... conceptual clarity 17 Conceptualising GCAP 19 Research design 24 Chapter outline – hegemony, inclusion, legitimacy 30 Power: an interlude 34 2 Hegemony 41 Introduction 41 Monitory oppositionality 44 Standing up against ... who? what? 51 Empty signifiers and contested meanings 56 The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 63 Conclusion 77 3 Inclusivity 79 Introduction 79 Constituting the cosmos 80 The multiple and contradictory practices of international NGOs in GCAP 83 Reworking power 98 Conclusion 113 4 Legitimacy 117 Introduction 117 Constructing GCAP at the grassroots 119 GCAP acting ... 124 Conclusion 138 5 Implications and conclusions 140 Introduction 140 Framing the research 140 Implications of the research 143 Hegemony, inclusion and legitimacy: the holistic view 148 Further avenues of research 149 Final comments 150 Appendix 1 Interviews 152 Appendix 2 Email to research participants requesting participation for interviews 154 Appendix 3 Consent form and information sheet shown to research participants at interview 156 Appendix 4 Interview themes and questions 158 Appendix 5 The Millennium Development Goals 160 Notes 162 Bibliography 168 Index 180