Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and Norms of Participation in Tanzania

Working against the Grain

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2431763
AutoresBrian Dill (0000-0001-8877-6177, autor de correspondencia)
Año2010
Volumen53
Número2
Páginas23-48
Fecha de publicación2010-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAfrican Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-0206 • E-ISSN: 1555-2462
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1353/arw.2010.0019
OpenAlexW1969207484
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas16
Referencias citadas64

The "institutional turn" in contemporary development theory has emphasized the importance of facilitating the emergence of institutions that will improve citizens' abilities to make choices. More important, it has suggested that the effectiveness of these institutions depends upon their ability to "work with the grain" of the local sociocultural environment. This article argues that community-based organizations (CBOs), as one prominent embodiment of institutional blueprints guiding relationships between state and nonstate actors in development efforts, are a poor fit in the context of contemporary urban Tanzania. This is because they are not consonant with the norms that have long governed popular participation in either the development process or associational life. Although the specific conclusions are limited to Dar es Salaam, the study calls for a method of interrogation that is not only historically and sociologically grounded, but also broadly applicable to other development issues

Blueprint · Context (archaeology · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Participant observation · Political science · Poverty · Public relations · Social science · Sociocultural evolution · Socioeconomics · Sociology · State (computer science · Tanzania · International Development and Aid · Religion, Society, and Development · Socioeconomic Development in Asia