12-07-07
Report on the Visiting International Fellowship, NGPA Programme, Centre for Civil Society, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, March 2007- July 2007
Objectives
I I am delighted that I got the international visiting fellowship of the NGPA programme for many reasons. For one, it gave me time off, from my otherwise crowded schedule at the University of Delhi, to read at length. This activity has been more than enriched by the wonderful collection of books in the library of the LSE.
Secondly I wanted to update my previous work on civil society during the course of the fellowship. I have written on civil society, but in recent times most of us have had to rethink the concept of civil society for one major reason: the dramatic transformation that has occurred in the global environment since 2001. The declaration of the ‘war on terror’ by the President of the US has had a major impact not only on global politics, but also on domestic politics of states. Within states we see the easy suspension of civil liberties in the name of fighting terror, increasing intolerance towards violations of these liberties in civil society, and a visible predisposition to interpret political discontent as terrorism. These transformations have had major consequences for civil society, which is now called upon to perform a task the sphere is perchance unfit for-addressing institutionalised terrorism.
My interest in this aspect of civil society was furthered by two projects of the NGPA Programme: the project on the impact of the war on terror on aid policies directed by Jude Howell and Jeremy Lind, and the project on faith based organisations as peace builders in strife torn countries such as Sri Lanka, directed by Professor Jonathan Spencer. Over time I built an argument around these two projects in a longish paper titled ‘Is violence constitutive of civil society?’. This was presented to the academic community at the LSE on 16 June 2007.
II The other paper which was presented to the members of the NGPA programme and other academics at the LSE, in May 2007 is titled ‘Engaging with Civil Society: The Democratic Perspective’. This paper is a response to the issues raised and discussed by the participants in the two days workshop organised by Professor Jude Howell which launched the NGPA Programme in March 2007. I benefited greatly from the deliberations at the workshop, as well as from the contributions to a later workshop on violence organised by Professor Howell on 18 and 19 June 2007. I have profited from my in the activities of the programme, and from my conversations with other members of the programme.
III The visiting international fellowship is of great advantage to scholars because though it involves them in the research activities of the programme and allows them to gain from deliberations among and with the partners, it gives the fellowship holder time to pursue other interests. For instance I was invited to give seminars on pluralism at the University of East Anglia in May, on global justice in the University of Frankfurt, on violence in the Crisis States Centre, LSE in June 07, on separatism and violence at the University of Edinburgh in June 2007, on Global Civil Society in the Global Civil Society Summer Institute LSE in July 2007, and the annual lecture at the Centre for South Asian Studies SOAS in July 2007.
IV In the process, I came to meet and exchange ideas with a number of leading intellectuals in the country
V I am grateful to Professor Jude Howell for her professional courtesy and hospitality, to Jeremy Lind for all his help, and to Jane for all her help
I have enjoyed these four months at the LSE very much.
Neera Chandhoke
12-07-07