Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Beyond NGO‐ization?: Reflections from Latin America

  • Dialogue
  • Published:
Development Aims and scope

Abstract

Sonia Alvarez reconsiders what she had earlier labelled ‘the Latin American feminist NGO boom’ of the 1990s. She offers reflections on how and why, at least in that region of the world, we may be moving beyond it. Alvarez revisits the notion of NGO‐ization, then reviews the crucial ‘movement work’ performed by NGOs that was often obscured by that notion. She proposes that Latin American feminisms and other social movements may be moving away from the particular organizational forms and practices – actively promoted and officially sanctioned by national and global neo-liberalism – that characterized NGO‐ization in the past.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. A version of this paper was presented at the 11th International Forum of the Association for Women in Development, Cape Town, South Africa, 14–17 November 2008. My thanks to Andrea Cornwall and the ‘Pathways to Women's Empowerment’ project for inviting me to join their panel on ‘The NGOization of Women's Movements’.

  2. Taken from anarlfem@caribe.net, email 13 October 2008. On Nicaraguan feminists’ response to Sandinista assaults (Kampwirth, 2006; Gago, 2007).

  3. Personal communication during the Eighth Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Encuentro, held in Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic, November 1999.

References

  • Alvarez, Sonia E. (1998) ‘Latin American Feminisms ‘Go Global’: Trends of the 1990s and Challenges for the New Millennium’, in Sonia E. Alvarez, Evelyn Dagnino and Arturo Escobar (eds.) Cultures of Politics/Politics of Cultures: Re-visioning Latin American social movements, Boulder, CO: Westview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alvarez, Sonia E. (1999) ‘Advocating Feminism: The Latin American feminist NGO “boom’’’, International Feminist Journal of Politics 1 (2): 181–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alvarez, Sonia E. (2009) ‘Globalized Localisms: The Origins, Travels and Translations of the World Social Forum Process’, in Jai Sen and Peter Waterman (eds.) Facing the Future: The world social forum, the global justice movement and beyond. Vol. 2, Challenging Empires Series New Delhi: Openword Books.

  • Alvarez, Sonia E . (forthcoming) Feminism in Movement: Cultural politics, policy advocacy and transnational activism in Latin America, Durham: Duke University Press.

  • Alvarez, Sonia E., Nalu Faria and Miriam Nobre (2004) ‘Another (Also feminist) World is Possible’, in Jai Sen, Anita Anand, Arturo Escobar and Peter Waterman (eds.) World Social Forum: Challenging Empires, New Delhi: Viveka Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alvarez, Sonia E. et al. (2003) ‘Encountering Latin American Feminisms’, Signs: A journal of women in culture and society 28 (2): 537–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Articulación Feminista MARCOSUR (2002) Your Mouth is Fundamental against Fundamentalisms, Montevideo: Articulación Feminista MARCOSUR.

  • Bedrega, Ximena (1997) Permanencia Voluntaria en la Utopia: El feminismo autonomo en el VII encuentro feminista Latinoamericano y del Caribe, Chile 1996, Mexico, DF: Colección Feministas Cómplices.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campaña por la Convención de los Derechos Sexuales y los Derechos Reproductivos (2006) Manifiesto: Segunda Versión (para el debate), Lima: Campaña por la Convención de los Derechos Sexuales y los Derechos Reproductivos.

  • Castro, Mary García (2001) ‘Engendering Powers in Neoliberal Times: Reflections from the left on feminisms and feminisms’, Latin American Perspectives 28 (6): 17–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • di Marco, Graciela (2006) ‘Movimientos Sociales y Democratización en Argentina’, in Nathalie Lebon and Elizabeth Maier (eds.) De lo Privado a lo Público: 30 años de lucha ciudadana de las mujeres en América Latina, México D F: Siglo XXI; UNIFEM; LASA.

    Google Scholar 

  • di Marco, Graciela (forthcoming) ‘Social Movement Demands, Beyond Civil Society?’, in Sonia. E. Alvarez, G. Baiocchi, A. Laó-Montes, J. Rubin and M. Thayer (eds.) Interrogating the Civil Society Agenda: Social Movements, Civic Participation and Democratic Innovation.

  • Edwards, Michael and David Hulme (1996) Beyond the Magic Bullet: NGO performance and accountability in the post-cold war world, West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eschle, Catherine (2005) ‘Skeleton Women: Feminism and the antiglobalization movement’, Signs: Journal of women in culture and society 30 (3): 1741–1760.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Espina, Giaconda (2007) ‘Beyond Polarization: Organized Venezuelan women promote their minimum agenda’, NACLA Report on the Americas 40 (2): 20–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ewig, Christina (1999) ‘The Strengths and Limits of the NGO Women's Movement Model: Shaping Nicaragua's democratic institutions’, Latin American Research Review 34 (3): 75–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feijoó, Maria del Carmen (2000) ‘El Feminismo Contemporáneo en la Argentina: Encuentros y Desencuentros en un Escenario Turbulento’, Cuadernos de Investigación Social No. 3, Lima, Perú: Departamento de Ciencias Sociales, Pontífica Universidad Católica del Perú.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, William F. (1997) ‘Doing Good? The Politics and Antipolitics of NGO Practices’, Annual Review of Anthropology 26 (1): 439–464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, Elisabeth J. (2000) ‘Gendering the Agenda: Women's transnational organizing at the UN World conferences of the 1990s’, Paper read at 41st Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, March 14-17, in Los Angeles, California.

  • Friedman, Elisabeth Jay (2007) ‘Introduction: How pink is the ‘pink tide’?’ NACLA Report on the Americas 40 (2): 16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gago, Verónica (2007) ‘Dangerous Liasons: Latin American feminists and the left’, NACLA Report on the Americas 40 (2): 17–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galindo, María (1997) ‘Tiempo Saboteado en que Nos Toca Vivir’, in X. Bedregal (ed.) Permanencia Voluntaria en la Utopía: La Autonomía en el VII Encuentro Feminista Latinoamericano y del Caribe, México, DF: Centro de Investigación y Capacitación de la Mujer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harcourt, Wendy (2005) ‘The Body Politic in Global Development Discourse’, in Wendy Harcourt and Arturo Escobar (eds.) Women and the Politics of Place, Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harcourt, Wendy (2006) ‘The Global Women's Rights Movement: Power politics around the United Nations and the World Social Forum’, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Civil Society and Social Movements, Programme Paper Number 25.

  • Hemment, Julie (2007) Empowering Women in Russia: Activism, aid, and NGOs, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kampwirth, Karen (2006) ‘Revolución, Feminismo y Antifeminismo en Nicaragua’, in Nathalie Lebon and Elizabeth Maier (eds.) De lo Privado a lo Público: 30 años de lucha ciudadana de las Mujeres en América Latina, México, DF: Siglo XXI; UNIFEM; LASA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landim, Leilah (1993) ‘A invenção das ONGs: do serviço invisível à profissão sem nome’, PhD Dissertation, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia Social, Universidade Rio de Janeiro: Museu Nacional.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lang, Sabine (1997) ‘The NGOization of Feminism’, in J. W. Scott, C. Kaplan and D. Keates (eds.) Transitions, Environments, Translations: Feminisms in international politics, New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lebon, Nathalie and Elizabeth Maier (eds.) (forthcoming) Women in Movement in Latin America and the Caribbean: Re-shaping democracy and citizenship, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

  • Macaulay, Fiona (forthcoming) ‘Trickling Up, Down and Sideways: Gender policy and political opportunity in Brazil’, in Nathalie Lebon and Elizabeth Maier (eds.) Women in Movement in Latin America and the Caribbean: Re-shaping democracy and citizenship, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

  • Mansbridge, Jane (1995) ‘What is the Feminist Movement’, in Myra Marx Ferree and Patricia Yancey Martin (eds.) Feminist Organizations: Harvest of the new women's movement, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monasteiros P., Elizabeth (ed.) (2006) No Pudieron Con Nosotras: El desafío del feminismo autónomo de Mujeres Creando, Pittsburgh, PA; La Paz: University of Pittsburgh Press; Plural Editores.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monasteiros P., Elizabeth (2007) ‘Bolivian Women's Organizations in the MAS Era’, NACLA Report on the Americas 40 (2): 33–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monasteiros P., Elizabeth (2008) ‘Bolivian Women's Organizations in the MAS Era’, in D. S. Collective and NACLA (eds.) Real World Latin America, Boston: Dollars & Sense.

    Google Scholar 

  • Creando, Mujeres (2005) La Virgen de los Deseos, Buenos Aires: Tinta y Limón.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murdock, Donna (2008) When Women Have Wings: Feminism and Development in Medellín, Colombia, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Olea Mauleón, Cecilia and Virginia Vargas (1998) ‘Los Nudos de la Región’, in Cecilia Olea Mauleón (ed.) Encuentros, (Des)Encuentros y Búsquedas: El Movimiento Feminista en América Latina, Lima: Ediciones Flora Tristán.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pisano, Margarita (1996) Un Cierto Deparpajo, Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Número Crítico.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rakowski, Cathy A. and Giaconda Espina (2006) ‘Institucionalización de la Lucha Feminista/Femenina en Venezuela: Solidaridad y Fragmentación, Oportunidades y Desafíos’, in Nathalie Lebon and Elizabeth Maier (eds.) De lo Público a lo Privado: 30 años de lucha ciudadana de las mujeres en América Latina, México, DF: Siglo XXI; UNIFEM; LASA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ríos Tobar, Marcela, Lorena Godoy Catalán and Elizabeth Guerrero Caviedes (2003) Un nuevo silencio feminista? La transformación de un movimiento social en el Chile postdictadura, Santiago: Centro de Estudios de la Mujer; Editorial Cuarto Propio.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schild, Verónica (1998) ‘New Subjects of Rights? Women's Movements and the Construction of Citizenship in the “New Democracies’’’, in Sonia E. Alvarez, Evelyn Dagnino and Arturo Escobar (eds.) Cultures of Politics/Politics of Cultures: Re-visioning Latin American social movements, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silliman, Jael (1999) ‘Expanding Civil Society: Shrinking political spaces: The case of women's nongovernmental organizations’, Social Politics 6: 23–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teixeira, Ana Claudia (2003) Identidades em Construção: As Organizações Não-Governamentais no Processo Brasileiro de Democratização, São Paulo: Annablume; Fapesp; Instituto Pólis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thayer, Millie (2000) ‘Traveling Feminisms: From embodied women to gendered citizenship’, in M. Burawoy, J.A. Blum, S. George, Z. Gille, T. Gowan, L. Haney, M. Klawiter, S.H. Lopez, S. O'Riain and M. Thayer (eds.) Global Ethnography: Forces, connections and imaginations in a postmodern world. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 203–233.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thayer, Millie (forthcoming) Making Transnational Feminism: Rural Women, NGO Activists and Northern Donors in Brazil, New York: Routledge.

Download references

Authors
  1. Sonia E Alvarez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Revisits what she had earlier labeled ‘the Latin American feminist NGO boom’ of the 1990s

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Alvarez, S. Beyond NGO‐ization?: Reflections from Latin America. Development 52, 175–184 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2009.23

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2009.23

Keywords

Search

Navigation