Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 8(2), pp. 36 - 48
DOI: 10.13189/sa.2020.080202
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Active Citizenship and Neighborhood Governance; North-Western Literature and Global South Realities

Aya Elwageeh ^1,2,*, Maarten van Ham ^1,3, Reinout Kleinhans ^1
1 Department of Urbanism, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
² Department of Urban Design and Planning, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Egypt
³ School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, UK

ABSTRACT

Active citizenship related to neighborhood governance is dependent on the political and governance structures of its context, and is therefore different in the Global North and the Global South. Local active citizenship is often presented from a North-western perspective, with its own active culture of engagement. In contrast, it is often shaped by an unfamiliar culture of engagement in parts of the Global South. This difference questions the applicability of the leading literature in understanding Global South realities. The paper aims to answer this question by reviewing the literature on local activism in both contexts. This review elaborates on the commonality of "context"; while highlighting the variation of "right-based vs. need-based" and "state-citizen collaboration vs. selective state-citizen collaboration" as central dimensions of local activism in both worlds. In result, we conclude that the leading literature on active citizenship in the context of neighborhood governance is limited in its explanation of local activism found in parts of the Global South. Finally, this review paper contributes to inform future empirical research on how to better understand neighborhood activism in contexts of the Global South. In this regard, the deduced commonalities and variations offer a starting point to scholars and offer dimensions which could be investigated to improve our understanding of active resident groups, and eventually contribute to more effective local activism.

KEYWORDS
Active Citizenship, Neighborhood Governance, Global South, North-Western, Culture of Engagement

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Aya Elwageeh , Maarten van Ham , Reinout Kleinhans , "Active Citizenship and Neighborhood Governance; North-Western Literature and Global South Realities," Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 36 - 48, 2020. DOI: 10.13189/sa.2020.080202.

(b). APA Format:
Aya Elwageeh , Maarten van Ham , Reinout Kleinhans (2020). Active Citizenship and Neighborhood Governance; North-Western Literature and Global South Realities. Sociology and Anthropology, 8(2), 36 - 48. DOI: 10.13189/sa.2020.080202.