Globalizing Citizens explores how globalization has given rise to new meanings of citizenship. Just as they are tied by global production, trade and finance, citizens in every nation are linked by the institutions of global governance. This expert new analysis presents case studies from cities and villages in India, South Africa, Nigeria, Philippines, Kenya, The Gambia, Brazil and South Africa to explore how new forms of global authority shape and build new meanings and practices of citizenship, across local, national and global arenas. For some, globalization has provided a new sense of global solidarity that has inspired them to join transnational movements and mobilise to claim rights from global authorities, but for others, globalization has meant greater exposure to the power of global corporations, bureaucracies and scientific experts, thus adding new layers of exclusion to already fragile meanings of citizenship.
Rajesh Tandon is the founder and executive director of PRIA (Society for Participatory Research in Asia), and has been an activist-scholar for the past three decades, focusing on issues such as citizenship and participatory governance, participatory research and building civil society alliances. In addition to his writing and scholarship, he has served as a civil society leader in India and internationally, including serving as a founding member and chair of CIVICUS, program director of the Citizens and Governance Programme of the Commonwealth Foundation and chair of the Montreal International Forum (FIM). He has been active participant in the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability and served as co-convenor of the working group on globalizing citizen engagements.
John Gaventa is a Research Professor and Fellow in the Participation, Power and Social Change Team at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. A political sociologist by training, he has written widely on issues of power, citizen action, participation and democracy, including the award winning Power and Powerlessness in an Appalachian Valley (1980) and Global Citizen Action (co-editor, 2001). He also has been active with a number of NGOs and civil society organizations internationally, including the Highlander Centre in the United States and Oxfam in the UK. He is the director of the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability and served as co-convenor of the working group on globalizing citizen engagements.
