Citizenship has often been viewed as a residual of something else: get markets right and citizens will participate, or get elections right and citizens will have a voice. This is a narrow view of citizenship.  An alternative view is that active citizens build responsive states – and not the other way around.

So argued John Gaventa, in a fascinating seminar titled “Seeing Like a Citizen: International Perspectives on Deepening Democracy.”  Gaventa is a Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex and Chair of Oxfam Great Britain.

Gaventa has been leading an IDS effort – the Development Research Centre (DRC) on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability – that is a fascinating example of a research process grounded in a diversity of practical experiences and local perspectives.  The DRC is a partnership with research institutes and civil society groups in Angola, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria and South Africa. Gaventa was joined by Vera Coelho, Senior Researcher at the Brazilian Centre for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP).

There are several reasons why the DRC’s research is important to the work of NGOs and the challenge of advancing development and social justice.

First, the focus here is on articulating new forms of citizenship that make rights real for poor people. Citizenship is seen as being attained by action, not bestowed by law.  It requires going beyond passive participation in elections to active engagement in decision making and democracy.

Second, rather than focusing on institutions (or in addition to doing so), the telescope is reversed – and focuses in on citizens as the key social actors. By looking at a variety of ways in which rights and entitlements of poor people are realized (over 150 case studies are being synthesized to draw out lessons), this research challenges one-size-fits-all institutional approaches to strengthening democracy.

Third, it asks how citizens perceive their own rights and how they interact with the institutions that affect their lives.  It posits that active citizens build responsive states by helping to shape democratic institutions, accountability and legitimacy.

Finally, it considers the central challenge of how to “build” active citizens, and how citizens most effectively mobilize to influence development policies and deepen democracy.  

Some of the lessons and implications emerging from this research have the potential to influence not only NGO’s community-based and rights-based approaches in developing countries but also to NGOs’ policy campaigning in industrialized countries.  For example:

Does global citizenship – in the form of global campaigns led by western actors targeting western (or global) policy makers – risk becoming a new form of social exclusion by marginalizing local voices?

Does a one-size-fits-all approach to institution building risk being replaced by a one-size-fits-all approach to participatory democracy?

Do partnerships between NGOs and social movements or civil society groups risk “projectizing” or “bureaucratizing” efforts that are more effective when they are contextual, emergent and authentic?

This research will certainly produce interesting and relevant findings for NGOs and other development actors – so I’m staying tuned for the synthesis and the debate it inspires.