Performing global citizenship: women NGO workers' negotiations of complicities in their work practices
The practices of NGOs and development agencies located in the global North have been criticised for displaying (post-)colonial continuities. Concurrently, western feminism has been critiqued for assuming universality in the experiences of white western women. Hence there is a need for reflection on...
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
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2010
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11682/ |
| _version_ | 1848791334269222912 |
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| author | de Jong, Sara |
| author_facet | de Jong, Sara |
| author_sort | de Jong, Sara |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The practices of NGOs and development agencies located in the global North have been criticised for displaying (post-)colonial continuities. Concurrently, western feminism has been critiqued for assuming universality in the experiences of white western women. Hence there is a need for reflection on operating within and resisting of these power structures.
Using interview data, this thesis investigates the reflections of women NGO workers located in the global North working on gendered issues to support women in and from the global South. The thesis situates the women’s reflections in the context of the critiques arising from feminist theory, postcolonial theory, global civil society and critical development literature. In this theoretically informed empirical study it is analysed how the women NGO workers understand their own work practices and how they negotiate their relations with the women they seek to support. This work can be placed within a relatively new genre within critical development literature, which focuses on the subjectivities, experiences, and identity construction of NGO and development workers.
The aim of the thesis is first to contribute to our understanding of the complexities and contradictions in the positioning of women who engage in justice seeking practices related to gendered issues in a global context. Second, the intention of this work is to enhance the reflexive and analytic practices of NGOs/IGOs and their employees. The thesis sketches a multi-faceted picture of the women NGO workers that transcends the good versus bad binary; it argues that while the narratives of the women NGO workers underline their complicity in hegemonic discourses, the narratives also show their awareness of the contentiousness of their position and point to possible ruptures of and resistances to the dominant power structures. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:26:51Z |
| format | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-11682 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:26:51Z |
| publishDate | 2010 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-116822025-02-28T11:14:59Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11682/ Performing global citizenship: women NGO workers' negotiations of complicities in their work practices de Jong, Sara The practices of NGOs and development agencies located in the global North have been criticised for displaying (post-)colonial continuities. Concurrently, western feminism has been critiqued for assuming universality in the experiences of white western women. Hence there is a need for reflection on operating within and resisting of these power structures. Using interview data, this thesis investigates the reflections of women NGO workers located in the global North working on gendered issues to support women in and from the global South. The thesis situates the women’s reflections in the context of the critiques arising from feminist theory, postcolonial theory, global civil society and critical development literature. In this theoretically informed empirical study it is analysed how the women NGO workers understand their own work practices and how they negotiate their relations with the women they seek to support. This work can be placed within a relatively new genre within critical development literature, which focuses on the subjectivities, experiences, and identity construction of NGO and development workers. The aim of the thesis is first to contribute to our understanding of the complexities and contradictions in the positioning of women who engage in justice seeking practices related to gendered issues in a global context. Second, the intention of this work is to enhance the reflexive and analytic practices of NGOs/IGOs and their employees. The thesis sketches a multi-faceted picture of the women NGO workers that transcends the good versus bad binary; it argues that while the narratives of the women NGO workers underline their complicity in hegemonic discourses, the narratives also show their awareness of the contentiousness of their position and point to possible ruptures of and resistances to the dominant power structures. 2010-10-15 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11682/1/sara_thesis_sept_final.pdf de Jong, Sara (2010) Performing global citizenship: women NGO workers' negotiations of complicities in their work practices. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. NGOs; gender; women; feminism; postcolonialism; global citizenship; development; reflexivity; complicity |
| spellingShingle | NGOs; gender; women; feminism; postcolonialism; global citizenship; development; reflexivity; complicity de Jong, Sara Performing global citizenship: women NGO workers' negotiations of complicities in their work practices |
| title | Performing global citizenship: women NGO workers' negotiations of complicities in their work practices |
| title_full | Performing global citizenship: women NGO workers' negotiations of complicities in their work practices |
| title_fullStr | Performing global citizenship: women NGO workers' negotiations of complicities in their work practices |
| title_full_unstemmed | Performing global citizenship: women NGO workers' negotiations of complicities in their work practices |
| title_short | Performing global citizenship: women NGO workers' negotiations of complicities in their work practices |
| title_sort | performing global citizenship: women ngo workers' negotiations of complicities in their work practices |
| topic | NGOs; gender; women; feminism; postcolonialism; global citizenship; development; reflexivity; complicity |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11682/ |