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NGOs management and the value of 'partnerships' for equality in international development : what’s in a name?
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Contu, Alessia and Girei, Emanuela (2014) NGOs management and the value of 'partnerships' for equality in international development : what’s in a name? Human Relations, Volume 67 (Number 2). pp. 205-232. doi:10.1177/0018726713489999 ISSN 0018-7267.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726713489999
Abstract
‘Partnership’ is a buzzword for agents delivering policy solutions, funding and implementation strategies for effective international development. We call such an ensemble of policies and practices the ‘partnership discourse’. We explore the value of the term ‘partnership’ in international development with an empirical focus on the African context and issues of equality in relations between international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are routinely characterized as partnerships. The results of our research in Uganda indicate that a hiatus exists between the rhetoric and reality of such partnerships. Partnerships on the ground reproduce relations of inequality characterized by subordination and oppression. The retroductive explanation we offer for such an emergent picture is to recast partnerships not as neutral management tools, but as political processes actualized in a terrain that is contested and uneven. Our theoretical contribution is to develop a political theorization of inter-organizational relations that allows us to explore the social consequences, specifically on inequality, associated with the partnership discourse. Our substantive contribution is to elaborate the value of the term ‘partnership’ in the international development domain. Its value is to smooth over antagonism and co-opt dissent by proposing a solution to effective development that is both ethically and managerially good.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Human Relations | ||||||
| Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0018-7267 | ||||||
| Official Date: | February 2014 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | Volume 67 | ||||||
| Number: | Number 2 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 205-232 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1177/0018726713489999 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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