IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/oxdevs/v31y2003i3p379-400.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Civil Society as Idea and Civil Society as Process: The Case of Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Lindsay Whitfield

Abstract

The concept of civil society is ubiquitous in debates about democracy in Africa. This article distinguishes civil society as idea from civil society as process. The idea of civil society provides a shared language, which obscures fundamental differences. The process of civil society refers to the complex interactions of historically generated social structures, political issues, personal networks, material incentives, state resources and international linkages. In Ghana, there are continuities in the centralization of national decision-making, reinforced by international agencies, and the mobilisation, demobilisation and selective exclusion of social groups. 'Civil society' is the outcome of the process in which the idea of civil society is discursively constructed and used by donor agencies, international NGOs, the Ghanaian government and Ghanaian social organizations to legitimate their actions.

Suggested Citation

  • Lindsay Whitfield, 2003. "Civil Society as Idea and Civil Society as Process: The Case of Ghana," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3), pages 379-400.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:31:y:2003:i:3:p:379-400
    DOI: 10.1080/1360081032000111751
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1360081032000111751
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/1360081032000111751?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2000. "The World Bank Annual Report 2000," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13935.
    2. Lindsay Whitfield, "undated". "Civil Society as Idea and Civil Society as Process: The Case of Ghana," QEH Working Papers qehwps92, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    3. World Bank, 2000. "The World Bank Annual Report 2000," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13936.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Pottebaum & Ravi Kanbur, 2004. "Civil war, public goods and the social wealth of nations," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 459-484.
    2. Marianna Neupauerová & Ján Vravec, 2007. "Monetary Strategies from the Perspective of Intermediate Objectives," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 54(2), pages 219-233, June.
    3. Sanford, Jonathan E., 2004. "IDA Grants and HIPC Debt Cancellation: Their Effectiveness and Impact on IDA Resources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1579-1607, September.
    4. Celine Sunny, 2005. "Domestic Violence Aganist Women In Ernakulam District," Working Papers id:99, eSocialSciences.
    5. Ning Zhu, 2002. "The Local Bias of Individual Investors," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm272, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Sep 2009.
    6. Fredric William Swierczek & Thanh Ha Thai, 2003. "MOTIVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE PERFORMANCE OF SMEsIN VIETNAM," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 11(01), pages 47-68.
    7. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4294 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Daniel Gaskin & Juergen Attard & Karen Caruana, 2017. "Household finance and consumption survey in Malta: the results from the second Wave," CBM Working Papers WP/02/2017, Central Bank of Malta.
    9. Tefera, TL & Kirsten, JF & Perret, S, 2003. "Market Incentives, Farmers’ Response And A Policy Dilemma: A Case Study Of Chat Production In The Eastern Ethiopian Highlands," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 42(3).
    10. Hanaa Fayed & John Fletcher, 2002. "Report: Globalization of Economic Activity: Issues for Tourism," Tourism Economics, , vol. 8(2), pages 207-230, June.
    11. Ratha, Dilip, 2005. "Demand for World Bank lending," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 408-421, December.
    12. Nagesh Kumar, 2005. "Towards a Broader Asian Community : Agenda for the East Asia Summit," Macroeconomics Working Papers 22107, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    13. Bocquier, Philippe & Nordman, Christophe J. & Vescovo, Aude, 2010. "Employment Vulnerability and Earnings in Urban West Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 1297-1314, September.
    14. Atta Ullah & Chen Pinglu & Saif Ullah & Noman Aslam & Mubasher Zaman, 2020. "Role of Microfinance in Poverty Alleviation in the Least Developed Area of Pakistan," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 10(12), pages 1430-1452, December.
    15. Sanford, Jonathan E., 2002. "World Bank: IDA Loans or IDA Grants?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 741-762, May.
    16. Nawaz A. Hakro & Wadho Waqar Ahmed, 2006. "IMF Stabilization Programs, Policy Conduct and Macroeconomic Outcomes: A Case Study of Pakistan," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 35-62, Jan-Jun.
    17. Nomita P. Kumar & Achala Srivastava, 2021. "Measuring the Employment Vulnerability Among Female Workers in Uttar Pradesh," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 15(2), pages 307-322, August.
    18. Brian Micallef & Cyrus, Laurent, 2013. "Inflation differentials in a Monetary Union: the case of Malta," CBM Working Papers WP/05/2013, Central Bank of Malta.
    19. Contador, Jaime & Kuwayama, Mikio & Mattos, José Carlos Silva, 2000. "Trade and investment promotion between Asia-Pacific and Latin America: present position and future prospects," Comercio Internacional 4435, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:31:y:2003:i:3:p:379-400. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CODS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.