Journal of International Development

J. Int. Dev. 23, 608–609 (2011)

BOOK REVIEW

ATKINSON J and SCURRAH M. 2009. Globalizing Social Justice. The Role of Non-GovernmentalOrganizations in Bringing Social Change. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, ISBN 978-0-230-22113-0, US$85.00 (h/b), pp. 252)

Environmental issues and trade inequalities do not recognise limits of national borders. Various civilsociety organisations are active in bringing about change by addressing poverty, human rights andenvironmental degradation in economic globalisation. This book uses a practice oriented case studyapproach to analyse the role of civil society and non-governmental organisations (NGO) ininternational development. The case studies address issues of legitimacy and accountability, as wellas internal democracy, participation and responsibility within civil society advocacy networks. Thestudies focus on some particular campaigns that advocate global fair trade issues and consider theimpact of extractive industries in some South Asia and Latin American countries. All the detailedcase studies in the book are initiated and coordinated by the international NGO Oxfam, which has 13affiliated organisations working in over 100 countries and involving more than 3000 localorganisations.

As well as the particular case studies, the book discusses the general role and practices of civilsociety in helping the underdeveloped South. NGOs vary enormously from small groups of a fewdedicated individuals working in their local area to large organisations like the Grameen Bank inBangladesh. International NGOs have remarkable funding from countries of North and addresspeople’s basic needs and human rights through various projects. They have traditionally providedemergency food, water, health care and other assistance to the victims of earthquakes, tsunamis andother natural and man-made disasters. However, as Atkinson and Scurrah mention, such developmentand humanitarian relief work by itself was never going to bring about lasting improvements if thestructures that create and perpetuate poverty and injustice are not also tackled. They provideexamples of international campaigns that have depended greatly on media publicity and rapidcommunication in recent decades, like civil activism about artificial baby food, landmines and theoppressive debts of Southern countries. In such campaigns that use tactics for persuasion and publicpressure, wide network relationships are very important. For the members in the South the networkprovides information, leverage and access to global institutions and funding. For those in the Norththe linkages with Southern members provide credibility and a mandate to act on behalf of particulargroups of people and parts of the world. The book makes visible Oxfam’s extensive internationalnetworks and discusses their practices and challenges within particular contexts.

The case studies in the book analyse Oxfam sub-campaign tactics (which were partly involved incampaign ‘Make Trade Fair’) on the following issues: garment workers in Sri Lanka; trade andagriculture in India; natural gas project in Peru, jobs and health in Peru. It means that readers of thebook can find more specific topics of civil society activism according to their interests. A similarstructure is used through all case studies to discuss organisational structures, actions, results, somefailures, legitimacy, participation and role of international NGO. The authors seem to have personalengagement in some of the cases described and this makes case studies well informed and ratherdetailed. I found especially interesting the civil society activism on the garment trade. This activismmade visible influences of brand-name companies in decreasing remarkably manufactory workers’wages and human rights. Besides campaigning, there were established organisational networks toachieve long-term influence on inequality in international garment trade. Aspects of the fair garmenttrade became associated with the precarious work of women in industry and also with sportswear

Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Book Review 609

used in the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. Both supportive and directive campaign models wereused, although supportive models intend more to empower the affected groups. The different matters(like garments, food, health, jobs and gas) involved in the case studies provide some constraints fordiscussing civil activism and environmental changes in-depth and elaborating more internationalcomparisons in the book.

The book stresses the importance of cross-border informal networks of civil society linking activemembers from Southern and Northern countries. The case studies presented illustrate thatinternational NGOs apply information politics to change the terms of debate in a national context byproviding a voice for some groups and issues that were otherwise not heard or visible. High qualityresearch can provide strong bases for argumentations and bring issues from the South to the decision-making processes affecting international development. However, the authors argue that there is sometendency to articulate on extended legitimacy in civil society activisms and ‘to speak on behalf ofpoor when in fact all they are legitimately doing is speaking about the poor’ (p. 239). Usuallyinternational NGOs from Northern countries will gain more influence in informal networks becauseof better access to information and funding. Atkinson and Scurrah point to the tendency that in takingan issue to the Northern political arena, international NGOs sometimes filter or modify the issue tobetter fit their own agendas, e.g. protection of the Amazon rain forest is often presented only as natureenvironmental question and aspects of local livelihood are not enough discussed. However, the bookstrongly argues that civil society can fill the gap in the global governance to deal with various cross-border issues from basic human rights of garment manufactory workers to global warming.

This book brings additional knowledge about international development through detailed casestudies about several civil society campaigns organised by the Oxfam network. Therefore, thispublication would be interesting reading for practitioners, specialists and (post-graduate) students ofinternational development to learn from the examples discussed.

TARMO PIKNERCentre of Contemporary Culture Studies, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

Published online in Wiley Online Library(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jid.1696

Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Int. Dev. 23, 608–609 (2011)

DOI: 10.1002/jid