Moving people to deliver services edited by Aaditya Mattoo and Antonia Carzaniga (Washington DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 244). Domestic regulation and service trade liberalisation edited by Aaditya Mattoo and Pierre Sauvé (New York: Oxford University Press for the World Bank, 2003, pp. 236). Standards and global trade: a voice for Africa edited by John Wilson and Victor Abiola (Washington DC: The World Bank, 2003, pp. 434)

✍ Scribed by Ian Gillson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 48 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0954-1748
• DOI: 10.1002/jid.1204

✦ Synopsis

The chapter that discusses the 'dot causes' does not recognize that although ICT has had massive ramifications by forging transnational links between CSOs, the fact remains that the extremely poor rarely, if ever, see a computer. There are very few studies of this issue, but it would be interesting to analyse the hypothesis that ICT can exacerbate the power divide between those who have access to and the skill to use ICT and those who do not within the poor of a given society. In this way, although the chapter is not complacent about the difficulties with ICT and power issues in developing nations, it really does not embrace this marginalization issue in its entirety.

The chapter discussing the World Social Forum of 2002 explores how that event responded to the tensions and contradictions within Civil Society, together with the repercussions of the Forum. The author, Gu ¨nther Scho ¨nleitner, describes the evolution of the Forum that was inspired by the World Economic Forum, but explicitly chooses a very different agenda. This agenda is based on cooperation between many actors within Civil Society and purports to be led by its participants. Scho ¨nleitner argues the Forum is a process that combines debate with learning and protest with cooperation. However, the importance of this chapter lies, not in the description, but in the future the author predicts for the Forum. He identifies the tensions within it, pointing out that although it is constructed in dialectic opposition to the World Economic Forum, it has to progress further than being merely a discussion point. It must be more proactive than that. There is no doubt that the conflicts between agents of international Civil Society, such as INGOs, Trade Unions and Grass Roots Organizations are reflected within the Forum itself, and it is only by working through these tensions that the Forum can develop a clear identity, and thus a clearer voice.

The research conclusions are proffered by John Clark. He argues that the sheer complexity of Civil Society Organizations today makes generalisations concerning them tenuous. Based on this conclusion, he presents a number of questions facing actors and a number of answers that he has deduced from the research. His predictions-and advice-for the future are particularly worth reading. They include maintaining the balance between CSO networking and clashes between organizational cultures, keeping a voice within Civil Society as democratic structures alter, the dilemmas of leadership and the problems of making clear what an organization stands for, as opposed to what it is simply against! There is no doubt that this book will be an interesting read for those of us engaged in the Civil Society debate, at whatever level. The moral and international dimension links it in with current discussions, and the choice of case studies gives an illuminating insight to what is happening in other parts of the field.