Citizen participation in South Africa: land struggles and HIV/AIDS activism
Abstract
This chapter explores reasons for differences in forms of citizen participation in the HIV/AIDS arena and in the land sector. I show how both provide contrasting examples of the ways in which the creation of new democratic spaces in post-apartheid South Africa are framed within old attitudes, practices and expectations. I also show how both these cases raise important questions around the problem of marginalised communities and democratic inclusion. Both cases involve extremely marginalised groups, whose legal citizenship is not supported by experiences of actual inclusion in the political, economic and social life of post-apartheid society. The two cases raise questions around the construction of intermediary forms of citizen participation in a context where there is a historical absence of institutions and spaces mediating the relation between state and civil society, as a result of the state’s authoritarianism during and before the apartheid regime.
Citation
von Lieres, B. Citizen participation in South Africa: land struggles and HIV/AIDS activism. In: Spaces for Change? The Politics of Citizen Participation in New Democratic Arenas, Andrea Cornwall and Vera Schattan P. Coalho (eds), Vol 4 of Claiming Citizenship Series. Zed Books Limited, London and New York, (2007) ISBN 9781842775530 (paperback)
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