Records and Reputations. Everyday Politics of a Philippine Development NGO

Title Aid under fire: people, principles and practices of humanitarian aid in Angola
Funded by Wageningen University – rural development sociology group
Time 1993-2000
Brief Description This was my PhD project, based on three years of fieldwork in the Cordillera of the Philippines. It aimed to understand the gaps in claims and practices of development NGOs, at a time when NGOs were still seen as the saviours and sources of hope for an otherwise disappointing development process. Empirically rooted, it provided a theoretically innovative understanding of the everyday politics, actual internal workings, organizational practices and discursive repertoires of this kind of organization. I developed a model of NGOs not as clearcut organizations, but often with several different faces, fragmented, and consisting of social networks whose organizing practices remain in flux.
Researcher Dorothea Hilhorst
Key Publications Hilhorst, D. (2008) Development, Gender and the Revolution: Everyday Politics of Cordillera NGOs in R. Rutten (ed) Brokering a Revolution: Cadres in a Philippine Insurgency. Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 188-232

Hilhorst, D. (2007) The Art of NGO-ing. Everyday Practices s key to Understanding Development NGOs. In: P. Opoku-mensah, D. Lewis and T. Tvedt (eds) Reconceptualising NGOs and their roles in development. Aalborg, Aalborg University Press, 297-327

Hilhorst, D. (2003) The Real World of NGOs: Discourse, Diversity and Development. London: Zedbooks, Philippine edition (in English): Ateneo de Manila University Press

Hilhorst, D. (2001) “Village Experts and Development Discourse: ‘Progress’ in a Philippine Igorot village”. Human Organization, Vol. 60, no. 4, 401-414

Hilhorst, D. (2001) “The Power of Discourse: NGOs, Gender and National Democratic Politics”. In: Asian Studies, vol. 37, no 1, 1-35

Hilhorst, D. (2000) Records and Reputations. Everyday Politics of a Philippine Development NGO. PhD thesis, Wageningen University

Hilhorst, D. (2001) “Negotiating the Meaning of Organization: The Importance of Social Network Analysis”. In: J. Andersson and M. Breusers (eds), Kinship Structures and Enterprising Actors: Anthropological Essays on Development, Liber Amicorum J.H.B. den Ouden, Wageningen University Press, 281-299

Hilhorst, D. (1997) “Discourse Formation in Social Movements. Issues of Collective Action”. In: H. de Haan and N. Long (eds.) Images and Realities of Rural Life. Assen: Van Gorcum, 121-153