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This open access book contributes to thriving debates in academic as well as professional circles about the role of civil society in shrinking civic spaces, rising authoritarianism and right-wing populism, conflicts, fragile states, and most lately, the global COVID-19 pandemic. This is one of the first books to address the implications of changing civic spaces for civil society organizations worldwide. It offers a unique overview of how social movements and civil society groups in very different settings are responding to state-imposed restrictions of basic civic freedoms. The authors are all experts in the field, and their analyses are based on original and onsite research. This unique book also contributes to a better understanding of the conceptualizations and practices of civil society. It is of keen interest to academic scholars, students, civil society practitioners, and policy makers in the field of international development research and civil society action. peerReviewed

This introductory chapter contextualizes how the volume resonates to current global trends and research debates concerning democracy, civil society, and civic space. The chapter shows how the debates on the decline of democracy, civil society actors, and changing civil spaces underpin the book’s agenda of exploring civil society responses to civic space. The chapter argues in favour of contextual and relational analyses of how civil society actors and civic space are negotiated, in the context of historically formed governance systems. It also provides an overview of the chapters of the book underlying their original contributions to ongoing debates.

This chapter argues that civil society organizations (CSOs) engage in continuous legitimacy negotiations that both shape and are shaped by civic space. It focuses on President John Magufuli’s term in Tanzania, which was labelled as an authoritarian turn characterized by shrinking civic space. The chapter employs broad definitions: of civic space as an arena for action by formal CSOs as well as groups and individuals; of legitimacy as a continuous negotiation of appropriateness; and of democracy as a dynamic form of governance with different manifestations. Drawing on interviews with both professional urban NGOs and rural self-help groups, the chapter investigates restrictions experienced by CSOs, analyses the central themes negotiation over CSO legitimacy, and reflects on these vis-á-vis the evolution of democracy in Tanzania over time.

This open access book discusses and addresses the compelling questions concerning the ideals of citizenship, the processes of learning to fulfill these ideals, and possibilities of education in fostering citizenship. Rather than advocating for one framework, the authors demonstrate the continuously contested nature of the concept of citizenship as theoretically discussed and practically experienced. The monograph combines, in an unconventional way, selected philosophical accounts and everyday experiences from certain locations in Tanzania and Uganda. It provides contributions from philosophical ideas drawing on scholars such as Chantal Mouffe, Rosi Braidotti, Theodor Adorno, and Étienne Balibar on the one hand, and the conceptions articulated by groups of inhabitants of rural and urban settings in Africa, on the other hand. Therefore, the book offers fresh readings under the lenses of citizenship and learning. peerReviewed