This book investigates civil society regionalization in Southern Africa. The point of departure is the study of 'new regionalism', which refers to the wave of regional integration globally since the 1980s. However, whilst the current regionalism studies undoubtedly contributes to a deeper understanding of regional processes, important gaps remain, in particular the relatively scant emphasis given to civil society. This particularly relates to regions in the global South, including Southern Africa. The overarching aim of this book is therefore to analyse the dynamics of civil society regionalization in Southern Africa, both empirically and from a theoretical perspective, through analysing the cases of trade and HIV/AIDS. The study finds that CSOs can be more active in regional governance than has previously been conceptualized and are also highly active in terms of constructing regionalization through framing issues and, to a less extent, making identities 'regional'. Furthermore, the book enhances knowledge of the heterogeneous nature of civil society regionalization. Lastly, it is demonstrated that 'going regional' is only partly an autonomous process and also has to be understood as under the influence of the deeper statist and capitalist social structures marking the regional order in Southern Africa.

Supranational regionalism and regional integration have for a long time been top-down processes, led by the few and imposed on the many. The role of citizens, especially those active in civil society, has been neglected by scholars, students, and commentators of regionalism. In reaction to the prevalence of these top-down models, a “new regionalism” approach has proliferated in the past few years. This book aims to further develop such a research agenda by providing an up-to-date overview of the contribution of civil society to world regionalism, from Europe to Africa, Asia, and the Americas. This is not only relevant as a research topic; it is also of critical importance from a political standpoint. As regions across the world experience prolonged governance crises, it becomes paramount to understand the extent to which these new regional formations actually reflect the interests and needs of their people. While old regionalism was accepted as a de facto elite-driven byproduct of both the Cold War and neoliberal globalization, the twenty-first-century regionalism—if it is to survive—will need to refocus its objectives through new forms of participation and inclusion. Regions without citizens are unlikely to stand the test of time, especially in times of crises.

This book examines regional integration in Africa, with a particular focus on the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It argues that the SADC’s pursuit of a rationalist and state-centric form of integration for Southern Africa is limited, as it overlooks the contributory role and efficacy of non-state actors, who are relegated to the periphery. The book demonstrates that civil society networks in Southern Africa constitute well-governed, self-organised entities that function just like formal regional arrangements driven by state actors and technocrats. The book amplifies this point by deploying New Institutionalism and the New Regionalism Approach to examine the role and efficacy of non-state actors in building regions from below. The book develops a unique typology that shows how Southern African regional civil society networks adopt strategies, norms and rules to establish an efficient form of alternative integration in the region. Based on a critical analysis of this self-organised regionalism, the book projects the reality that alternative regionalism driven by non-state actors is possible. This book expands the study of regionalism in the SADC, and makes a significant and innovative contribution to the study of contemporary regionalism.

Despite regionalism having developed into a global phenomenon, the European Union (EU) is still more often than not presented as the ’role-model of regionalism’ whose institutional designs and norms are adopted by other regional actors and organizations as part of a rather passive ’downloading process’. Reaching beyond such a Eurocentric perception, Mapping Agency provides an empirically rich ’African perspective’ on regionalisms in Sub-Saharan Africa. It adopts an actor-centred approach but departs from a rather simplified understanding of agency as exerting power and instead scrutinizes to what extent actors actually participate in or are excluded from processes of regionalism. The value of this volume derives from the inclusion of historical dimensions, its open multi-actor approach to both formal and informal processes and its comparative perspective within but also beyond Sub-Saharan Africa. The chapters offer a multifaceted picture of agency beyond disciplinary divides where the EU is one actor amongst many and where local, national, regional and global state and non-state actors shape - and sometimes break - processes of regionalisms in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This book interrogates the extent to which regional civil society organisations have evolved as actors in West Africa. Examining civil society democratic participation in regional integration and involvement in regionalism of peacebuilding, it rethinks how we study civil society in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region. Beyond the functional typology of civil society actors as ‘partner’, ‘legitimiser’, ‘resistance/counter-hegemonic’ and ‘manipulator’, the book develops a new analytical framework to understand how organisations such as the West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF) and West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) have evolved. Offering analytical perspectives of the actorship of specific regional civil society actors, the book draws attention to the tendencies in the previous studies of mistaking an action or misdeed that is empirically specific to particular civil society organisations within a region to the generality of the civic space of the region. Providing an alternative perspective aimed at invoking a new intellectual conversation about civil society regionalism this book advances a new analytical framework of action-based regional identity of civil society, regional presence of activities, regional capacities and societal impact. It will be of interest to academics and scholars of international relations, global governance, African politics and comparative regionalism.

A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via www.tandfebooks.com as well as the OAPEN Library platform, www.oapen.org. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license and is part of the OAPEN-UK research project. Structures and processes occurring within and between states are no longer the only – or even the most important - determinants of those political, economic and social developments and dynamics that shape the modern world. Many issues, including the environment, health, crime, drugs, migration and terrorism, can no longer be contained within national boundaries. As a result, it is not always possible to identify the loci for authority and legitimacy, and the role of governments has been called into question. Civil Society anf International Governance critically analyses the increasing impact of nongovernmental organisations and civil society on global and regional governance. Written from the standpoint of advocates of civil society and addressing the role of civil society in relation to the UN, the IMF, the G8 and the WTO, this volume assess the role of various non-state actors from three perspectives: theoretical aspects, civil society interaction with the European Union and civil society and regional governance outside Europe, specifically Africa, East Asia and the Middle East. It demonstrates that civil society’s role has been more complex than one defined in terms, essentially, of resistance and includes actual participation in governance as well as multi-facetted contributions to legitimising and democratising global and regional governance. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, international relations, civil society, sociology, European politics and global governance.

This book focuses on southern Africa by engaging with ‘norms’ from various perspectives and how they have proliferated within a neo-liberalising context since the 1990s. It particularly examines gender norms in relation to agency, influence and their impact. Despite growing transnational activities, regional studies analyses have so far maintained a primarily linear logic not incorporative of the increasing interface between state and non-state regionalism in a transnational context since the advent of liberalisation and democratisation. Increasing non-state activities, and their connection to state processes involved in norm creation, adaptation, diffusion and implementation around broad questions of security (including gender security), amount to regional thickening. The book’s analytical approach is informed by alternatives to mainstream approaches, emphasising processes rather than linearity inherent in regional international relations studies. The research reveals that transnational activities and regionalisation of gender and women-focused civil society actors are critical for advocacy and diverse representation within intergovernmental policymaking structures at the regional scale.

Free market policies have been in operation across Africa for the past 25 years, yet they have failed to reverse deepening poverty. This book explores, with case studies, why such policies continue to be implemented and the ways in which they have been reinvented by socialization, depoliticization, regionalization and securitization.

This book addresses a major gap in the longstanding research on regional organisations: how do their finances work and what do they reveal about the region-building process? It brings together an empirically rich collection of chapters written by experts of regional organisations in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Based on the insights on thirteen regional organisations as well as two chapters dedicated to the influence of external funders, the editors develop typologies to cluster regional organisations according to their financial characteristics: the size of budgets, the sources of funding and the criteria to calculate contributions. Through analysing the process of budgeting and resourcing, the book sheds light on the different nature and functioning of these organisations existing outside of the Global North and puts a specific emphasis on regional organisations in the area of security in Africa and the Global South. It provides explanations to why members pay or do not pay and how budgeting works, and it deals with data availability, the role of donors, overlapping regionalism, cultural transfers between regional organisations and the impact on regional actorness. This volume will be of key interest to scholars and students of African studies and politics, the Global South, the finances of international organisations, comparative regionalism, international political economy and international relations.

The Political Economy of Regionalism: The Case of Southern Africa challenges prevailing wisdom, showing how ruling political elites and 'big business' join forces with certain external actors in order to promote market integration and economic globalization, boost regimes, and to satisfy group-specific and even personal interests. Only rarely do these forms of regionalism contribute to the poor and disadvantaged, who instead opt out, and survive through informal economic regionalisms or seek to create regionalisms rooted in civil society.