While entities as different as armed groups, multinational corporations, political parties, megacities, labour unions, terrorist organisations, or indigenous peoples are mentioned as non-state actors in the relevant literature, rural communities are never referred to. This book addresses the role of rural communities as non-state actors, lifting this invisibility veil with arguments coming from three theories of/scholarly approaches to international law: positivism, sociolegal realism (the New Haven School), and constitutionalism. It argues, first, that rural communities are recognised by the community of states as derived subjects of international law since they are made bearers of rights and duties in some major multilateral treaties. Second, rural communities have the ability to affect international lawmaking as they acquire the tools to influence decision-making in international arbitration and court litigation. Finally, the book highlights the need to recognise the status of rural communities when seeking global justice, as these are the communities that benefit the least from globalisation, while paying the highest price in terms of damage to the natural and sociocultural environment. Advocating for the existence of some supreme norms above the will of the states and the recognition of rural communities as non-state actors, this book will be of interest to academics, policy-makers, and non-governmental organisations working in the field of public international law and rural social matters.

While entities as different as armed groups, multinational corporations, political parties, megacities, labour unions, terrorist organisations, or indigenous peoples are mentioned as non-state actors in the relevant literature, rural communities are never referred to. This book addresses the role of rural communities as non-state actors, lifting this invisibility veil with arguments coming from three theories of/scholarly approaches to international law: positivism, sociolegal realism (the New Haven School), and constitutionalism. It argues, first, that rural communities are recognised by the community of states as derived subjects of international law since they are made bearers of rights and duties in some major multilateral treaties. Second, rural communities have the ability to affect international lawmaking as they acquire the tools to influence decision-making in international arbitration and court litigation. Finally, the book highlights the need to recognise the status of rural communities when seeking global justice, as these are the communities that benefit the least from globalisation, while paying the highest price in terms of damage to the natural and sociocultural environment. Advocating for the existence of some supreme norms above the will of the states and the recognition of rural communities as non-state actors, this book will be of interest to academics, policy-makers, and non-governmental organisations working in the field of public international law and rural social matters. The Open Access version of this book, available at http: //www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

Fuelled by social equity concerns, there have been vigorous debates on the appropriateness of certain non-state actors, particularly those with commercial and entrepreneurial motives, to meet universal education goals. There are further questions on the relative effectiveness of government and private schooling in delivering good learning outcomes for all. Within this debate, several empirical questions abound. Do students from poorer backgrounds achieve as well in private schools as their advantaged peers? What are the relative out-of-pocket costs of accessing private schooling compared to government schooling? Is fee-paying non-state provision ‘affordable’ to the poorest households? What is the nature of the education market at different levels? What are the relationships between different non-state actors and the state, and how should they conduct themselves? The chapters in this volume present new empirical evidence and conduct critical analysis on some of these questions. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Oxford Review of Education.

The role and position of non-state actors in international law is the subject of a long-standing and intensive scholarly debate. This book explores the participation of this new category of actors in an international legal system that has historically been dominated by states. It explores the most important issues, actors and theoretical approaches with respect to these new participants in international law. It provides the reader with a comprehensive and state-of-the-art overview of the most important legal and political developments and perspectives. Relevant non-state actors discussed in this volume include, in particular, international governmental organisations, international non-governmental organisations, multinational companies, investors and armed opposition groups. Their legal position is considered in relation to specific issue-areas, such as humanitarian law, human rights, the use of force and international responsibility. The main legal theories on non-state actors' position in international law – neo-positivism, the policy-oriented approach and transnational law – are covered at the beginning of the book, and the essential political science perspectives – on non-state actors' role in international politics and globalisation, as well as their soft power – are presented at the end.

Apart from decolonization and the liquidation of apartheid, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) has had three goals - unity, security, and development. In none of these three areas did the OAU live up to its expectation. The transformation of the OAU was designed to inject institutional vim, mainstream its social forces, and keep abreast with challenges of the 21st century. This book explores Pan-Africanism from a perspective of a rapidly changing international system. Key obstacles remain to the leadership conundrum and endemic capacity gaps. (Series: African Politics / Politiques Africaines - Vol. 6)

Concern for achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 has led to a focus on the role that non-state providers (NSPs) can offer in extending access and improving quality of basic services. While NSPs can help to fill a gap in provision to those excluded from state provision, recent growth in both for-profit and not-for-profit providers in developing countries has sometimes resulted in fragmentation of service delivery. To address this, attention is increasingly given in the education sector to developing ‘partnerships’ between governments and NSPs. Partnerships are further driven by the expectation that the state has the moral, social, and legal responsibility for overall education service delivery and so should play a role in facilitating and regulating NSPs. Even where the ultimate aim of both non-state providers and the state is to provide education of acceptable quality to all children, this book provides evidence from diverse contexts across Africa, South Asia, and Latin America to highlight the challenges in them partnering to achieve this. This book was published as a special issue of Development in Practice.

This book presents the authors’ recent field experiences of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in different regions of India. It also demonstrates how social auditing and stakeholder mapping help analyze the impact that particular individuals or groups may have on the functioning of any company in an area. CSR is a rapidly growing area of research and activity, especially in developing countries like India. An increasing number of companies are realizing their own social responsibility, given that they work within societal networks. As a result, any initiation or expansion activity they carry out in society impacts the communities around them. Given the newness of the field, the work on CSR in India is still in the initial stages. Most importantly, there is a need to highlight issues concerning CSR activities using sound methodologies and scientific data. A database comprising qualitative and quantitative approaches collected by tracking CSR activities is invaluable. Further the scientific data is vital to fully understand CSR, and in turn helps in designing appropriate and effective interventions for improving community members’ quality of life. Accordingly, the stakeholders associated with CSR need to have a sound knowledge of how to conduct studies related to baseline data generation, community needs assessments, community profiling, stakeholder mapping, social impact assessments, monitoring and evaluation, as well as the social auditing of CSR projects and other related issues. This book aptly covers these issues and offers supporting empirical evidences from the field.