The Real World of NGOs

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), in contrast to many official development agencies, have often been seen as the saviours and sources of hope for an otherwise disappointing development process. Dorothea Hilhorst offers an empirically rooted and theoretically innovative understanding of the internal workings, organizational practices and discursive repertoires of this kind of organization. Her evidence and insights lead to a different picture of NGOs from that prevailing in the literature. Her model of NGOs, as organizations which often have several different faces, fragmented and comprising fluctuating social networks, should be helpful to understanding not just these bodies, but official development agencies too.