Date added:January 31, 2016
Download -249KBSince joining the Open Governance Partnership in 2011, South Africa has been committed to addressing the 'grand challenge' of open governance through improving public services, creating safer communities and increasing accountability. This article contrasts this supranational commitment to open governance with accounts of citizens' everyday engagement with the state at a micro-level. Based on a year of multi-sited ethnography, the article highlights the value of bringing people – in this case, HIV-positive citizens living in Khayelitsha, Cape Town – into focus through a series of visual participatory processes in which they share their experience of public service provision and engagement with the state. The article reflects, first, on how citizens 'see' the state in relation to service delivery and, second, on how they 'speak' to the state as members of civil society. It offers an understanding of how citizens themselves perceive 'open governance' in their everyday lives.
IDS Bulletin 47.1 Opening Governance
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About this publication
Publication type Journal article
Publication year2016
Page length16 pages
Keywordsaccountability, AIDS/HIV, citizen-state relationships, government data, health service delivery
Download -249KBCountry South Africa
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