Amateurs without Borders: The Aspirations and Limits of Global Compassion

by Allison Schnable

Overview

Amateurs without Borders examines the rise of new actors in the international development world: volunteer-driven grassroots international nongovernmental organizations. These small aid organizations, now ten thousand strong, sidestep the world of professionalized development aid by launching projects built around personal relationships and the skills of volunteers. This book draws on fieldwork in the United States and Africa, web data, and IRS records to offer the first large-scale systematic study of these groups. Amateurs without Borders investigates the aspirations and limits of personal compassion on a global scale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520972124
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	02/02/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	262
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Allison Schnable is Assistant Professor in the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction 
1 Origin Stories
2 Who, What, Where? The Projects of Grassroots International NGOs
3 Amateurs without Borders: A Role for Everyday Citizens in Development Aid
4 Provide and Transform: Grassroots INGOs' Models of Aid
5 Resources, Relationships, and Accountability
6 Seen It with Their Own Eyes: Grassroots INGOs' Discourse
7 Networks, Frames, Modes of Action: Roles for Religion
Conclusion: Possibilities and Perils of Amateur Aid 

Appendix 1: Note on Methods 
Appendix 2: Codes Used in Content Analysis
Appendix 3: Grassroots International NGOs in Website Sample
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Amateurs Without Borders is an engaging and lively read. It is apt to be particularly useful for advanced undergraduate and graduate students who are exploring development and constitutes an important addition to sociology’s collective understanding about the contours of the field."

Social Forces

"Amateurs without Borders offers valuable information and insights."

Development and Advocacy Christian Relief

"The book should be of great interest to students of NGOs, development, and transnationalism."
 

American Journal of Sociology