Values Deliberation and Collective Action

This book describes how a program of values deliberations–-sustained group reflections on local values, aspirations, beliefs and experiences, blending with discussions of how to understand and to realize human rights--led to individual and collective empowerment in communities in rural Senegal. The study explains what happens during the deliberations and shows how they bring about a larger process that results in improved capabilities in areas such as education, health, child protection, and gender equality. It shows how participants, particularly women, enhance their agency, including their individual and collective capacities to play public roles and kindle community action. It thus provides important insights on how values deliberations help to revise adverse gender norms.

Beniamino Cislaghi is Lecturer in Social Norms at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. He worked for various NGOs and International Organizations, including UNICEF, WHO, and ILO, and as a civic volunteer in his home country for about 10 years. His past research focused on how development programs can offer participants a space to renegotiate existing cultural meanings and collaborate to increase their and others’ wellbeing. Diane Gillespie has written extensively on interactive learning, the challenges of diversity in higher education, and, more recently, on human rights education. She won numerous awards for her teaching, including the 2010 University of Washington Bothell Distinguished Teaching Award. Since retiring she has served as a volunteer for Tostan.Gerry Mackie is Associate Professor of Political Science and Co-Director for the Center on Global Justice at the University of California, San Diego, USA.  His prize-winning first book, Democracy Defended (2003), was on the value of democratic voting. He has worked with the NGO Tostan in West Africa and with UNICEF on ending female genital cutting and other harmful practices.