It questions whether international civil society funding always depoliticises civil society organisations, as the literature on governmentality and international civil society policies argues. The author examines how the liberal and neo-liberal rationalities of EU funding have both politicising and depoliticising effects on the human rights organisations funded, and demonstrates that whether the effects help or prevent the politicisation of human rights depends on how legitimate or contested the issue is domestically and how the civil society organisations act in this political context. These themes are explored through an in-depth analysis of the case of Turkey and EU funding of organisations working in the fields of women, LGBTQ and Kurdish rights. The book centres the agency of Turkish women's, LGBTQ and human rights organisations working with EU grants, zooming in on their resistance or co-optation.

Publication details

• Title: EU Democracy Promotion and Governmentality
• Author: Hanna Muehlenhoff
• Publisher: Routledge
• ISBN: 9780815347729