Other ways of analysing spaces
In Colombia, a popular exercise uncovered a range of types of spaces used by civil society groups and what happened within them.
More Spaces
What are the places in your reality? How would you categorize your reality?
Spaces should be defined to your context. In a Colombia, civil society members saw five spaces that needed to be examined – nuancing the closed, invited and claimed categories with their own:
- Formal by invitation
- Formal by right
- Created by institutions
- Created by organisations
- Transitory collective direct action
What happens in spaces?
- Decision-making
- Debate
- Building agreements
- Influence
- Interlocution
- Lobbying
- Protest
- Accountability
- Making visible
- Pressure
- Articulation
- Follow up
- Formation of public opinion
- Scrutiny and recommendation
- Resistance
- Proposal
- Negotiation
- Peace-building
- Complaint
- Encounter
- Mobilization
This example is from the Colombia Country Report ‘Assessing Civil Society Participation’ (page 67) by Jenny Pearce and Gloria Velaas (supported in-country by Cordaid, Hivos, Novib and Plan Netherlands), CFP evaluation series 2003-2006: no. 4 September 2005.
