Site and Case Study Group Selection

Iloilo City was chosen as the study site because it is one of the biggest urban centres in the Philippines. The city has a variety of civil society groups that address many urban problems commonly observed in cities in the Philippines; these include poverty, lack of affordable housing, and ineffective service delivery. As a resident of this city, I had the advantage of understanding the local context of the study site. This was important given my research objectives and methodology.

My interest in the study of civil society groups was inspired by their collective activities in my hometown in Iloilo City, Philippines. There I witnessed various initiatives in response to problems that affect their lives and their environment. I selected three civil society groups that had varying degrees of ‘independence’ from the government as they engage in collective

activities. Groups have the preference to either work closely with the government or maintain their independence by undertaking activities largely by themselves.

When I started my data collection, I was guided by the insurgent planning model, which assumes that civil society groups largely undertake collective activities by themselves with limited or no support from the government. However, as I became more familiar with the groups, I began to appreciate other activities which could not be explained sufficiently by the insurgent planning model; these undertakings involved groups engaging with the

government, indicating collaboration between the state and civil society. This led me to the co-production framework, which I used as another model by which to understand group practices. Thus, as an outsider, I wondered to what extent their co-production and insurgent activities could be seen as mutually exclusive, or whether they were somehow

51 complementary. This question formed the basis of my research and led me to critically examine the planning practices of civil society groups.

The case study groups were selected based on the following criteria:

· demonstrate a willingness to share planning practices and experiences of their organisation;

· groups share similar concerns but use different strategies to address the needs of their members and/clients;

· have a legal identity with an accreditation from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)17;

· have field operations in the city;

· have been in operation for at least 5 years; and,

· have members or clients that are based in urban areas.

The three groups represent the variety of civil society in the country in terms of membership, programmes, strategies they use to achieve their goals, and their degree of collaboration with the government. A brief description of these groups follows.

· General Assembly Binding Women for Reform, Integrity, Equality, Leadership and Action-Panay, or GABRIELA, is a left-leaning group espousing a political ideology (national democracy). They are commonly associated with collective protest actions (e.g. rallies, petition-signing, pickets) and are known for taking an oppositional stance against state policies and practices.

· Homeless People’s Federation of the Philippines -Western Visayas, or HPFP, is

represented by urban poor groups in Iloilo City that primarily addresses problems on housing and security of tenure. This community-based organisation is an affiliate of the Slum Dwellers International (SDI) which promotes a partnership framework with local government units.

· Jaro Archdiocesan Social Action Center, or JASAC, is a NGO that provides a wide range of programmes and services to parish members and other clients. This church- based group has a long tradition of close relationships with the government. Yet this

17

The SEC is a Philippine estate commission that supervises, monitors, investigates, and sanctions all registered business entities in the country. It also makes policies related to market securities (SEC, 2011). SEC also oversees all registered non-stock and non-profit organisations, such as the three case study groups in this study.

52 group also takes a critical stance against the government by initiating collective protests in the form of prayer rallies.

Purposive and snowball sampling were used to identify the participants from case study groups for interviews (See Appendix A for the letter to participate in the study). They were chosen based on information received from other interviewees, who recommended further

participants with knowledge of the groups’ planning practices. I interviewed as many

participants as would consent to be interviewed, or until thematic saturation was reached.

Representatives from other sectors were also interviewed for the study. They came from the city planning office, environment and natural resources office, the academe, the military, the church, the business sector, and the media. They were asked about their involvement with civil society groups (but not necessarily with the case study groups) and of their views on planning-related issues in Iloilo City and in the Philippines. The interviews helped inform a broader perspective of the planning practices of the three case study groups. In all, 73 people were interviewed from the case study groups and 30 people were interviewed from other sectors that had some working relations with the groups. The ‘other sectors’ representatives

were from the city planning and development office, environment and natural resources office, the academe, the military, the church, and the business sector (See Appendix B.1 for the consent form for interview).

Table 3.1 A summary of the groups and number of people interviewed in the study.

Category Number of Participants A.Civil Society Groups

GABRIELA 20

JASAC 21

HPFP 32

B.Other Sectors 30

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