Journal ArticleDOI
What do buzzwords do for development policy? a critical look at ‘participation’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘poverty reduction’
Andrea Cornwall,Karen Brock +1 more
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In the fast-moving world of development policy, buzzwords play an important part in framing solutions as mentioned in this paper, and today's development orthodoxies are captured in a seductive mix of such words, among which 'participation', 'empowerment' and 'poverty reduction' take a prominent place.Abstract:
In the fast-moving world of development policy, buzzwords play an important part in framing solutions. Today's development orthodoxies are captured in a seductive mix of such words, among which 'participation', 'empowerment' and 'poverty reduction' take a prominent place. This paper takes a critical look at how these three terms have come to be used in international development policy, exploring how different configurations of words frame and justify particular kinds of development interventions. It analyses their use in the context of two contemporary development policy instruments, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We show how words that once spoke of politics and power have come to be reconfigured in the service of today's one- size-fits-all development recipes, spun into an apoliticised form that everyone can agree with. As such, we contend, their use in development policy may offer little hope of the world free of poverty that they are used to evoke. The past 10 years have witnessed a remarkable apparent confluence of positions in the international development arena. Barely any development actor could take serious issue with the way the objectives of development are currently framed. This new consensus is captured in a seductive mix of buzzwords. 'Participation' and 'empowerment', words that are 'warmly persuasive' 1 and fulsomely positive, promise an entirely different way of doing business. Harnessed in the service of 'poverty reduction' and decorated with the clamours of 'civil society' and 'the voices of the poor', they speak of an agenda for transformation that combines no-nonsense pragmatism with almost unimpeachable moral authority. It is easy enough to get caught up in the emotive calls for action, to feel that, in the midst of all the uncertainties of the day, international institutions are working together for the good, and that they have now got the story right and are really going to make a difference.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Ethics of Vulnerability, Social Inclusion and Social Capital
TL;DR: In this article, a two dimensional understanding of human vulnerability is proposed: vulnerability should be seen as a fundamental human condition that both calls for ethical response and enables moral agency, and the emphasis on the moral and political agency of "the vulnerable" or "the excluded" themselves, leads to a renewed consideration of the role of social movements in constructing more inclusive and participatory societies.
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Community-University Research Partnerships: Reflections on the Canadian Social Economy Experience
Peter V. Hall,Ian MacPherson +1 more
TL;DR: The Canadian Social Economy Research Partnerships (CSERP) as mentioned in this paper was a large-scale research effort to support the social economy sector of Canada, which included not only the voluntary non-profit sector, as Americans might define it, but also cooperatives, social enterprises and informal, emerging efforts.
Dissertation
In search of solidarity : international solidarity work between Canada and South Africa 1975-2010
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Traditional knowledge in international forest policy: contested meanings and divergent discourses
TL;DR: In this article, the convergence and divergence of discourses on traditional knowledge in international environment and development policy before and since UNCED, particularly in the UN forest policy process, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World.
Susan Greenhalgh,Arturo Escobar +1 more
TL;DR: The 2012 edition of the 2012 edition vii Preface xlv as discussed by the authors is a collection of essays about development and the anthropology of modernity, with a focus on post-development.
Book
Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays
TL;DR: Althusser's "For Marx" (1965) and "Reading Capital" (1968) had an enormous influence on the New Left of the 1960s and continues to influence modern Marxist scholarship as mentioned in this paper.
Book
Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World
TL;DR: The 2012 edition of the 2012 edition vii Preface xlv as discussed by the authors is a collection of essays about development and the anthropology of modernity, with a focus on post-development.