Arresting Development: The power of knowledge for social change

by Johnson; Craig A.

• ISBN13: 9780415381543
• ISBN10: 0415381541
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-01-14
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Scholars have become increasingly concerned about the impact of neo-liberalism on the field of development. Governments around the world have, for some time, been exposed to the forces of globalization and macro-economic reform, reflecting the power and influence of the world's principal international economic institutions and a broader commitment to the principles of neo-classical economics and free trade.

Author Biography

Craig Johnson is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Guelph in Canada. He has published widely in the field of governance, decentralization and sustainable development, focusing mainly on Asia. His most recent publication (co-edited) is Policy Windows and Livelihood Futures: Prospects for Poverty Reduction in Rural India (Oxford University Press, 2006).

Table of Contents

List of boxes, tables and figures	p. x
Preface and acknowledgements	p. xi
Deconstructing 'knowledge for development'	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
Neo-liberalism in theory and practice	p. 4
The debt crisis and the 'Washington consensus'	p. 6
Neo-liberalism with a human face? 'The post-Washington consensus'	p. 7
Neo-classical theory: a 'colonizing' concept?	p. 9
Re-politicizing development: the elusive quest for unified theory	p. 12
Arresting development? From development studies to area studies	p. 15
After Marxism: 'what is to be done?'	p. 17
Post-structuralism, postmodernism and 'post-development'	p. 19
Outline of the book	p. 22
The 'poverty of history' in neo-classical discourse	p. 24
Introduction	p. 24
The 'problem' of history in social science research	p. 25
History and positivist social science	p. 27
Debating positivism	p. 29
The tragedy of the commons	p. 31
Avoiding the tragedy: institutions, incentives and 'common property regimes'	p. 32
The poverty of history	p. 36
Inequality, efficiency and the commons	p. 38
Poverty, inequality and the commons: 'entitlement approaches'	p. 40
Privatizing the commons: rights, incentives and rational choice	p. 43
Ships in the night: history and science in commons scholarship	p. 45
Concluding remarks	p. 49
Exporting the model	p. 51
Introduction	p. 51
Theorizing the transition: Marxism, dependency and (capitalist) development	p. 52
Exporting the model	p. 53
The dependency debate	p. 55
World systems theory	p. 57
After dependency	p. 60
'Hermeneutic Marxism': problems of agency, identity and alienation'	p. 62
The postmodern turn	p. 64
Postmodern politics: class, social consciousness and (class) struggle	p. 66
The development 'impasse'	p. 68
Beyond the impasse: the end of ideology?	p. 69
The 'people without history': weapons of the weak or a weak weapon?	p. 71
Concluding remarks	p. 76
Development as discourse	p. 79
Introduction	p. 79
'The Foucault effect': history, genealogy and 'bio-power'	p. 81
Debating Foucault	p. 83
Development as discourse: the politics of post-development	p. 86
Post-development histories	p. 88
Normalization and discourse	p. 89
Visions of change	p. 91
Debating post-development	p. 93
Romanticism, relativism and representation	p. 96
Encountering James Ferguson	p. 99
Discourse, agency and power	p. 100
Policy, discourse and praxis	p. 103
Concluding remarks	p. 106
Development as freedom of choice	p. 109
Introduction	p. 109
Poverty as 'capability deprivation': theorizing the work of Amartya Sen	p. 111
Bridging structure and agency: Sen's theory of entitlement	p. 114
Sen's theory of public action	p. 115
Restricting the freedom to choose: Sen's theory of 'social commitment'	p. 116
Political action and the freedom to choose . . . what exactly?	p. 119
Participatory approaches: from 'PRA' to 'the SLA'	p. 121
Creating capabilities: the 'sustainable livelihoods approach'	p. 123
Assessing the SLA	p. 126
Concluding remarks	p. 129
Advancing knowledge for social change	p. 132
Introduction	p. 132
'Making services work for the poor'	p. 133
Debating the discipline: big theories, local processes and the art of comparison	p. 136
'Analytic narratives'	p. 138
An 'anti-history machine'?	p. 141
Bringing history back in: advancing knowledge for social change	p. 143
Concluding remarks	p. 148
Notes	p. 152
Bibliography	p. 163
Index	p. 180
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