Depoliticizing Development - The World Bank and Social Capital

Depoliticizing Development - The World Bank and Social Capital

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Author: John Harriss
Publisher: LeftWord
Year: 2002/2008
Language: English
Pages: 145
ISBN/UPC (if available): 818749624X

Description

Now in paperback edition, this book explores the origins of the idea of social capital, meaning, most simply put, social connections - which was unheard of outside a small circle of sociologists until very recently. Now it is proclaimed by the World Bank to be the missing link in international development.

This powerful and lucid critique will be of immense use to all those interested in development studies, including sociologists, economists, planners, and NGO and other activists.

The idea of social capital – meaning, most simply put, social connections – was unheard of outside a small circle of sociologists until very recently. Now it is proclaimed by the World Bank to be the missing link in international development, and it has become the subject of a flurry of books and research papers, including some, recently, on India.

This book explores the origins of the idea of social capital, and its diverse meanings, in the work of James Coleman, Pierre Bourdieu, and of Robert Putnam-who is responsible, more than any other, through his work on Italy and the United States, for its extraordinary rise. John Harriss then asks why this notion should have taken off in the dramatic way that it has done, and finds in its uses by the World Bank the attempt, systematically, to obscure class relations and power. Social capital has thus come to play a significant part in the anti-politics machine that is constituted by the discourses of international development.

REVIEW

The author has raised a valid debate on terms in development literature now in vogue. He has brought to the fore, in unequivocal terms, the politics and machinations of the World Bank to depoliticize development around the world-to suit its won new agenda for politics.
-THE STATESMAN

Contents

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION
The Missing Link and the Anti-Politics Machine

WHERE THE MISSING LINK CAME FROM
(or, how a Harvard professor became a celebrity)

THE FRAGILITY OF THE FOUNDATIONS
(or, why the Harvard professor’s idea is so misleading)

ANTI-POLITICS IN AMERICA
The Debate About Social Capital and Civil Society in the United States
(or, another Harvard professor enters the fray)

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND SYNERGY ACROSS
THE PUBLIC-PRIVATE DIVIDE
(or, a California professor comes to the rescue?)

THE TROJAN HORSE?
Social Capital in the World Bank

PUTTING SOCIAL CAPITAL TO WORK
What Happened to the Trojan Horse

CONCLUSION
The Case for Political Action

References

Index