Discourse, Sex and Gender in Global Governance

Abstract

I approach the gendered configuration of global governance through what can be called a ‘discourse theoretic’ methodology. This chapter outlines what I mean by this and what role therein resides for the categories of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. My research uses genealogical political inquiry to probe and decentre discursive ‘common sense’ in global politics. Thus, I analyse all objects in the world (people, ideas, institutions, processes, practices, artefacts, data) as objects of discourse, dependent for their meaning and articulation on the discursive structures in which they are located. This research is particularly guided by the concept of heteronormativity, which is, I argue, critical in understanding the ways in which the World Bank’s discourse of global governance and development reproduces culturally embedded and gendered meaning, knowledge and power.