Neoliberal Development Research Articles

Mining and subaltern politics: political struggle against neoliberal development in Bangladesh

ABSTRACTDrawing on social movement scholarship, this paper analyses subaltern struggles against a multinational mining company. The Phulbari coal mine is the centre of contention between the mining company and local/national activists. Local concerns about the dispossession of lands and livelihoods and environmental destruction have been merged with a Leftist political agenda on the growing vulnerability of the state and national sovereignty in the Global South. A close examination of the movement's discourses suggests that a broader political struggle against resource plunder and energy imperialism has been strengthened by local community resistance to an environmentally destructive coal mine. Based on in-depth qualitative interviews, I analyse how activists have created new meanings of the conflict to confront and delegitimize hegemonic discourses of capitalist development and modernity.

Subsistence Under Siege: Women's Labor and Resistance in Eastern India

Neoliberal development has opened the eastern Indian state of Odisha to mining companies and steel conglomerates, threatening the region's ancient subsistence economies and provoking a fierce resistance, in which women have taken a leading role.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Slum Conditions in Haryana and Pro-poor Housing Initiatives in Faridabad, India

Rapid urbanization forces urban poor to live in slums and squatter settlement. In neo-liberal development approach, participatory planning and collaborative actions are becoming popular in slum upgrading programmes. This paper discusses the slum scenario in state of Haryana along with detailed pro-poor housing attempts in industrial city of Haryana i.e. Faridabad. The paper reviews the three projects that aimed to improve the living conditions and lives of urban poor communities in Faridabad. The study examines in detail BSUP projects at Dabua Colony and Bapu Nagar taken up under India’s first urban renewal mission i.e. JNNURM within the context of community participation. Results reveal that contrary to the state’s rhetoric of inclusive governance, the urban poor are completely excluded from settlement planning, leading to a lack of understanding of their needs by the state. BSUP housing scheme has failed to mobilize slum dwellers. Drawing on the experience of these projects, the paper seeks to answer the question: why the stated objectives were not achieved and makes recommendation that community led initiatives and slum mapping should be at the core of slum improvement strategy so that qualitatively superior areas can be planned for the unprivileged.

Masking neo-liberal development: Polanyi, rule of law and dis-embedding dynamics

PurposePolanyi in his analysis of market dis-embedding suggests a drift in economic relations from the social to the fictitious. The purpose of this paper is to add two crucial components to the dis-embedding dynamic: rule of law discourse as a market force away from the social, and through suspension of imagination and of disbelief, the incongruous compatibility of actual and fictional markets that further works against embedding.Design/methodology/approachTheory building through the application and testing of the Polanyian market dis-embedding analysis is a central concern for the paper. Through the example of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the manner in which the rule of law discourse masks neo-liberal development inequities, the paper offers an understanding of the forces behind market dis-embedding North to South Worlds and the manner in which through the collusion of legal orientalist, the true impact of the development inequities are concealed.FindingsThe empirical value of the theorising is to allow for studies on the impact of FDI on fragmented South World market economies using Polanyian dis-embedding refined by the suspension of critique which the rule of law discourse enables.Originality/valueThe masking functions of the rule of law discourse in global trade contexts, the paper argues, conceal stark market power asymmetries hardwired into South World development policy through post-colonial free-trade regimes. The legal certainty and commercial predictability that the institutions and processes of dispersed law are said to ensure, have an established market relationship with global trade. However, while resting on ideologies of liberty and equality, the rule of law discourse hides their market suspension in favour of stabilising and auctioning universally inequitable market conditions for the purposes of the neo-liberal global trade agenda.

Planning Option for African Renaissance: An Appraisal of Paradigm Shift to Neo-Mercantile Planning. Reflections from Nigeria

The neoliberal planning theory, the subject of the paper, is derived from the policy substantiation of the neoliberal development ideology. The theory is built on participatory principles in the context of market force ruled by informality. This planning perspective has had the potential to sustain the imperial space economy associated with Africa since the mid-19th century. Neoliberal planning theory is regarded as a theory that seriously questions its planning cognate purports as it indicates the outlook for contemporary planning initiatives, perspectives and frameworks. This paper argues that this trend is potentially antithetical to the rhetoric of African renaissance and postulates a change in development ideology as an entry point for appropriate planning option for Africa.

Aid for trade and ecologically sustainable development in Australia’s international aid program

ABSTRACTIn September 2015, Australia, along with 193 member states of the United Nations, signed the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The facilitation of international trade and increasing foreign aid for developing countries were emphasised as crucial means for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. An important role was assigned to the international Aid for Trade initiative, which is about stimulating economic growth in developing countries through removing constraints to trade. Australia has been a strong supporter of the Aid for Trade initiative since it was launched at the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in 2005. Aid for trade has become a central plank of the ‘new development paradigm’ of Australia’s international aid program. This article analyses the conceptualisation and practice of aid for trade in Australia’s aid, with a focus on how it links to ecologically sustainable development. It argues that Australia’s aid for trade is reinforcing the neo-liberal development paradigm in which environmental dimensions are overall neglected and private sector development and free trade are prioritised. In order to achieve international and national development goals of poverty reduction and sustainable development, environmental sustainability needs to be fully integrated into the growing aid for trade portfolio of Australia’s international aid.

Politics, pleasure, and difference in the intimate city: Himalayan students remake the future

Across India, first-generation college students are flooding from rural backgrounds into Indian universities in urban settings – many facing additional challenges of ethnic, religious, regional, or linguistic minority status. Following the lives of Ladakhi youth, who travel to the city from the edge of the Tibetan plateau in India’s Jammu and Kashmir State, this article traces the experience of ‘the intimate city’ through discussion of urban pleasures and marginalization. Bridging critical emergent literatures on education and on the intimate and political city, here, I argue that the rural to urban mobility necessary for education enables self-consciously global and cosmopolitan subjectivities for subaltern youth that transcend and complicate both neoliberal development projects and parents’ hopes. Despite problems of unemployment, decline of government jobs, and increasing competition between educated youth, higher education remains a path to a better standard of living, particularly for first-generation students. Parallel to this instrumental role of higher education, for underrepresented students joining the higher education path, experiences of discrimination and marginalization can be intensified in the foreign urban setting and university campus. This research finds that young people both struggle and thrive in the city and that their embodied practices of clothing, food, and friendship enable them to forge subaltern forms of cosmopolitan belonging that transcend regional and national borders, create new subjectivities, and different understandings of the political. This work then suggests attention to the role that rural–urban mobility and education play in enabling new and self-consciously global or transnational subjectivities for subaltern youth that exceed neoliberal state development projects, create new horizons beyond the medical/engineering-focused dreams of rural parents, and reshape geographies of belonging.

Worlds beyond the political? Post-development approaches in practices of transnational solidarity activism

This article considers some ways in which one strand of post-development thinking has influenced non-governmental organisation (NGO)-led activist discourses and practices of transnational solidarity. It argues that there has been a tendency for these discourses and practices to rearticulate racialised constructions of unspoiled and authentic ‘natives’ requiring protection which are historically embedded in colonial practices of governance. In turn, this has meant the failure to acknowledge indigenous histories of political organisation and resistance. Further, the characterisation of development in binary terms as both homogeneous and always undesirable has meant the delegitimisation of demands for equality as well as the neglect of the implications of the decisive shift from developmentalism to neoliberal globalisation as the dominant paradigm. Drawing upon a discussion of aspects of the local, national and transnational campaign to prevent proposed bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills in Odisha (India), I argue that given that international NGOs are themselves embedded in the architecture of neoliberal development and aid, their campaigning activities can be understood as facilitating the displacement and marginalisation of local activists and silencing their complex engagements with ideas of development. This potentially defuses and depoliticises opposition to neoliberal forms of development, while transposing collective agency onto undifferentiated publics in the Global North, processes which, however, continue to be actively resisted.

People’s Negotiation of Space in the context of Urbanization and Historic Conservation in Clan Jetties, Malaysia

Penang is a rapidly urbanizing city in Malaysia. Neo liberal urban development in Penang challenges the vernacular built environment of the city. The urban fabric of Penang is rich with different traits of architecture from the West and the East. With the population density and the land values going up, much of the local urban spaces are being replaced by the “modern” high rises and other land uses. While the colonial legacy of Penang built environment has been recognized by the heritage discourse to be conserved, self-built and local spaces are being ignored. Both urbanization and historic conservation impacts the transformation of Penang. In this context, Clan Jetties of Penang as a self-built settlement which was produced and transformed by ordinary people over the last century is facing the challenges of both urbanization and historic conservation. This paper elaborates on how the Clan Jetty residents negotiate the spaces in the context of urbanization in order to survive and maintain their sense of belongings to their neighborhood. UNESCO incorporated Clan Jetties to the Georgetown World Heritage site in 2008. Although this new designation of world Heritage saved Clan Jetties from getting replaced, it also halted the natural transformation process of the settlement. However, people desire modernization to transform their neighborhood despite the heritage guidelines imposed upon them. Clan Jetty residents who rejected the conversion of their neighborhood to a “modern” neighborhood as defined and designed by the Government are in the process of following their own instincts in making small changes in their neighborhood. This paper discusses this continuous process of production of spaces by ordinary people by analyzing and contextualizing their stories.

Intellectual property protection and development: The case of sustainable sea transport in Pacific Island countries

AbstractThis paper is concerned with the impact of intellectual property laws on development in small island developing states. Much of the literature on intellectual property and development proceeds on the basis that there is only one model of each, namely the global model of intellectual property underpinned by the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and a neoliberal development framework. This paper argues, conversely, that there are multiple models of both. Exposing this plurality should enable a far more creative approach to intellectual property policy, particularly in countries whose levels of technological development and social structures are very different to those in the global North. This argument is explored through focusing on the example of sea transport.

Re-reading remittances through solidarity: Mexican hometown associations in New York City

This paper analyzes how Mexican hometown associations in New York City practice solidarity so that they might best meet the needs of the transnational communities that they serve. Commonly formed by immigrants in the United States, hometown associations are organizations which send money collectively to their home countries, supporting public infrastructure and community projects. Scholars have debated both the merits of remittance programs that channel migrant funds as economic development and the agency of immigrant economies in neoliberal development structures. Through primary data collected from interviews in New York City, I review the frustrations that hometown associations have with one such program: Mexico's programa tres por uno para migrantes. Concurrently, I examine how the same hometown associations engage ethical economic practices of collective remittance sending and community service provision in New York City. Drawing on feminist literature on diverse economies, I argue that the solidarity work of hometown associations disrupts the dominant remittance as development discourse. Migrants are not content to participate in tres por uno and through practicing solidarity they distance themselves from this neoliberal policy.

Educating Educators and Teachers in Poland under Conditions of Neo-Liberal Culture of Consumption

Abstract The presented text discusses the problems of academic and teacher education under conditions of consumption culture and neoliberal ideology development at the beginning of the 21st century in Poland. The article puts the thesis that neo-liberalism, manifested by economic phenomena, permeates all spheres of social life, enhancing the characteristics of consumption culture. It enters education, including academic education. In this context, there has been shown a part of our research conducted in 2006-2016 (27 interviews in depth with students completing Master’s degree in Pedagogy). The research has taken the form of semantic reconstruction of statements made on studies and pedagogical training, expressed by students during in-depth interviews (IDI). During the research study the leading categories have been defined, which set the main perspectives for thinking about study. Within these perspectives, the student’s goals of study have been identified and more detailed profiles of perceiving pedagogical studies have been defined. The comparative analysis of the IDI narratives of 2006 and 2016 allows us to see phenomena that can be interpreted as indicating that pedagogy students are increasingly taking over the market thinking, acting more explicitly as customers of educational services, presenting a utilitarian attitude to study.

Subaltern Movements in India: Gendered Geographies of Struggle against Neoliberal Development

Subaltern Movements in India: Gendered Geographies of Struggle against Neoliberal Development

Cold critique, faint passion, bleak future: Post-Development’s surrender to global capitalism

This article carries out a psychoanalytic critique of Post-Development, arguing that the latter’s inattention to the unconscious underpinnings of power not only leaves it unable to explain why development discourse persists, but also deprives it of a radical politics, resulting in a surrender to global capitalism. Drawing on the work of Escobar, Ferguson and Esteva, the article valorises Post-Development’s important insights on the production of development discourse and its attendant power mechanisms. But using a Lacanian lens, it also probes Post-Development’s failure to address how power is mediated at the level of the subject: in maintaining that (capitalist) development is produced discursively in a cold, impersonal way (like an ‘anti-politics machine’), Post-Development ignores the fact that such power is only able to take hold, expand and, crucially, persist through unconscious libidinal attachments (e.g. desires, enjoyment). This failure leaves Post-Development with few resources – beyond localised resistance (Escobar, Esteva) or the call for a universal basic income (Ferguson) – to address the structural challenges of global capitalism. Psychoanalytically speaking, such a (Left) position appears to manifest a secret desire that nothing too much must change: Post-Development may well criticise the disciplinary mechanisms of neoliberal development, but ultimately it engages in an unconscious acceptance of capitalism.

Neoliberal Development, Sustainability and the Production of Fictitious Commodity: Some Cases from the Adivasi Region in India

Neoliberal Development, Sustainability and the Production of Fictitious Commodity: Some Cases from the Adivasi Region in India

Work on wheels: collective organising of motorcycle taxis in Nigerian cities

This article examines the political economy of collective organising in the motorcycle taxi economy of Nigerian cities. Using the mixed-methods approach, this study demonstrates the nature and problems of collective organising in the motorcycle taxi economy. It notes that implementation of a neo-liberal development policy in Nigeria in the 1980s gave rise to job losses and catalysed the creation of a motorcycle taxi sub-system as a livelihood. While collective organising in the motorcycle taxi sub-system is sometimes exploited to advance the ambition of some politicians, the informal economy is often paradoxically victimised through the initiation and implementation of hostile urban policies, such as banning motorcycle taxis, soon after electoral mandates are secured. This paper, however, argues that despite the challenges, collective organising represents a struggle to influence urban policy and could present an opportunity for a new form of engagement between the state and the informal economy in development policy and urban governance.

English

For over two decades now, Sub-Saharan Africa has been superimposed in a coercive and contradictory neo-liberal development economism agenda. According to this paradigm, markets and not states are the fundamental determinants of distributive justice and human flourishing through the promotion of economic growth that is believed to trickle down to the poor in due time. Despite the global intellectual criticism of this neo-liberal development economics orthodox of measuring development and wellbeing in terms of market induced economic growth, autocratic states in Sub-Saharan Africa that have accumulated un-dimensional growth continue to be applauded as role models on poverty reduction, wellbeing and social justice by donors and global development institutions such as the World Bank and international monetary fund (IMF). This is basically because they have wholly embraced the implementation of the anti-pro-poor neo-liberal structural adjustment tool kit. This study uses a critical hermeneutics  methodology to expose the distortions embedded in neo-liberal gross domestic product (GDP) growth cartographies and how these disguise the social injustices against the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa with particular reference to Uganda. The study contends that in measuring development and wellbeing, human rights and social justice must take precedence over economic efficiency and GDP growth for that matter. Key words: Cartographies, Neo-liberal development, social injustices, Sub-Saharan Africa.

Philippine Technocracy and the Politics of Economic Decision-Making: A Comparison of the Martial Law and Post-Martial Law Periods

IntroductionDespite their being banished to Hall of Shame during 1986 People Power Revolution in Philippines, technocracy has continued to persist in country's transition from authoritarian rule to and up to present. Instead, however, of being called they are now referred to as managers. The change in name is quite understandable because during martial law period (1972- 86), technocracy became synonymous with repression which occurred during that era foremost of which was economic development at all costs, e.g., dislocation, militariza- tion, and elimination of communities which got in way of development projects. This reputation, therefore, earned technocrats (dis)honor of being referred to as third leg of stool which propped up authoritarian regime, other two of which were military and Marcos' relatives/cronies. Thus, administrations which fol- lowed that of Marcos government were conscious not to hire any of these techno- crats, particularly, those who came from World Bank (hereinafter referred to as WB) and International Monetary Fund (hereinafter referred to as IMF). But post- martial technocrats, however, continued their predecessors' policies of liberalization, free competition, and free trade but now under a neoliberal economic dispensation. The question which emerges is why this is case when technocracy in Philippines is not able to sustain economic growth which was seen in 1950s when country was second to Japan as having best economy in Asia and then left-behind in 1970s by its East Asian counterparts as among newly industrializing countries in region. In 1980s, on other hand, Philippine economic policies failed to bring it at par with its Southeast Asian neighbors, i.e., Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, which all became New Asian Tigers. The latest blow to country is that socialist Vietnam, a late comer to capitalist world, has economically overtaken Philippines.This article, therefore, explores factors which have strengthened as well as weakened Philippine technocracy during martial law and post-martial law periods. It shows that in general political leverage of technocrats came from support they have received from leadership who shares their economic vision and coun- try's major international lending creditors, IMF and WB. The weakening of their political clout, on other hand, is brought about by inability of leadership to address political and economic crisis. The first section of this article will discuss rise of Philippine technocracy during pre-martial law period (1960s-72) and eco- nomic debates which ensued during that period concerning trajectory of Philippine development. This establishes very foundation of strength of Philippine tech- nocracy. The second section, on other hand, examines crucial role they played during martial law period, particularly economic perspectives they espoused and challenges these confronted. And lastly, third section will discuss where Philip- pine technocracy is headed in a period of elite democracy as it confronts challenges to its neoliberal development paradigm and massive corruption.Defining Technocracy and Their Development Vision1)Technocracy is a rule by experts, a temporary form of rule that sometimes emerges after a period of poor governance. The term implies rule by specialists with expertise in non-political subjects, often economics and engineering.2) These engineers com- prised a critical new stratum in industrial production process.3) They are also referred to as the scientists, including physicists, mathematicians, chemists, engi- neers, computer program and others who work in varying degrees of applied or pure research (Glassman et al. 1993, 84). …

City profile: Actually existing neoliberalism in Greater Santiago

Greater Santiago, the capital of Chile, concentrates most of economic and political power of this nation and 35% of its population. It is a conurbation of 6 million inhabitants, comprising 37 municipalities without a metropolitan level authority, where large scale planning is executed by centralized authorities. The historic development of this metropolis was sharply modified by neoliberal policies that were implemented during Pinochet's dictatorship and by the constitutional definition of a reduced Subsidiary State. These structural reforms had a strong impact on urban development, due to the weakening and incoordination of sectoral planning agencies and the progressive accumulation of socio-spatial inequalities. After the recovery of democracy, a stronger emphasis on social policies was promoted, but public action became increasingly dependent on private providers of public goods. Nevertheless, the early adoption of modern regulations and a sustained period of economic growth have allowed for important advances in quality of life and to considerably reduce poverty levels. This article aims to provide a systemic and critical study of Greater Santiago's institutions, living conditions and the urban outcomes of market-driven planning, considering historical processes and the present contradictions in a partially modern but segregated metropolis. In conclusion, the uniqueness of Greater Santiago's neoliberal development is discussed, highlighting the concentration of power, the influence of capitals over policy design and the strong socio-spatial inequalities that reflect direct wealth circulation from natural resources extraction to financial and real estate rents, in the absence of a strong industrial sector. However, emerging policies and the expected first elected regional governments suggest ways to advance towards more inclusive, participative and intersectoral forms of public action, under the pressure of civil demands for a fairer distribution of wealth, public goods and decision power.

‘Cause we’re gonna lose big time’: Indigenous resource negotiations in settled Australia

ABSTRACTRecent work in Indigenous geographies theorizes that Indigenous peoples are differently placed in relation to the state, neoliberal development, and to other Indigenous peoples, rather than a simplistic Indigenous/non-Indigenous people and custodial/exploitative frame. Indigenous people’s claims to land in Australia are overlain by a reductionist, settler legal topography that confers land rights to some Aboriginal people, native title to others, and nothing to those whose connections to land have been ‘washed away in the tide of history’. This paper presents findings from interviews and focus groups with Aboriginal Australians in settled Australia, following negotiations over resource development. We argue that in the often-distant periphery where land rights and native title are compelling, the notion of intercultural space is exotic, marketed and celebrated. In contrast, in the clearly demarcated settler zones, intercultural spaces with significant Aboriginal populations are steadfastly inscribed as dispossessed spaces, ripe for development. Because of neoliberal state–corporate alliances and interests and the ease with which the development agenda is progressed in settled Australia, we argue that realization of where, how and why these geographies have come about is needed to achieve national intercultural space. Without this understanding, only a limited intercultural space will be achieved.