Agency & Development - Do Individuals Matter?

PlanetWorka

Contemporary international development practice is shaped by politics and extends historical assumptions, concepts and narratives that specify ways of working for professional and practitioners in international and 'local' NGOs. This series explores the theoretical and ethical issues in contemporary development organisations and their discourse, and how development NGO workers are 'captured' by this discourse. planetworka.substack.com

  1. 09/20/2023

    Concluding Thoughts - Can Practitioners Have Agency?

    Is there space for individual agency within the confines of developmentalism? Only if we actively dismantle the two pillars of this ideology - neliberalism and institutionalisation - and confront the power of technocratic elites and INGOs... This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetworka.substack.com

    Concluding Thoughts - Can Practitioners Have Agency?

  2. 09/20/2023

    Do practitioners have individual agency?

    Considering what we have covered in this podcast series, do Plan CDFs exert agency as individual actors? As this episode argues, they cannot, as this is a misreading of 'agency' as an expression of individual action or attributes that is central to developmentalist discourse. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetworka.substack.com

    Do practitioners have individual agency?

  3. 09/18/2023

    Performatist Tropes - Project Media

    Publicising development in the form of projects fulfils important needs of developmentalism. On the one hand it serves northern donors with expressions of the success of development subjects, while simultaneously re-legitimising the INGO as an enabling actor in this success. To do so, project media visits have to set up highly performative scenarios where the primary emergent interests are not necessarily those the project beneficiaries. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetworka.substack.com

    Performatist Tropes - Project Media

  4. 09/18/2023

    Performatist Tropes - The Project Visit

    NGO, donor and local government project visits are ceremonious and ritualised, imbuing the event with important political symbolism essential to the legitimacy of actors and their relative status. For the development actors, these events maintain developmental continuity in their areas of operation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetworka.substack.com

    Performatist Tropes - The Project Visit

  5. 09/18/2023

    Performatist Tropes - The Sponsor Visit

    Child sponsorship is essentially a virtual experience, played out through communication and marketing intermediaries. These programs do, however, offer the opportunity for a sponsor to visit 'their' sponsored child. The sponsor visit becomes a microcosm of neo-colonial arrangements and interactions. The compliance of the sponsored child's family is essential to this enterpise, regardless of benefit to them or their child. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetworka.substack.com

    Performatist Tropes - The Sponsor Visit

  6. 09/18/2023

    Performatist Tropes - Partnership

    Partnership is an essential part of contemporary INGO practice and a central trope of developmentalist discourse. Yet, the interaction between INGOs and local actors is replete with contradiction, embedded power imbalance, and reproduction of traditional roles. In fact, the process and instruments in establishing partnership are the main driver of neutralising contention. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetworka.substack.com

    Performatist Tropes - Partnership

  7. 09/17/2023

    Performatist Tropes - 'Planning Development'

    Developmentalist practice involves the performance of well-worn tropes. One of these is 'planning development', with highly stylised processes to design and conduct participatory design workshops. This episode examines this iconic development trope. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetworka.substack.com

    Performatist Tropes - 'Planning Development'

  8. 09/17/2023

    Developmentalism in Operational Practice

    The field setting is where developmentalism finds expression in the everyday operations of organisations and the daily lives of practitioners. This episode sets the scene for the reality of operational practice of NGO community practice teams in Tanzania. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit planetworka.substack.com

    Developmentalism in Operational Practice
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Contemporary international development practice is shaped by politics and extends historical assumptions, concepts and narratives that specify ways of working for professional and practitioners in international and 'local' NGOs. This series explores the theoretical and ethical issues in contemporary development organisations and their discourse, and how development NGO workers are 'captured' by this discourse. planetworka.substack.com

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