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Depoliticizing Development: The World Bank and Social Capital
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 has become the subject of a flurry of books and research papers. Harriss 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.
- GenresEconomics
158 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2002
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July 23, 2024
Excellent book for anyone interested in state-society relationships, and of course for development studies students. The book is
1) A scathing indictment of Robert Putnam - the way he and his colleagues have built the vaguest concept of social capital to fill in a massive void that economists have left in their development prescriptions after ignoring all other social science - and how gladly it was picked up by World Bank to bypass actual political processes.
2) An excellent argument for bringing back 'politics' - Harriss tears down into neoclassical scholars for ignoring the study of historical conditions, and their selective attribution of causality to whatever factors they liked, measuring however they wish. He highlights scholars who have done actual grounded research in the same regions that social capitalists have brought out their case studies.
While I have my reservations about a benevolent welfare state and Harriss himself is careful to not always conflate the state with politics, it is arguable that the democratic welfare state is an apparatus that is worth fighting for, despite its imperfections. The current development talk on 'community empowerment' and 'participation' largely bypasses the uncomfortable discussions on distribution of power and resources, to treat them only as technical deficit problems - without an understanding of why the deficit exists in the first place. In the words of late Shankar guha niyogi, both 'Sangharsh' and 'Nirman' are necessary for the radical manifesto of change.
1) A scathing indictment of Robert Putnam - the way he and his colleagues have built the vaguest concept of social capital to fill in a massive void that economists have left in their development prescriptions after ignoring all other social science - and how gladly it was picked up by World Bank to bypass actual political processes.
2) An excellent argument for bringing back 'politics' - Harriss tears down into neoclassical scholars for ignoring the study of historical conditions, and their selective attribution of causality to whatever factors they liked, measuring however they wish. He highlights scholars who have done actual grounded research in the same regions that social capitalists have brought out their case studies.
While I have my reservations about a benevolent welfare state and Harriss himself is careful to not always conflate the state with politics, it is arguable that the democratic welfare state is an apparatus that is worth fighting for, despite its imperfections. The current development talk on 'community empowerment' and 'participation' largely bypasses the uncomfortable discussions on distribution of power and resources, to treat them only as technical deficit problems - without an understanding of why the deficit exists in the first place. In the words of late Shankar guha niyogi, both 'Sangharsh' and 'Nirman' are necessary for the radical manifesto of change.
Displaying 1 of 1 review