The politics of anti-politics: What does the buzzword "community-driven development" do? The case of Mindanao peace and development

by: Nikki Philline C. dela Rosa
Volume: - | Number: 1 | Year: 2010

Despite the hard lessons of failed programs and unintended consequences, why is it that the "development machine" continues to churn out similar programs again and again? Is there an instrumentality to this propensity? Or is it just a matter of not learning from experience? This study attempts to unravel the elements that constitute the answer to these questions by examining development buzzwords and their instrumentality to the reinforcement and maintenance not just of state power, as Ferguson (1990) posits, but also of what Wade (1996) calls the “art of paradigm maintenance” of the dominant economic and political structure. Using Foucault’s (1991) concept of governmentality, this study examines the World Bank-coordinated project, Mindanao Trust Fund for Reconstruction and Development Project (MTF-RDP) being implemented in Mindanao, Southern Philippines, to answer the question: What does the buzzword “community-driven development” do? At the core of this study is the argument that buzzwords are not innocuous; they are dispositifs of rule and worldmaking that fit the exigencies of both the state and the global power structure, herein represented by the dominant economic paradigm of the World Bank. To unpack this argument, this study is structured thus: The introduction provides the research agenda, purpose, structure and methodology of the study. Section 1 is a cursory investigation of the shifts in development buzzwords to trace the historical, socioeconomic, political and ideological contexts of the dominant buzzwords in development orthodoxy and the purpose these serve. Section 2 tells the story of the MTF-RDP through an alternative vista of examining how the buzzword “community-driven development” (CDD) becomes a dispositif of governmentality of both the state and of the World Bank. Section 3 elaborates what the theory (governmentality) and evidence (MTF-RDP) have to say vis-à-vis the implication of the CDD buzzword on the reconstruction, and peace and development of postconflict states, in particular, and as a worldmaking project, in general.

Cleaning "dirty bananas" : an exploratory look at internalizing social and environmental costs of aerial spraying in banana plantations

by: Nikki Philline C. de la Rosa & Jamir Nino Ocampo
Volume: 22 | Number: 3 | Year: 2009

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Compilation of AFRIM Publications : Peace and development

by: AFRIM
Volume: - | Number: - | Year: 2010

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