Agency & Development - Do Individuals Matter?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Towards and into the 2000s, the shift from individualist charity - in the form of child sponsorship - to collective modes of community development accelerated in INGOs like Plan International. PlanetWorka explores how this was influenced by development trends, as well as insitutional pressures to preserve the power and confidence of Northern donors. 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

The Girl Effect, and a focus of development effort on the 'girl of the South', has become a dominant theme in international NGOs and development institutions. Driven by neoliberal feminism in the North, this narrative seeks to redefine the identity of women in the South, and legitimise neoliberal tropes of empowerment and entrepreneurship. PlanetWorka explores the rationale and implications through the example of an international NGO, Plan International. 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

Child sponsorship pre-dates the development decades, and the era of community development. As such, it appears as an anachronism to the dominant collective discourse of contemporary development, yet remains remarkably resilient as a development and fundraising modality. PlanetWorka traces the evolution of child sponsorship in a well-known International NGO to demonstrate how it has effectively transitioned and legitimised INGOs as development actors. 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

In an attempt to resolve the contradictions inherent in the 'developer's' role, development ideology promotes reflexivity in practice. In a context of developmentalism, does it matter? As they become more aware of their role can development practitioners adapt in a manner that is meaningful? 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

International NGOs employ a range of development staff, stratified carefully between operations and 'program' in country offices. Within the 'program' staff, expertise is differentiated bewteen professional at the national head office and local development facilitators. Moreover, most international NGOs rely heavily on 'community volunteers' - unpaid local residents who play a crucial role in operational activity and norms transfer. 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

Professionalisation has brought a powerful dynamic into the world of the development practitioner, creating an epistemic divide between the transnational 'expert' and the 'local' development practitioner. The former elevated to a powerful role, the latter constrained by their positionality and characteristics of the 'other'. 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

Contemporary development practice invovles the implementation of highly technical project planning and implementation approaches. Rather than enhancing development outcomes, these represent technologies of control. Implemented as part of a culture of managerialism, these approaches ensure that the 'expert' is able to assert control over both the local development facilitator and community participants. 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

Is the development practitioners role to 'deliver' development, or impose development discourse? Development practitioners are important interlocutors for translating developmentalism into localised norms, calling into question the ethical virtue of their work. 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

If development practice is where developmentalism is cemented, then the development practioner must be the labourer that applies this. Who are these 'practitioners'? In this episode PlanetWorka explores the positionality of the development worker in development, and identifies a growing divide between the global development professional, and the local commuity development worker. 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

A powerful gender and identity theorist, Judith Butler has conceptualised human agency as 'performativity'. PlanetWorka examines how this is different from the notion of performance, how performativity refers to the constitution of identity through repeated routines, and how re-signification offers potential for agency. 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

Two eminent theorists have shaped our understanding of individual agency in development. Anthony Giddens' theory of Structuration and Michel Foucault's theory of Governmentality are heavy influences on developmentalism. PlanetWorka explores how key ideas in these theories have shaped how individual agency is located in 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

How does the concept of individual agency address the tension between the excessive individualism of liberal theory, and the focus of the collective 'community' in development? PlanetWorka explores how social theory has influenced the notion of individual agency in development, and located this centrally in normative expectations of collective social action and benefit. 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