Cashmore, Matthew
- Aalborg University
Research article2014Peer reviewed
Seeing power in international development cooperation: environmental policy integration and the World Bank
Cashmore, Matthew; Richardson, Timothy; Axelsson, Anna
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to sharpen the ways in which power dynamics can be analytically seen' in complex governance contexts where particular ways of governing, and their associated horizons of thought, shape and are in turn shaped by intricate interactions between actors. A theoretical approach is proposed, combining a governmentality perspective with Stewart Clegg's theory of circuits of power. The framework is applied in a case study of experimentation by the World Bank with a new tool for Environmental Policy Integration (EPI). Rather than conceptualising the EPI tool as a governmental technology through which the World Bank could promote its favoured vision of political culture in a local setting (here urban planning in Dhaka, Bangladesh), an alternative account is generated that reveals a will to power among the international development community, realised through the construction of knowledge. This alternative approach suggests that the primary motivation for the will to power is not, as a neo-colonial perspective might suggest, power over developing countries, but relational power at the international scale. It is concluded that the narrative generated through our hybrid analytical perspective demonstrates the usefulness of multi-theoretic approaches and offers a useful extension to the analytical purchase of governmentality.
Keywords
circuits of power; relational power; governmentality; environmental policy integration; strategic environmental assessment; Bangladesh
Published in
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
2014, volume: 39, number: 1, pages: 155-168
Publisher: WILEY-BLACKWELL
SLU Authors
Richardson, Tim
- Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)
Axelsson, Anna
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Global goals (SDG)
SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities
SDG17 Partnerships for the goals
UKÄ Subject classification
Globalization Studies
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12011
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/52495