reading: why is development political?

140727_book_item_140727.pdf

sustainable development goals

• UN

• aim to reach by 2030

• 17 goals, 169 targets

• tackle issues inc:

  • poverty

  • hunger

  • inequalities

  • empowerment of women

  • protecting the planet

• “forged from lived realities”

  • based on ‘A Million Voices: The World We Want’ (2013

  • “revealed a common sense of injustice, insecurity and poverty”

• “the great promise of the SDGs lay in closing the gap between ‘the world we want’ and the actions of some of the most powerful people and organisations capable of enabling or blocking its attainment”

• “the connection between what people need, value or are entitled to, and what they get, is always, everywhere, mediated by politics”

• “politics is a universal and pervasive feature of all collective human activity”

• “everything about development is political”

defining the politics of development

• 3 I’s: "institutions, interests, ideas

• “studying the politics of development…is about critically analysing the processes behind these outcomes”

• “in this book, we define the politics of development as a process of contesting alternative desired futures”

• “the politics of development is the unavoidable process of contestation over alternative desired futures”

• “contestation as the exercise of human agency" - or the capacity to act - in ways that we want to achieve what we want”

• “this competitive struggle for power and influence is exacerbated by scarcity of vital resources, whether fresh water, arable land, clean air, or quality education”

what ‘development’ is contested?

• development is about expanding capabilities, freedoms and living conditions

• some groups benefit, others lose

  • “trade-offs in development”

• “people-centred lens”

• “alternative desired futures”

why is contestation unavoidable?

1. diversity: people have different identities, needs n preferences

2. scarcity & inequality: resources are finite and unevenly distributed

3. colonial legacies: historical extraction and domination created structural inequalities that persist today

• “scarcity is…politically constructed”

• “contestation is inevitable”

where does contestation happen?

• formal arenas » parliaments, summits, councils

• everyday spaces » homes, streets, social media, workplaces

• embedded in daily life

• political decisions are only the surface later

• “politics happens everywhere”

• “all events…have the potential to be political”