Charis Enns

Indigenous voices and the making of the post-2015 development agenda: the recurring tyranny of participation

This paper explores recent efforts to ensure the participation of indigenous peoples in the making of the post-2015 development agenda. It is based on an examination of the UN’s global consultation process, conducted between July 2012 and July 2013. Using discursive analysis of consultation findings and reports, we argue that the UN’s approach to participatory development represents a pretence rather than an actual shift in power from development experts to the intended beneficiaries of development. Therefore the post-2015 consultation process aptly illustrates the recurring tyranny of participation, this time at a global level, as the UN maintains control over global development goals. Recognising that it would be unjust to ignore the ability of marginalised groups to challenge the UN’s dominant narratives of development, we suggest that there is still time for indigenous voices to be heard in the build-up to the post-mdg era through ‘invited’ and ‘uninvited’ forms of participation.

Transformation or continuation? A critical analysis of the making of the post-2015 education agenda

As the target date of 2015 draws near for both the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals, consultations are well-underway to begin defining the shape and scope of the post-2015 development agenda. Between September 2012 and March 2013, UN Member States, private sector representatives, multilateral development agencies, epistemic communities and non-governmental organisations participated in the Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Participants involved emphasised education as a societal good and a fundamental human right. Participants also highlighted the importance of education in addressing broader global challenges, stating that ‘education and learning should be transformative and foster global citizenship, thereby assuming its central role in helping people to forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies’. Such discourse suggests a shift in the objectives and priorities of global education in the post-2015 context. Is it possible that the post-2015 education agenda will represent a counter-hegemonic vision for global education? This paper engages in discursal analysis of the Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda to offer a preliminary answer to this question.

Youth under construction: the United Nations’ representations of youth in the global conversation on the post-2015 development agenda

Abstract As the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals approaches, youth have been ushered into the United Nations decision-making processes for global development in the post-2015 era with a sense of uncontested urgency. Through the “global conversation” – a large scale participatory process involving consultations with youth and other groups – participation has featured prominently in the making of the post-2015 global development agenda. Using discursive analysis of reports produced on the global conversation, we argue that the UN is reconstructing youth as a social category and identity through such processes. We also conclude that by constructing youth as “asset”, “risk” and “good citizens in the making”, the UN seeks to draw young people into global development primarily as subjects of neoliberalism.

Infrastructure projects and rural politics in northern Kenya: the use of divergent expertise to negotiate the terms of land deals for transport infrastructure

In 2012, construction began on the Lamu Port–South Sudan–Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor in northern Kenya. Once complete, LAPSSET will connect Kenya, South Sudan and Ethiopia with a new transport infrastructure, including a highway, railway and pipeline. Authorities promise that LAPSSET will drive economic growth by improving trade and attracting investors while also stimulating development in rural areas surrounding transport routes. Despite this promise, many rural land users remain concerned about how LAPSSET stands to alter their access to and control over land. This contribution reflects on how these rural groups are attempting to negotiate proposed land-use changes for LAPSSET by creating and deploying expertise that challenges authorities’ claims about the costs and benefits of the corridor for rural landscapes and communities. The analysis shows that just as expertise can be constructed and circulated ‘from above’ to legitimise land deals for transport infrastructure, counter-claims can be produced and mobilised by rural land users to unsettle these land deals. This paper contributes to recent research that examines the specific strategies used by rural actors to influence proposed land-use changes, as well as research that considers how power inequalities shape and constrain the ability of different rural groups to negotiate the terms of land deals to their own advantage.

Knowledges in competition: Knowledge discourse at the World Bank during the Knowledge for Development era

In 1996, World Bank President James D Wolfensohn announced the World Bank’s plan to evolve from a traditional financial institution into the world’s ‘Knowledge Bank’. This rhetorical shift within World Bank discourse marked the institution’s intention to rebrand itself as the world’s purveyor of knowledge about development. However, despite this seemingly progressive discourse, the Knowledge for Development era did not symbolize a real shift in World Bank policy or practice. Throughout the Knowledge for Development era, the World Bank held on to a narrow conceptualization of knowledge as capital to be leveraged for economic growth. As the World Bank’s knowledge activities continue to expand during the 21st century, the Knowledge for Development era serves as an opportune epoch to explore the World Bank’s expanding knowledge agenda. The article contends that it is possible to better understand the World Bank’s current knowledge agenda by showing how and why a particular type of knowledge became institutionalized within the World Bank during the 1990s. Using paradigm maintenance as a theoretical framework, the article illustrates how indigenous knowledge was widely acknowledged in World Bank research during the 1990s, yet ignored in World Bank policy and practice. More specifically, while a significant amount of World Bank research highlighted the importance of indigenous knowledge in education during this time period; such knowledge was never incorporated into the World Bank’s education strategy. Ultimately, this case study illustrates how the World Bank uses paradigm maintenance in order to maintain command and control over the ‘right’ type of knowledge for development.

Colonial extractions: race and Canadian mining in contemporary Africa, by Paula Butler

issues to the forefront of discussions in this area. As the editors suggest in the Conclusion, a discussion on standards, ethics and values of IESL must be made as widespread as the enthusiasm for the practice itself. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the paradoxes and challenges of internationalisation and global citizenship. In “The educational challenges of imagining the world differently” (Andreotti 2016), I offer further pedagogical reflections on IESL and the challenges of imagining the world differently.