Manufacturing Concensus: (Geo) Political Knowledge and Policy-Based Lending

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Periodical article

Title:	Manufacturing Concensus: (Geo) Political Knowledge and Policy-Based Lending
Author:	Mohan, Giles
Year:	1994
Periodical:	Review of African Political Economy
Volume:	21
Issue:	62
Pages:	525-538
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	development World Bank economic policy Development and Technology Economics and Trade Politics and Government
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056249408704085
Abstract:	This article examines the interrelations between power and knowledge in the contemporary world order. It begins by examining recent contributions to development theory, especially postmodern formulations. These are seen to foster an apolitical stand on development which relativizes values and hence negates the possibility of emancipatory politics. However, the postmodern technique of deconstruction is useful in revealing the geopolitical basis of power structures and, by so doing, can help enliven progressive political debate. The article then examines how the World Bank's universalizing visions of the developing world in general and Africa in particular enable the Bank to prescribe uniform adjustment programmes. As such the article reveals the links between research and policy. It ends by calling for a revitalization of political economy which can provide a structural account of the power relations in which development discourses circulate. Bibliogr., note, sum.