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Empowerment as a panacea for poverty - old wine in new bottles? Reflections on the World Bank’s conception of power

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  • Kwok-Fu Wong

    (Bradford Centre for International Development, University of Bradford, UK, SAMMUAL100@hotmail.com)

Abstract

The World Bank has been accused of ‘power blindness’ for three reasons: its neglect of political power; its disregard for the power dynamic in inter-personal relationships; and its undemocratic corporate culture. However, power blindness, as commonly defined, does not offer a satisfactory picture of the Bank’s actual conception of power used in the poverty agenda. Using a feminist framework of power, I demonstrate an evolving and transforming concept of power in the Bank’s poverty alleviation policies over the past two decades. Four concepts of power are outlined: power-to; power-with; power-over; and power-from-within. The Bank’s stress on economic power and the calculated adoption of two ‘positive’ powers -‘power-to’ and ‘power-with’ -are seen as being the key features in combating poverty. Power, in the Bank’s perspective, is instrumental in nature and is a means to achieve economic efficiency. This overly limited vision of power is not without its problems. The new idea of empowerment, propounded as a solution to poverty in the World Development Report 2000/2001 , actually follows the Bank’s conventional principle of power, and fails to offer any new developmental thinking. This paper examines critiques of the Bank’s analysis of power regarding the dark sides of ‘power-to’ and ‘power-with’, and the possibilities of including ‘power-over’ and ‘power-from-within’ in the debate. In the last section, it questions the feminist idea of power, given the diverse nature of women, the desirability of the inclusion of men and the significance of socially embedded power.

Suggested Citation

  • Kwok-Fu Wong, 2003. "Empowerment as a panacea for poverty - old wine in new bottles? Reflections on the World Bank’s conception of power," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 3(4), pages 307-322, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:3:y:2003:i:4:p:307-322
    DOI: 10.1191/1464993403ps067oa
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Andrew Shepherd, 2001. "Consolidating the lessons of 50 years of 'development'," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(3), pages 315-320.
    2. Michael Hubbard, 2001. "Attacking Poverty-a strategic dilemma for the World Bank," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(3), pages 293-298.
    3. Philip Amis, 2001. "Attacking Poverty : but what happened to urban poverty and development?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(3), pages 353-360.
    4. Robert Chambers, 2001. "The World Development Report: concepts, content and a Chapter 12," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(3), pages 299-306.
    5. Naila Kabeer, 1999. "Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women's Empowerment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 435-464, July.
    6. Frances Cleaver, 1999. "Paradoxes of participation: questioning participatory approaches to development," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(4), pages 597-612.
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