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Governance, Representation and International Aid

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  • SHEILA NAIR

Abstract

The growth of the postwar 20th century international aid architecture has generated much debate over the successes and failures of aid, its changing forms and its challenges. This article uses this aid landscape to explore the representational or discursive power and authority of the aid donor over the aid recipient. It suggests that representations about what aid does, its modalities and dispensations reproduce a hegemonic discourse and that representational authority in diagnosing aid’s problems and prescribing solutions resides generally on one side of the aid binary. It thus focuses on the hierarchical or asymmetric relations of power implied by such a binary, on the way development aid in particular has come to shape self-understandings of donors in relation to recipients, and on the discursive labour that enables such a construction. It also explores how the post-Washington consensus on poverty eradication has embedded neoliberal solutions to development. The reproduction of the hegemonic aid discourse is examined in reference to NGOs involved in the dispensing of aid in Southeast Asia by drawing on scholarly literature and field research in Southeast Asia and Washington DC.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheila Nair, 2013. "Governance, Representation and International Aid," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 630-652.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:34:y:2013:i:4:p:630-652
    DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2013.786287
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    Cited by:

    1. Hoyoon Jung, 2019. "The Evolution of Social Constructivism in Political Science: Past to Present," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440198, February.
    2. Helen Wadham & Cathy Urquhart & Richard Warren, 2019. "Living with Paradox in International Development: An Extended Case Study of an International NGO," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(5), pages 1263-1286, December.
    3. Urmi Sengupta, 2023. "Geopolitical priorities, governance gaps, and heritage subjectivities: The perils of heritage-making in the post-disaster reconstruction in Nepal," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(3), pages 523-547, May.
    4. Mohammad Mohabbat Khan & Md. Shahriar Islam, 2014. "Democracy and Good Governance in Bangladesh: Are They Compatible?," Millennial Asia, , vol. 5(1), pages 23-40, April.

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