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Of texts and practices: Empowerment and organisational cultures in world bank-funded rural development programmes

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  • Anthony Bebbington
  • David Lewis
  • Simon Batterbury
  • Elizabeth Olson
  • M. Shameem Siddiqi

Abstract

The World Bank's recent concern for 'empowerment' grows out of longer standing discussions of participation, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society. While commitments to empowerment enter World Bank texts with relative ease, their practice within Bank-funded projects is far more contingent, and the meanings they assume become much more diverse. This paper considers the relationship between such texts and the development practices which emerge, using an analysis of the 'organisational cultures' of the Bank and the many organisations on which it depends in the implementation of its rural development programmes. The paper presents a framework for analysing these organisational cultures in terms of (a) the broader contexts in which organisations and their staff are embedded; (b) the everyday practices within organisations; (c) the power relations within and among organisations; and (d) the meanings that come to dominate organisational practice. A case study of a development programme in Bangladesh is used to illustrate the ways in which cultural interactions between a variety of organisations - the World Bank, government agencies, NGOs, organisations of the poor, social enterprises - mediate the ways in which textual commitments to empowerment are translated into a range of diverse practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Bebbington & David Lewis & Simon Batterbury & Elizabeth Olson & M. Shameem Siddiqi, 2007. "Of texts and practices: Empowerment and organisational cultures in world bank-funded rural development programmes," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 597-621.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:43:y:2007:i:4:p:597-621
    DOI: 10.1080/00220380701259665
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Anthony Bebbington & University of Manchester & Armando Bararientos & University of Manchester, 2005. "Knowledge generation for poverty reduction within donor organizations," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-023, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
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    Cited by:

    1. Artan Karini, 2016. "Coordination Without Effectiveness? A Critique of the Paris Agenda in the Experience of Development Aid in Albania," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 28(4), pages 741-757, September.
    2. Francis Y. Owusu, 2012. "Organizational culture and public sector reforms in a post–Washington consensus era: Lessons from Ghana’s good reformers," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 12(2-3), pages 135-151, July.
    3. Dalton, Timothy J. & Lilja, Nina K. & Johnson, Nancy & Howeler, Reinhardt, 2011. "Farmer Participatory Research and Soil Conservation in Southeast Asian Cassava Systems," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 2176-2186.
    4. Indu Rao, 2009. "The Behavioral Equivalence of Organizational Culture," Working Papers id:2162, eSocialSciences.
    5. Elizabeth Olson, 2008. "Common Belief, Contested Meanings: Development And Faith‐Based Organisational Culture," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 99(4), pages 393-405, September.
    6. Yuti Ariani Fatimah & Saurabh Arora, 2016. "Nonhumans in the Practice of Development: Material Agency and Friction in a Small-Scale Energy Program in Indonesia," SPRU Working Paper Series 2016-04, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    7. Hall, Matthew, 2017. "Crafting compromises in a strategising process: a case study of an international development organisation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 62299, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Willy McCourt, 2018. "Lost in translation: The World Bank and the Paris Declaration," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(6), pages 649-668, October.

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