Is the new politics of development transforming the governance agenda? Insights from Uganda
Samuel Hickey, Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester
Driven towards a paradigm shift by the new rising powers, new resource finds in many poor countries and the financial crisis, Development has moved beyond the Post-Washington Consensus (PWC). The PWC marked the high-point of the ‘Poverty Reduction through Good Government’ agenda, and research and policy on ‘good governance’ has yet to come to terms with the challenges set by the new politics of development. Insights from Uganda suggest that some governments are using this new juncture to take fuller control of their governance and development priorities, often in ways that are directly opposed to the PWC’s precepts of ‘good governance’. Both the dismantling of the good governance agenda, and its (partial) reconstruction, has been further influenced by high-profile interventions that have moved governance thinking away from the dominance of new institutionalist economics and towards a further emphasis on politics matters (e.g. North et al 2009). However, this new consensus is also problematic, and alternative conceptual approaches are required to capture more fully the new politics of development in the post-PWC era.
About the speaker
Sam Hickey is Reader in the Politics of Development at IDPM, the University of Manchester. He is currently Co-Research Director of the new Effective States and Inclusive Development research centre (ESID), which is funded by the UK Department for International Development 2011-2016 (www.effective-states.org). His research is published in journals such as Journal of Development Studies, Political Geography and World Development, and he has co-edited several books, including Rights-Based Approaches to Development (Kumarian 2009, with Diana Mitlin), Can NGOs Make a Difference? (Zed 2008, with Tony Bebbington and Diana Mitlin) and Participation: From Tyranny to Transformation? (Zed 2004, with Giles Mohan).
Venue: Conference Room, Keizer Karelplein 19
Date: 05 July 2012
Time: 12:30 - 13:30 CET
