The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and

The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho
- Used Book in Good Condition
Development, it is generally assumed, is good and necessary, and in its name the West has intervened, implementing all manner of projects in the impoverished regions of the world. When these projects fail, as they do with astonishing regularity, they nonetheless produce a host of regular and unacknowledged effects, including the expansion of bureaucratic state power and the translation of the political realities of poverty and powerlessness into "technical" problems awaiting solution by "development" agencies and experts. It is the political intelligibility of these effects, along with the process that produces them, that this book seeks to illuminate through a detailed case study of the workings of the "development" industry in one country, Lesotho, and in one "development" project. Using an anthropological approach grounded in the work of Foucault, James Ferguson analyzes the institutional framework within which such projects are crafted and the nature of "development discourse," revealing how it is that, despite all the "expertise" that goes into formulating development projects, they nonetheless often demonstrate a startling ignorance of the historical and political realities of the locale they are intended to help. In a close examination of the attempted implementation of the Thaba-Tseka project in Lesotho, Ferguson shows how such a misguided approach plays out, how, in fact, the "development" apparatus in Lesotho acts as an "anti-politics machine," everywhere whisking political realities out of sight and all the while performing, almost unnoticed, its own pre-eminently political operation of strengthening the state presence in the local region.James Ferguson is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California at Irvine.
Country USA
Brand University of Minnesota Press
Manufacturer Univ Of Minnesota Press
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 24 illustrations
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780816624379
ReleaseDate 0000-00-00

Country	USA
Brand	University of Minnesota Press
Manufacturer	Univ Of Minnesota Press
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	24 illustrations
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780816624379
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho

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