Power relations? What power relations? The de-politicising conceptualisation of development of the UNDP

Juan Telleria

Third World Quarterly, 2017, vol. 38, issue 9, 2143-2158

Abstract: The UN′s Sustainable Development Goals agenda points far into 2030, which shows that its post-war development endeavour is not functioning effectively. This article implements a discourse analysis of the UN Development Programme′s (UNDP) Human Development Reports (HDR) and exposes their internal contradictions. This analysis enables a critical reflection on the UNDP′s political position: its reports conceal the political causes of underdevelopment. By concealing the antagonistic/conflictual dimension of social issues – poverty, inequality, and exclusion – the UNDP naturalises the actual neoliberal order. The HDR turns political problems into technical issues; according to this approach, no power relations have to be changed in order to overcome underdevelopment.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2017.1298437

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