The World Bank’s Neoliberal Language of Resilience

Romain Felli

A chapter in Risking Capitalism, 2016, vol. 31, pp 267-295 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: The language of resilience is increasingly used by International organizations that seek to respond to contemporary social, economic, and environmental crises. This paper focuses on the World Bank’sWorld Development Reports, and its uses of resilience. By deploying a quantitative critical discourse analysis, this paper shows how in the recent years resilience has gained traction within the Bank’s discourse. It further analyses the evolution of the genre, the style, and the ideational content of the Bank’s discourse related to resilience. Resilience is now depicted as something that can be built and not just observed. Furthermore, it is increasingly reified in these reports and ascribed to a whole gamut of entities. The ontological indistinction of resilience reinforces its fit with contemporary neoliberal governance.

Keywords: World Bank; world development reports; resilience; critical discourse analysis; cultural political economy; neoliberalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:rpeczz:s0161-723020160000031014

DOI: 10.1108/S0161-723020160000031014

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