The partnership and participation discourses are crucial development discourses that are at the intersection between an abstract development and a local democracy. The aim of this paper is to analyze one segment of the functions of the participation and partnership discourses and the relation between desire and these two discourses. The methodology of the analysis follows Foucault’s Archaeology of Knowledge, in particular the rules of formation of a discourse using mostly secondary sources as the basis of reconstructing the analyzed discourses. The analysis focuses on the legitimizing, depoliticizing and hierarchizing functions and finds out that both terms – partnership and participation – legitimize projects conducted in their name. Similar to the term ‘development’ they contain a positive connotation while remaining rather empty. At the same time by focusing on technical solutions participation and partnership depoliticize unequal relations of power. Finally, despite its aim the partnership/participation discourse may actually undermine attempts at equality within development discourse. The desires connected to the discourse show that the participation and partnership may be the result of the lack in the liberal democracies.
The social sciences offer a variety of theoretical approaches to grasping the issue of power. 'Development' represents a good fi eld for such analysis. Power tends to be a neglected issue and does not fi gure in governmental, non-governmental, or international discourse. In the academic fi eld it is less overlooked, but in the Czech-Slovak environment there is as yet no theoretical overview of the various approaches to studying power and 'development'. This article sets out to answer the question of how best to examine power in 'development' and replies with a multidisciplinary approach. It begins by focusing on the understanding of power within the context of its fi rst dimension, which is most vividly refl ected in the perception of the World Bank as a dominant actor. The second part of the article concentrates on power in development discourse. The third part analyses disciplinary power in relations of 'development' cooperation. The fourth looks at agency, which disobeys the discourse and structure, in order to recognise the capacity for resistance among even the least advantaged. The fi nal part focuses on governmentality and 'development'. In the conclusion the author attempts to make a brief synthesis of these approaches, on the one hand viewing power as a kind of strategic situation, but on the other hand arguing the importance not to overlook the enormous power of structure just as much as the capacity of certain privileged actors to infl uence it. What is important then is a subjectivity of power.
V prvním letošním čísle Mezinárodních vztahů vyšel článek Tomáše Profanta s názvem Rasizmus v rozvoji a rozvojové spolupráci. Publikování textu spustilo živou diskusi, kterou se redakce rozhodla podpořit oslovením některých dalších autorů a autorek a transformovat do podoby diskusního fóra. Jednotlivé příspěvky, které na rozdíl od Profantova článku neprocházely plnohodnotným recenzním řízením, se tak vyrovnávají s argumenty a metodologickými postupy původního textu, rozvíjejí jej a lokalizují do místních podmínek či poukazují na empirické příklady, jež jej potvrzují. Celé fórum uzavírá odpověď Tomáše Profanta na jednotlivé vznesené připomínky. Byť fórum reaguje na konkrétní článek, doufáme, že by i tato diskuse mohla přispět k širší reflexi práce s konceptem rasismu a její implikace pro politickou praxi. Věříme, že právě v tomto je tato debata v současném akademickém i politickém kontextu velmi aktuální.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.