Taking post‐development theory to the field: Issues in development research,Northern Thailand

Emerging post‐development literatures consider how post‐structural and post‐colonial critiques of development could form the basis for new kinds of development practices. Much of the search for such post‐development possibilities draws on new theories of discourse. This paper considers the challenges of bringing together empirical research and the experience of doing development with the often ethereal and deeply speculative work of discourse theorists. I reflect on the course taken by my own research in Northern Thailand, and discuss the possibilities that can emerge as theory confronts empirics, and conceptual frameworks are transformed through the daily politics of fieldwork.     

‘Governed freedom’ in Oceania: AusAID,subjectivation and the practice of critique in studies of governmentality

Drawing predominantly on the work of Butler, Rose and Walters, this paper examines the governing rationalities and technologies that characterise one particular site of aid relations. Focusing on key policy documents, economic surveys and performance reports, the paper traces the fashioning of particular subjectivities as constitutive of AusAID's development objectives and the function of problematisation and responsibilisation as central to these practices of subjectivation. While I argue the freedom on offer as part of AusAID's development objectives is a highly governed one – where the ‘free’ economic‐rational subject adopts certain ‘civilised sensibilities’ (Rose, 1999: 78), I show how this process of subjectivation encompasses both ‘a power exerted on a subject’ and ‘a power assumed by the subject’ (Butler, 1997: 11). What becomes apparent through this analysis is the productive and tenuous characteristics of these practices of subject formation. This paper also foregrounds the practice of critique itself, and the very act of research; concepts adopted and explanations made, as far from innocent in their performativity in enacting some worlds and not others.     

Neoliberal developmentalism in South Korea: Evidence from the green growth policymaking process

This paper argues that Korea, once a representative East Asian developmental state, has state characteristics that amount to ‘neoliberal developmentalism’, which is a combination of the government's neoliberal political rationality and the developmental state's governmentality. To elucidate this, the case of Korea's recent green growth policymaking process is analysed. The government based the policy on its neoliberal political rationality. This featured the utilisation of neoliberalism to achieve the government's specific aims in the international, political and socio‐economic spheres. Furthermore, the government revealed the developmental state's governmentality, focusing on the maintenance of the developmental state's policy autonomy and capacity. Based on the findings, this paper teases out the academic implications of the post‐developmental state and the policy implications regarding policymaking in the context of neoliberal developmentalism.     

Governing sex workers in Timor Leste

This paper argues that international security forces in Timor Leste depend upon civilian partners in HIV/AIDs "knowledge networks" to monitor prostitutes' disease status. These networks produce mobile expertise, techniques of government and forms of personhood that facilitate international government of distant populations without overt coercion. HIV/AIDs experts promote techniques of peer education, empowerment and community mobilisation to construct women who sell sex as health conscious sex workers. Such techniques make impoverished women responsible for their disease status, obscuring the political and economic contexts that produced that status. In the militarised context of Timor Leste, knowledge of the sexual conduct of sub-populations labelled high risk circulates among global HIV/AIDs knowledge networks, confirming their expert status while obscuring the sexual harm produced by military intervention. HIV/AIDs knowledge networks have recently begun to build Timorese sex worker organisations by contracting an Australian sex worker NGO to train a Timorese NGO tasked with building sex worker identity and community. Such efforts fail to address the needs and priorities of the women supposedly empowered. The paper engages theories of global knowledge networks, mobile technologies of government, and governmentality to analyse policy documents, reports, programmes, official statements, speeches, and journalistic accounts regarding prostitution in Timor Leste.     

Is fisheries governance possible?

Are there limits to the governability of a fishery? The establishment of a 200 nautical mile economic zone in Norway in 1977 made it possible to change from an open‐access regime to a more closed one. In this process, the former self‐regulating Norwegian fishing industry, to a large extent, accepted and adapted an explicit, hierarchical form of state‐run governance. However, the process of change did not stop there. Since the turn of the millennium, we have seen the creation of a cybernetically organized fishing industry, where control, regulation and governance have become re‐embedded in the industry. This article explores this radical new development and perspective on fisheries governance and governability based on lessons learned from technological and organizational changes in the Norwegian fishing industry.     

Theories of governance and Pacific microstates: The cautionary tale of Tuvalu

Abstract: This paper questions the popularity of governance frameworks in explaining development failures and proposing new models of development for Pacific states. Such popularity is attributed to how problems are selected and framed (the doomsday scenario of demographic and environmental collapse, weakening of the state, and an upsurge in corruption) but also, and most importantly, to the recent hegemony of neo‐liberal theory in political economy. Taking the MIRAB microstate of Tuvalu as a counterexample, each of those pillars of governance theory is seen to be lacking or to require a more nuanced form of understanding. A brief analysis of how the dominant Protestant church fits into traditional and modern systems of administration illustrates the complexity of local issues. The essay concludes with a discussion of how the neo‐liberal governance orthodoxy lacks the critical insight into power and agency afforded by Foucault's concept of governmentality.     

Globalisation,governance and post‐structural political economy: Perspectives from Australasia

Abstract: The paper argues that post‐structural political economy (PSPE) offers geography and geographers interesting potential for the development of a style of geographic inquiry that has qualities that may be constitutive of progressive spaces. This new style of inquiry is seen as adding to the repertoire of political strategies and potential geographies of responsibility and extending notions of ethical behaviours. Issues relating to the assemblage of PSPE as a distinctive approach to knowledge production are considered and situated in the Australasian context. Discussion focuses especially on insight about the use of PSPE derived from three illustrative research case studies (a project on learning challenges in sheep meat and dairy supply chain realignment, tensions around fisheries management in New Zealand and an international workshop series on the topic of governmentality). The case studies provide a lens on the socio‐spatial relationships between globalisation and governance and interrogate the value of PSPE for understanding the connections between individual choices, governing practices and the construction of the globalising economy. The PSPE approach if actively incorporated into research processes may have important implications for future relationships between social responsibility, national economic development and globalisation.     

Climate risks and forest practices: forest owners' acceptance of advice concerning climate change

Based on qualitative interviews with Swedish forest owners this study focuses on climate change, risk management and forest governance from the perspective of the forest owners. The Swedish forest governance system has undergone extensive deregulation, with the result that social norms and knowledge dissemination are seen by the state as important means of influencing forest owners' understandings and practices. Drawing on Foucault's concept of governmentality this study contributes knowledge on how forest owners understand and manage climate-related risk and their acceptance of advice. From the interview study, three main conclusions can be drawn: (1) forest owners' considerations largely concern ordinary forestry activities; (2) knowledge about forest management and climate adaptation combines experiences and ideas from various sources; and (3) risk awareness and knowledge of “best practices” are not enough to ensure change in forestry practices. The results of this study show that the forest owners have to be selective and negotiate about what knowledge to consider relevant and meaningful for their own forest practice. Accordingly, local forest management can be understood as situated in a web of multifarious interests, claims, concerns and knowledges, where climate change adaptation is but one of several aspects that forest owners have to consider.