Civil Society Knowledge Networks : International Development and the Globalization of Ideas

Abstract

This book examines the ways ideas gain power and momentum (and are contested, challenged, and circumvented) within global networks of development actors, institutions, and programmes. But it goes a step further: it examines the processes of development as another way in which knowledge is globalized, spread, and locally adapted and adopted. It builds on a multi-sited ethnography spanning the USA, Kenya, Switzerland, and Kyrgyzstan to theorize the way civil society knowledge networks create and contest epistemic power within international development. Both networks revolve around ecological projects intended to support pastoralist communities affected by climate change. Yet despite their overt focus, these networks also engage in many other realms of knowledge, including understandings of the state, land rights, rural livelihoods, expertise, authenticity, participation, and development itself. By tracing these civil society knowledge networks, the book challenges assumptions about the way power is distributed between development institutions and communities by exploring the way local actors can contest the epistemic authority of elite global institutions by laying claim to categories of authenticity and legitimacy. It also demonstrates the ways in which incorporation into such networks moderates contentious politics between community activists and the state, yet simultaneously creates knowledge around avenues for accessing and making demands on the state, ultimately challenging the idea that development is a straightforwardly depoliticizing process. Ultimately, this work reveals how ideas move, mutate, and impact communities around the world, demonstrating the complexities and contradictions of knowledge flows on micro, meso, and global scales with development practice.