The Search For Empowerment: Social Capital as Idea and Practice at the World Bank

by Anthony J. Bebbington (Editor)

* Exploration of the nature of bureaucracy and bureaucratic change
* Comprehensive examination of debates about social capital within the World Bank
* Contributors include both long-time Bank insiders as well as external analysts and observers of the Bank’s development policies

The contributors to this collection examine the vast bureaucracy of the World Bank and explore the possibilities of internally generated change. The book focuses on the debates within the Bank about the efficacy of social capital concepts for the encouragement of more participatory and empowering forms of development.

These debates reach to the heart of the bank and its mission. Indeed, the debate over social capital is less an argument about definitions, and more a struggle between competing paradigms of development. The Search for Empowerment is simultaneously a fascinating account of the concept of social capital, a powerful ethnography of a huge development organization, and a profoundly insightful exploration into the nature of bureaucracy and organizational change.

Other Julie Van Domelen, Michael Edwards, Jonathan Fox, John Gershman, Jeffrey Hammer, David Lewis, Deepa Narayan, Martien Van Nieuwkoop, Lant Pritchett, M. Shameen Siddiqi, and Jorge Uquillas.

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2006

About the author

Anthony Bebbington is Professor of Nature, Society and Development in the Institute of Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester, an ESRC Professorial Fellow, and also a member and research affiliate of the Centro Peruano de Estudios Sociales, Lima, Peru. He has previously held positions at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Cambridge, the International Institute for Environment and Development, the Overseas Development Institute and the World Bank. His work addresses the relationships among civil society, livelihoods and development, with a particular focus on social movements and NGOs in Latin America and more recently development conflicts and extractive industries.

Reviews

[Jennifer Kern · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book focuses n debates within the World Bank about their practices by inserting social capital concepts to encourage better forms of government. This book is ideal for those interested in government, finance and world affairs.