About the Book

This is a book for those with concerns about the trajectory of development, and about the continuing encroachment of managerialism into social life. Its authors attempts to bridge the current division between development and management studies by constructing a critique of 'development management' - an approach to development that blends seemingly objective and neutral claims of managerialism with notions of modernity and other connected utopian ideas of 'Third World' progress. Contributors are drawn from the growing field of critical management studies and the development world; all use their critical frames of reference to address increasingly managerialized development processes and practices.

This book overturns and reclaims ideas such as participation, community, governance, NGOs and civil society. It is often managerialist ideas and practices that thread these ideas together, yet often they remain buried in development studies' disengagement from the mundane: for instance the languages and artefacts of managerial and organizational life, the report, the logframe, the encounters with the boss. What these contributors have in common, tacitly or explicitly, is an understanding of development and managerialism as problematic, modernizing, interventions.

This is a fresh and provocative critique of the very practices in development that we take for granted and will breathe new life in perennial post-development debates about the status of international development, NGOs and development studies.

Commendations

'This critical treatment of development management is a sorely needed and very persuasive intervention. Dar and Cooke remind us that development management is never simply a technical matter, but comes with its own historical baggage, perennially entangled in complex sets of unequal power relations. The everyday tools of the trade will never seem the same again.' - Samuel Hickey, University of Manchester

'Critical thinking on the intersection between development and management studies is a rarity. From amongst those engaged in such thinking, the leading light and the rising star have combined forces to edit this outstanding collection. It should provoke debate amongst academics in both fields, as well as amongst development practitioners and policy makers, and will no doubt become a classic statement of what is at stake in the immensely complex and hugely important politics concealed within the apparently innocuous term "development management".' - Christopher Grey, University of Warwick.

'This is an impressive collection that provides a much-needed critical perspective on contemporary discourses of development. Provocative but rigorous, this book will add new insights to the debate on development management.' - Bobby Banerjee, University of Western Sydney

'An excellent book that brings together two disparate bodies of thinking: critical management studies (CMS) and critical development studies (CDS) … This book thus fills a lacuna in engaging these literatures, … The editors do a remarkable job in bringing together noted scholars in both fields'
‘Highly recommended for scholars and practitioners in development and management, and anyone engaging in studying, researching, or working with ‘Third World Others’ in the fields of geography, anthropology, sociology, and related fields.' - Environment and Planning C: government and policy

Contents

1. Foreword: Hugh Willmott
2. Introduction: The New Development Management Bill Cooke and Sadhvi Dar
3. The Rise of the Global Managers, Jonathan Murphy
4. Non-Governmentalism and the Reorganization of Public Action, David Lewis
5. 'Arrive Bearing Gifts' Post-Colonial Insights for Development Management, Kate Kenny
6. Managerialism and NGO Advocacy: Handloom weavers in India, Nidhi Srinivas
7. International Development and the New Public Management: Projects and Logframes as Discursive Technologies of Governance, Ron Kerr
8. Participatory Management as Colonial Administration, Bill Cooke
9. Borders in an (In)Visible World: Colonizing the Divergent and Privileging the "New World Order", Kym Thorne and Alex Kouzmin
10. The Managerialization of Development, The Banalisation of its Promise and The Disavowal of 'Critique' as a Modernist Illusion, Pieter de Vries
11. Real-izing Development: Reports, Realities and the Self in Development NGOs, Sadhvi Dar
12. Afterword: Arturo Escobar

About the Authors

Sadhvi Dar is Lecturer in CSR and Business Ethics at Queen Mary University London. She holds a degree in Psychology and received her PhD in Management Studies from the University of Cambridge. She has worked in the development sector in India and the UK and is involved in a number of development projects in London. Her work covers development and management, social theory, politics of identity in the workplace and discourse analysis. She has worked in the not-for-profit, public and private sectors.

Bill Cooke is Professor of Management and Society at Lancaster University Management School. Previously he worked at the Institute for Development Policy and Management, Manchester School of Management, and Manchester Business School, all within what is now the University of Manchester; and at Teesside University. He is co-editor, with Uma Kothari, of Zed's (2001) Participation: The New Tyranny? His other work covers slavery and management, managerialism and the Cold War, and the spread of soft managerialism.

Rights Information

World Rights are held for this title

Academic Adoption Information

The New Development Management is used for teaching at the following institutions:

University College London