Anne Reiff - dissertation project

The World Bank gives voice to ‚the poor‘ – A contextualized discourse analysis of the study „Voices of the Poor“ from a postcolonial political science perspective

In the year 2000, at the peak of the global protest movement, the World Bank released a study named „Voices of the Poor“, which is unique in matters of range, cost and method. It contains the voices of over 60.000 ‚poor‘ in 60 countries, who were asked about their daily life. In contrast to the conventional knowledge production of the World Bank, which focuses on international comparative statistics, „Voices of the Poor“ outstands with its qualitative and participatory approach. By giving ‚the poor‘ a voice, the study promises more authentic knowledge on global poverty and on the fight against it.

The PhD project will take the study „Voices of the Poor“ as empirical point of departure in order to understand the relation between protest, reform and cooptation in the World Bank and the specific role the representation of ‚the poor‘ plays in it. Did the World Bank learn from the critics of the global protest movement concerning their elitist policy-making? Is „Voices of the Poor“ rather part of a strategy of  legitimation and cooptation in face of crisis? Or is the World Bank with its realignment on „pro-poor-banking“ accessing its new pool of clients, e.g. for the microfinance sector?

The answers to these questions are closely related to the discursive representations of ‚the poor‘ in the study, which have until now not been in the focus of research. Postcolonial theory on subaltern representation ( G.Ch. Spivak) and Othering (S.Hall) can help to close this gap and thereby relate the specific historic conditions for „Voices of the Poor“ with the inherent discursive patterns and representations concerning ‚the poor‘.

Publications

Book chapters

2018: “Excellence Goes Congo. The Power Structure of Academia between North and South: A Case Study of the Master of Microfinance .” In: Ahmad A.N./Fielitz M./Leinius J./Schlichte G.M. (eds.): Knowledge, Normativity and Power in Academia. Critical interventions, Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 85-104. (with J. Hirth, M. Loli und K. Weil)

Journal articles

2014:  “How  to  solve  a  crisis  of  legitimacy?  Empirical  insights  into  the  WTO  Public Forum. In: POLITIKON, IAPSS Political Science Journal, Vol. 23, 133-146.

Conference contributions (selection)

2018: "‘The poor’, knowledge and participation: a critical review of the World Bank reforms in the 1990s from the perspective of global epistemics", Pan-European conference on International Relations of the European International Studies Association (EISA), Prague.

Teaching

Summer semester 2020

BA Seminar - Introduction to postcolonial studies [in German] (with Eric Otieno)