ie.talks: Unpacking the Governance of Poverty Eradication in Latin America

Vortrag von María Gabriela Palacio Ludeña am 26.04.23, 16:15-17:45h

 

Unpacking the Governance of Poverty Eradication in Latin America:

A Critical Study of Neoliberalism, Conservatism, and Technocracy

 

Vortrag im Rahmen der "ie.talks"-Veranstaltungsreihe des Instituts für Internationale Entwicklung
mit María Gabriela Palacio Ludeña

University Lecturer in Modern Latin American History / Development Studies
Institute of History of the Faculty of Humanities
Leiden University, The Netherlands

 

Datum & Uhrzeit: Mittwoch, 26. April 2023, 16:15 - 17:45 Uhr

Ort: Seminarraum SG2, Sensengasse 3, 1090 Wien

Moderation: Petra Dannecker

 

Abstract:

The effectiveness of social protection in achieving quantifiable development outcomes has been widely studied, yet the broader systemic consequences of these programs have received less attention. Despite recurrent concerns over the narrow, conservative, and even punitive nature of dominant models of social protection promoted by major international organisations and bilateral donors over the last two decades, these concerns have often been obscured by celebratory impact evaluations and randomised control trials. My research moves beyond evaluating policy outcomes and investigates the potential role of social protection programs in perpetuating rather than ameliorating existing social structures and power dynamics in society, reproducing various forms of discrimination, exclusion, oppression, and social stratification. It investigates how neoliberal formulations of social protection in Latin America legitimise forms of authoritarianism and conservatism through discourses of technocratic state governance. It distils how these policies have failed to address and even reproduced intersectional inequalities despite their emphasis on inclusion and poverty reduction. The project adopts a critical development studies perspective, exploring the continuities and discontinuities of neoliberalism as operationalised through poverty eradication strategies in the region. Additionally, it examines the role of international finance and epistemic communities in shaping and disseminating these policies across borders. The study relies on a comparative case-study analysis of pathway cases, using as the primary methods content analysis of policy documents, evaluations, and reports, as well as an ethnography of the state to understand the implementation of social protection policies on the ground. These methods provide a more nuanced and critical examination of how social protection policies and programs are implemented and how power differences permeate their practices. Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile are analysed in light of the role of epistemic communities and international finance in shaping and disseminating ‘what works’ in terms of social protection across borders, as well as the degrees of authoritarianism and technocratic policymaking that they reflect.