| Popis: |
Participatory methods have been deployed in different ways by actors in pursuit of a diverse range of personal, organisational and development objectives. With the rise of globalisation, neoliberalism and new aid delivery systems, so these methods have been adapted, re-branded and deployed to serve the objectives of a new range of actors. From these macro level currents come micro level initiatives which enrol the global poor in new projects of development. Most recently, the Millennium Development Goals have focused the agenda of participatory development on new models of public service delivery. With this new imperative comes an emergent focus on governance as a determinant of improved service provision. The same influential actors that have taken a lead role in redefining the problem have also offered new solutions. Just as many populations in the Global North have historically taken a role in the production of services that are responsive to their needs, so it is proposed that others in the Global South can be supported to claim similar rights, demand similar accountability. This thesis explores the increasingly popular technology of voice and accountability as a solution to inequalities in access to health services. I explore the extent to which the model is constitutive of a broader neoliberal discourse which is coproduced by a range of actors from Washington to village. Using a case study from a maternal health programme in Nepal; I discuss the implications of this social technology, with reference to the range of personal and organisational projects of which it is constitutive. I discuss how these discourses shape the way development is performed, and reflexively reproduce diverse regimes of power. I examine what is produced by such initiatives, and, the ways in which actors gain from this globalised project, or are disenfranchised in new ways. |
