Abstract
Development, power and the environment are three broad yet interrelated phenomena in our society and often work in a very complex manner. This book has, perhaps for the first time, uncovered—both theoretically and empirically—the critical nexus between development, power and the environment. Some of the central questions addressed by this book are as follows. What are different trajectories of power in social organizations? How is power understood in different schools of development paradigms? How are power and development conjoined in creating and addressing environmental problems? How is power sometimes camouflaged and obscured in the discourse of development, and what are the ways and approaches to unmask that? What relationship between power, development and the environment can we envisage for a sustainable earth? To address these questions, the author navigates from a robust theoretical and conceptual understanding of the complex nexus between development, power and the environment in the Part I, to some interesting cases studies in Part II to, finally, a prospect for a ‘sustainable earth amid vulnerabilities’ in Part III. While doing this, the author discovers what he calls ‘neoliberal paradox’, which, when applied to the Global South, generates what he terms a ‘double-risk society’. Herein lies, perhaps, the central contribution of the book.
Part I of the book consists of five chapters. Starting with the challenges of our time, Chapter 1 focuses on environmental and social vulnerabilities amid the growth of transnational corporations, the dominance of worldwide financial and political institutions and the extensive influence of a media nearly monopolized by corporate interests. Chapter 2 examines different theoretical traditions of power in social organization, including Marxist, pluralist, elitist and Foucauldian perspectives, and concludes with an interesting taxonomy of power (p. 41). How these different traditions of power are understood and operationalized in different schools of development is discussed in Chapter 3. The subject of Chapter 4 (‘Theorizing Nature–Society Relationship’) is: how, and with what effects, does development and its power dynamics operate within the broader nexus of the environment? In this chapter, by connecting issues of consumption and the environment, the author critically examines the treadmill of production, world-systems theory, theory of metabolic rift, ecological modernization and the risk society thesis. This analysis is applied to current neoliberal globalization (Chapter 5) where he finds a set of paradoxes of neoliberalism (pp. 84–94): (i) empowerment and powerlessness in the age of reflexive modernity (in which connecting to the post-natural world occurs through disconnecting from the traditional world); (ii) unequal development: connecting the Global North through disconnecting the Global South; and (iii) winners and losers of neoliberal globalization (whereby the former’s accumulation is achieved by the latter’s dispossession).
Part II (Chapters 6–12) has some interesting case studies to expose and test his ‘neoliberal paradox’ and ‘double-risk society’ theses. This part starts with the historical contours of the meaning of development from colonization to globalization and their impact on the Global South (Chapter 6). Chapter 7 brings the example of Green Revolution, focusing on its transformation, and offers optimism as well as realism. Referring to empirical evidence from China, India, Jamaica and Philippines, the author highlights, among other things, short-term economic benefits at the cost of long-term environmental sustainability. Chapter 8 examines the food aid regime of the United States through different ideological lenses. In order to ana-lyze food aid in practice, the author uses case studies of India and Central America to show how the aid regime serves, along with its humanitarian goals, the American quest for global dominance and access to crucial Third World markets as well as resources. Through analytical attention to different deals and disturbances related to global climate politics, Chapter 9 critically delves into what the author calls ‘power and development in mortgaging the planet’. Chapter 10, through a case study of the Tipaimukh Dam in India, examines how development is given prominence and sometimes aggressively deployed despite known environmental and social costs and popular resistance. Chapter 11 examines how and with what consequences people become ‘labelled’ as ‘tribals’ in the context of neoliberal global governance. Analysis of empirical data from existing literature on the upland dwellers in Thailand and Indonesia is used to examine how identities are formed, transformed and manipulated within the context of public policy practices. Chapter 12, taking insights from post-Foucauldian development governmentality, argues that after 9/11, there emerged in development discourse, a new knowledge/power/security regime that designates ‘Muslims’ as patients to be diagnosed, studied, problematized and surveilled, primarily for the purpose of normalizing an imperialistic neoliberal order and justifying both economic and military interventions.
These seven case studies generate an ana-lysis of the vulnerabilities of the planet, and lead the author to conclude in the final part (Part III) that a ‘double-risk society’ is emerg-ing in the Third World (Chapter 13) with important consequences for pathways for a sustainable earth (Chapter 14). The vulnerabilities of Third World societies arise from their lack of democratic political systems, weak civil societies and lack of technological, scientific, material and financial resources. Third World societies experience ‘double risk’ (see the taxonomy in p. 210) in that they do not have the capabilities to effectively cope with the risks they would ordinarily face. Furthermore, they are likely to be powerless to resist imported risk amid the present inequitable system of global risk distribution. However, Third World societies’ agency and reflexivity should not be entirely discounted; their social solidarity may be stronger than in First World societies and more effective in coping with risk, especially through their possession of ‘lay knowledge’ of risk and communal support during catastrophes. In the final chapter, the author concludes that development is a ‘historical project of power’ (p. 225) with four distinct contours, each with unique implications for power and the environment: a colonial project; a development project; a neoliberal globalization project; and a neoliberal security project (p. 227).
Overall, the book is very insightful. Parts II and III will most likely be the most interesting part of this read: the earlier chapters in Part I have a heavy focus on complex theoretical discussions, potentially causing some readers to lose interest. Among other things, the book makes at least four central contributions in terms of: unmasking the critical nexus between development, power and the environment; showing development as a ‘project of power’; highlighting global vulnerabilities, global survival, global sustainability and global social justice; and finally, developing a thesis of neoliberal paradox, a new framework of the double-risk society and a new focus on the Global South.