consultancy as flexible power? post-democracy and the afterlives of neo-liberalism
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Consultancy as Flexible Power?:post-democracy and theafterlives of neo-liberalism
Paul StubbsSenior Research Fellow
The Institute of Economics, Zagreb
Dubrovnik, 20 April 2012
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected] -
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Definitions I
A Consultant is ...
someone whose job is to give advice on a
particular subject
Advice is ...
an opinion you give someone about what they
should do
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Definitions II
...experienced professional who provides
expertknowledge (often packaged under a catchy
name) for a fee. He or she works in an advisory
capacity only and is usually not accountable for theoutcome of a consultingexercise. Some consultants
(like Peter Drucker and W. Edward Deming) have
brought dramatic shifts in management thinking
and improvements in theperformance oforganizations.
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Joke Analysis
"Analyzing a joke is like dissecting a frog. Fewpeople are interested and the frog dies of it."
E.B. White
Humour is not resigned it is rebelliousSigmund Freud
Freud argued that what is repressed returns
to haunt us ... Jokes, like dreams and slips ofthe tongue, bear the traces of repressed
desires Michael Billig
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Jeffrey D. Sachs
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Janine Wedel Shadow Elite
The new breed of players, who operate at the
nexus of official and private power, cannot
only co-opt public policy agendas, crafting
policy with their own purposes in mind. ...
Flexians craft overlapping roles for
themselves coincidences of interest to
promote public policies (and sometimes theirown private finances as well).
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Shadow Elites
The Harvard Boys US Aid to Russia andshock therapy
The Chicago Boys structural adjustment in
Latin America and pension reform in EasternEurope
Goldmann Sachs or Government Sachs
new European austerity politics Neo-cons or the new military-industrial-
political-consultancy complex
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International Consultancy as
Flexible Power Extensive tendering for project work of EU, World
Bank, OECD/DAC countries, etc.
ICCs and INGOs form an intermediate new
marketised sector of unknown size and resources
Most EU (social policy)consultancy awarded to
single country teams
Quality control of consultancies is limited to cost
and delivery
Problems of revolving door
Evaluations reinforce idea of success
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The Afterlives of Neo-Liberalism
Org. Change/Reform TransnationalConsultancy New Public Management Neo-liberalism(s) multiple agencies and sites of governance Efficient, effective, (in)equitable? Contracting, Competition and Collaboration Complex, innovative, contingent, multiple,
hyperactive, unfinishedImportance of uncomfortable encounters withlocal politics and cultures ... that are (also)mobile and connective (Clarke, 2008).
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What do consultants do?
Projects design, implementation,monitoring and evaluation
Strategies action plans, institutional design,
new laws, creation of new agencies Technical assistance capacity building,
training Reforms political, technical, institutional,
fiscal
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Who are the consultants?
International consultancy companies
Individual consultants (retired civil servants)
Researchers and professors
Think tanks, networks, epistemic communities
Public bodies operating outside of state borders
International NGOs
International solidarity bodies
...
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Key Questions
How are international development consultantsmanaged and how do they manage their activities?
What is the relationship between charismatic andcompetence-based claims in transnational
consultancy encounters? How are consultants abstract ideas of reform or
change territorialized in specific assemblages intranslation?
How is transnational consultancy enacted as a site ofthe exercise of agency in emerging and flexible spacesof governance, authority and rule?
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Conceptual Framework
Critical ethnographies of internationaldevelopmentblack box of project practice
Narrative and dramaturgical perspectives on
organizations expanded theatricality ofperformance; front-stage and back-stage;actors scenes action;scripts and improvisations
Contact zones liminality, assymetry of power,translation and negotiation; power-chargedencounters
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Methodology
Reflexive Autoethnographic Praxis
Participant-insider/Self as principal informant
long-term, multi-sited and initiallyunintentional
Extended case method: from process
description to analysis of forces Work of translation and re-assemblage
Neither lone hero nor lone victim
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Case 1
Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1998, External Programme
Evaluator, UNDP, Area-Based Development
Team of 3 activists linked to Anti-war campaignCroatia
Critique included:1. UNDP Res Rep introduced Mayor of Sarajevo2. Project narratives when war came to BiH
3. Project signs in villages in English only
Re-written appreciation effectively buried byUNDP
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Case 2
Albania, 2011, Expert/Consultant, UNDP
(Ministry of Economy), Corporate Social
Responsibility Policy Paper and Global
Compact
Is anyone really committed to this?
A Policy paper authored in the name of the
Govt of Albania
A launch event: What if nobody turns up?
Unpredictable political buy-in
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Parodoxes of Persuasion and
Performativity (PPP)
Acting in front of multiple, active, audiences,
and engaging in front-stage performances
and back-stage manoeuverings to create
reputation translation/assemblage NOT
transfer
Paradoxes of materiality and of selection
(body shopping and body swapping)
Impression management in liminal states
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Parodoxes of Persuasion and
Performativity (PPP) II Distinction between local and foreign central
to the organisation of internationaldevelopment but difficult to maintain in theblack box of everyday encounters
Reform projects as foreign bodies alwayschannelled through mobile, unpredictableprocesses of translation (routes not roots)
Time is contested and complex
Dominance of technical over political aspects importance of intermediaries in hybridenvironments marked by a blurring ofsovereignty
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Managing new performativities
Participatory stakeholder workshops
Use of translators and translation
Actants flip charts, power point
presentations, small group work
Technical English benchmarks, indicators,stakeholders,
Outputs logical frameworks, extensivereports, evidence-based practice, measured
judgements
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Managing uncertainties and
contradictions
Multi-agency partnerships
International and local experts fee rates, roles,
knowledge claims, interactions
Charisma and/or bureaucracy - time, authority,place
Translating Contact zones into dialogic zones?
Forms of resistance to consultancy inputs Voice and power
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Post-democracy?
Little or no quality control Limited transparency No registration process No standards of behaviour/code of ethics Limited political control Underdeveloped macro-evaluation culture
Massive inequalities in remuneration
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HVALA NA PANJU!THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION
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