consultancy as flexible power? post-democracy and the afterlives of neo-liberalism

8/2/2019 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

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

www.eizg.hr
mailto:[email protected]://www.eizg.hr/http://www.eizg.hr/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

consultancy as flexible power? post-democracy and the afterlives of neo-liberalism

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