“Missing link” or missed opportunity? Bourdieu, agency and the political economy of the social capital initiative

摘要

AbstractThis paper looks to bring a fresh perspective to bear on the World Bank’s engagement with the concept of social capital. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, it examines the representations of agency portrayed in the World Bank’s Social Capital Initiative (SCI). Its guiding premise is that all such projects carry with them agential ideals and fixed assumptions around human nature that can in turn be used to discern their ideological disposition. Viewed primarily as an operation of power, a critical stance is taken on the Bank’s representation of social capital and the way in which it constructs agency in line with an economic worldview. This paper situates the SCI within an historical context before bringing analysis to bear on its foundational literature. Despite purporting to revolve around key “social” themes, it is found that many of the representations provided serve primarily to reinforce a dated liberal-economic abstraction of agency.