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As one of the world's most powerful supranational institutions, the World Bank has played an important role in international development discourse and practice since 1946. This is the first book-length history and analysis of the Bank's urban programs and their complex relationship to urban policy formulation in the developing world. Through extensive primary research, the book examines four major themes:
the political and economic forces that propelled the reluctant World Bank to finally embrace urban programs in the 1970s
how the Bank fashioned its general ideology of development into specific urban projects
trends and transitions within the Bank's urban agenda from its inception to the present
the World Bank's historic and contemporary role in the complex interaction between global, national, and local forces that shape the urban agendas of developing countries.
The book also examines how protests from NGOs and civic movements, in the context of globalization and neo-liberalism, have influenced the World Bank policies from the 1990s to the present. The institution's attempts to restructure and legitimate itself, in light of shifting geo-political and intellectual contexts, are considered throughout.
List of contents
Introduction 1. Theorizing the World Bank and Development 2. Toward Social Lending – Shifts in the World Bank’s Development Thinking 3. The Search for an Urban Agenda at The World Bank 4. The Fall of Poverty Alleviation: The Politics of Urban Lending at The World Bank 5. Beyond Global and Local: A Critical Analysis of The World Bank Urban Programs In Zimbabwe 6. Globalization, Neo-Liberalism and The Politics of The Bank’s Current Urban Agenda 7. Conclusion. Bibliography
About the author
Edward Ramsamy
Summary
This significant text examines the factors, both internal and external to the World Bank that have influenced its urban development agenda, and is essential reading for those involved in the areas of urban and development studies.
