Wayne Dreyer

Foucault and the Politics of Development Aid: Reflections on New Zealand's Education Aid Policies Wayne Dreyer

Development Aid programmes are a major international business yet all is not right within these programmes. This book employs a Foucauldian analysis to investigate the politics of the New Zealand's development aid programmes and the power relationships enbedded in development discourse. Three separate yet interlinking themes are investiagted. First is the impact of capitalism, which with neoliberal ideology and politics continues to dominate western interests. Second is that aid remains inherently imperial and western agencies continue the metanarrative of modernisation through the aegis of aid. Third is the growth of a hegemonic discourse of knowledge. These themes when combined produce a 'normalising' impact on subject poulations. From these conceptual underpinnings the argument is posited that development education is the latest phase of modernisation. The major conclusion of the study is that despite its best intentions New Zealand's aid has created a development 'dispositif' in the South Pacific. This book is useful for those interested in contemporary issues in development. aid.