Development Studies from a Decolonial Perspective:Discourse Analysis on the OECD Development Reports
2023 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 180 HE credits
Student thesis
Sustainable development
SDG 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere, SDG 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, SDG 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, SDG 10: Reduce income inequality within and among countries, SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, SDG 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels, SDG 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
Abstract [en]
The concept of development has been extensively researched, and it isa key topic in political and economic international and domestic agendas.Modernization and globalization theories have been the most prevalentanalytical approaches to development, but from a postcolonial and decolonialperspective, these theories are Western-centric, overgeneralized, andoverused. As a result, Political Studies have struggled to comprehend andlegitimate the local knowledge from the Global South and face moderncolonialism, as uncritical transfers of science, technology, and knowledgefrom the Global North take place. For this, the goal of this thesis was to raiseawareness of the OECD's development discourse through a transformationaland critical lens. Decolonial thinking, which asserts an epistemology from thesouth, specifically from Latin America, was employed for this work as atheoretical-epistemological, ethical-political, and methodological framework.This investigation is a pilot and desk study with abductive reasoning thatexamines discourses characteristic of the OECD, supported by a qualitativeresearch approach. In response to coloniality and modernity -building theoriesof development-, a content and critical discourse analysis through categorieswas conducted. Along with the instrumentalization of concepts and discursivetactics, the findings demonstrate and explore a productive, economical, andbusiness-like logic in the OECD discourses. In conclusion, colonial narrativesare found in the modernization and globalization approaches that take the formof utilitarian, neoliberal, universal, and emotive narratives in the twodevelopment reports by the OECD where the epistemic postulates are builtupon the idea of growth and a natural need to evolve.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023. , p. 74
Keywords [en]
Development, Decolonial Thought, Discourse Analysis, Postcolonial and Neo-colonial Theories, OECD, Global South, Wester-centrism.
Keywords [es]
Pensamiento Decolonial, Subalternidad, Pensamiento Latinoamericano
National Category
Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalisation Studies) Social Psychology Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-120289OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-120289DiVA, id: diva2:1751061
Supervisors
Examiners
2023-04-182023-04-172023-04-18Bibliographically approved