Depoliticizing Development The World Bank and Social Capital

'A scathing and yet also meticulous critique of Robert Putnam's work on social capital. John Harriss shows why Putnam's work is attractive to the World Bank, and why attempts to define social capital as the 'missing link' in development are misguided and self-serving. Depoliticizing Development is a must read for all students of development.' Stuart Corbridge, Professor of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Miami, USA; Professor of Geography, London School of Economics, UK. 'Depoliticizing Development shows us how, through subscription to the idea of social capital, social scientists as well as the World Bank have managed to neatly sideline the idea that human beings make their own histories through struggle against deep and entrenched structures of power and oppression. In this elegant and lucidly-written work John Harriss exposes the complicity of both these establishments in the maintenance of power relations.' Neera Chandhoke, Professor of Politics, University of Delhi, India. The idea of social capital -- meaning, most simply put, 'social connections' -- was unheard of outside a small circle of sociologists until very recently. Now it is proclaimed by the World Bank to be the 'missing link' in international development and has become the subject of a flurry of books and research papers. In Depoliticizing Development, John Harriss explores the origins of the idea of social capital and its diverse meanings in the work of James Coleman, Pierre Bourdieu and, more specifically, Robert Putnam, who is most responsible for the extraordinary rise of the idea of social capital through his work on Italy and the United States. Harriss asks why this notion should have taken off in the dramatic way that it has done and finds in its uses by the World Bank the attempt, systematically, to obscure class relations and power. Social capital has thus come to play a significant part in the discourses of international development, which go toward comprising 'the anti-politics machine'. This powerful and lucid critique will be of immense value to all those interested in development studies, including sociologists, economists, planners, NGOs and other activists.