ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers a historically grounded analysis of the role and implications of the universalization of the nation-state, which was at a particular historical moment conceived of as the key ‘agent’ and ‘actor’ of development. It highlights the complex ways in which state violence is constituted, through an analysis of the politics of representation. The book demonstrates the way in which discourses of ‘othering’ in terms of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ are deployed to advance and manage the contradictions of capitalist global social relations. It deals with the theme of recognition and redistribution that underlies the contradictions of modernity. The book presents an analysis of the World Bank’s efforts to institutionalize and consolidate ‘knowledge’ for development through the global development network draws out the extent to which ‘managing knowledge’ has been part of struggles in the politics of development.
