ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the literature on the knowledge strategy and new emphasis on bottom-up civil society participation in World Bank governance. To examine the World Bank’s knowledge strategy further, it is crucial to examine more closely and critically the transnational civil society networks involved in the social construction and validation of development knowledge, and the new patterns of knowledge management. Nongovernmental organization (NGO) participation is held ultimately to reinforce Washington’s dominant position due to the close proximity of a large number of US NGOs to the DC headquarters of the World Bank. In an effort to increase responsiveness to specific circumstances at the micro level, the World Bank officially adopted knowledge management concepts in 1996. The World Bank has served as a catalyst for the development of specialized external knowledge networks, for which technological infrastructures and have been provided.
