ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the transformation of development discourse since the 1980s leading to the rise in significance of concepts like participation and civil society is also visible in the examples of development projects. Undoubtedly there has been a transformation in development discourse which includes the rise of neoliberalism, good governance, sustainable development, global governance, civil society, participation and partnership. Participation of the people who were affected by the project was not an issue in the plans of the Narmada Valley project and their protests were deliberately overheard as long as possible. In 2002 the British and Swedish development agencies launched a project designed to improve political participation in the Bolivian elections which proved somewhat controversial because the Bolivian government disagreed with it. The measures taken in these projects have been analyzed as restructurings of fields of action of the people affected by them, thus as implying relations of power in the Michel Foucaults' sense.
