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In the 1990s, the topics of development and poverty, once dominated by development economists, appeared on the radar of management, organizational studies and innovation scholars. A huge variety of terms, some historical like ‘appropriate technology’ and some others totally new like ‘frugal innovation’, ‘Jugaad innovation’ and ‘inclusive innovation’ began to populate the business and management literature. Concurrently, the field of development studies became progressively hybridised with elements from business and innovation studies. This thesis contributes to the analysis of this ‘cross-pollination’ between the discourses of development and the discourses of Innovation. The research discusses how the meaning of innovation, an interpretively flexible and contested ‘buzzword’ with the capacity to shelter multiple political agendas, is constructed within the discourses and practices of development to support and further the values and interests of those actors who employ it. By telling the stories of four different communities of practitioners in Bangladesh and India, this thesis validates, on one hand, some of the conclusions of the extant literature concerning innovation in resource-constrained environments. On the other hand, it provides original insights about the construction of the discourse of innovation and technical change in situated practices. The cases confirm that innovation can and does spring from resource-constrained conditions, where it is often driven and shaped not only by malfunctioning formal and informal institutions, market mechanisms and a weak private sector, but also by traditional knowledge, empathy and cultural motives. At the same time, the findings reveal that technological innovation is neither necessary nor sufficient to reverse the causes of poverty and exclusion, historically major targets for development. In certain circumstances, innovation can even reinforce unequal power relationships by favouring those who already enjoy privileged positions in the community. In three of the four cases analysed, the discourse of innovation attempt to transform the social practices of ‘the beneficiaries’, promoting all the features typical of neoliberal agenda such as competitiveness, ownership, productivity, efficiency and market-oriented production, while at the same time dismissing pre-existing or alternative subsistence patterns of life and nonmarketable solutions. These dynamics present within an emergent, hegemonic discourse of ‘Inclusive business’, which is inspired by the desire to include people within the framework of the market economy, fighting the informal economy and, ultimately, erasing subsistence. What emerges from the research is that discourses of social justice and political transformation have been marginalised, if not completely neglected, in discourses of innovation and development. The thesis, however, describes that the meaning of innovation in the context of development remains contested. There exist countervailing voices that, despite being a minority, have and continue to open up the debate about the value of innovation and technological change as an instrument for social transformation.

This snapshot ethnographic research was conducted in Kihande Village in Uganda with the Agabagaya Women’s Group for a period of five weeks in 2004. Using a feminist ethnographic methodology, the researcher explores how women value, share and pursue knowledge informally among themselves to support themselves, their families and their communities. The analysis indicates that the women of Agabagaya are knowers in their worlds, that they actively pursue educational opportunities and development opportunities, and that they do so from a grassroots level. This particular group does not rely on and may actually be hindered by external development organizations and outside educational influences with top-down models. However, the group does use external development agencies when there is opportunity for the group to benefit. The researcher further explores the positions and implications of a white, Western researcher conducting research in a developing, non-white country and discovers that positive and respectful relationships are at the heart of the research process and that the participants control many aspects of the research itself. / May 2005

Abstract“Development” is an essentially contested concept within academia and some critics, the so-called post-development school, argue that the concept and practice of development is a world-view monopolizing our imagination. The school of thought promotes alternative ways to think about development but is merely at the theoretical level and lacks taking into account empirical cases. Therefore, this theoretical approach is to test and develop existing literature and the theory is originating from the work of Michel Foucault and theory of post-development’s presented hegemonic development discourse. The aim is to study Peruvian NGO executives’ perceptions on development and alternative development collaborations through in-depth interviews and a critical case study design. The study reveals an alternative thinking about “development” and local perceptions challenge the “truth” of the hegemonic development discourse. A donor-recipient relation is visible where local knowledge is limited and local NGOs are coerced into new behaviors to satisfy donors’ demands. Studying “periphery” grass-root voices from the Third World is important to be able to imagine “development” differently in discourses silenced, limited and at the margins.

This snapshot ethnographic research was conducted in Kihande Village in Uganda with the Agabagaya Women’s Group for a period of five weeks in 2004. Using a feminist ethnographic methodology, the researcher explores how women value, share and pursue knowledge informally among themselves to support themselves, their families and their communities. The analysis indicates that the women of Agabagaya are knowers in their worlds, that they actively pursue educational opportunities and development opportunities, and that they do so from a grassroots level. This particular group does not rely on and may actually be hindered by external development organizations and outside educational influences with top-down models. However, the group does use external development agencies when there is opportunity for the group to benefit. The researcher further explores the positions and implications of a white, Western researcher conducting research in a developing, non-white country and discovers that positive and respectful relationships are at the heart of the research process and that the participants control many aspects of the research itself.

The Rwandan countryside is currently undergoing a process of rapid reform under ambitious government programs to modernize agriculture for participation in national and international markets. While the government asserts that it is pursuing pro-poor growth, many critics present significant evidence to the contrary. This thesis examines the use of farmers cooperatives within the ongoing government campaign of agricultural modernization, and it asks whether the co-ops themselves are sources of personal empowerment and material gain for the small producers. Adopting the “sceptical” post-development position advanced by Aram Ziai, the present research attempts to take a pragmatic look at the ways in which the co-ops meet or fail to meet the material and non-material needs of their members while appreciating that cultural preferences are heterogeneous and dynamic. While the use of farmers cooperatives appears appropriate for the Rwandan marshland, the co-ops examined very much fall short of the post-development social movement model.

This snapshot ethnographic research was conducted in Kihande Village in Uganda with the Agabagaya Women’s Group for a period of five weeks in 2004. Using a feminist ethnographic methodology, the researcher explores how women value, share and pursue knowledge informally among themselves to support themselves, their families and their communities. The analysis indicates that the women of Agabagaya are knowers in their worlds, that they actively pursue educational opportunities and development opportunities, and that they do so from a grassroots level. This particular group does not rely on and may actually be hindered by external development organizations and outside educational influences with top-down models. However, the group does use external development agencies when there is opportunity for the group to benefit. The researcher further explores the positions and implications of a white, Western researcher conducting research in a developing, non-white country and discovers that positive and respectful relationships are at the heart of the research process and that the participants control many aspects of the research itself.

This thesis examines the role of the helping imperative in Canadian foreign aid discourse. After weaving together post-development and decolonial theory and applying these theories to cosmopolitanism, I propose a reconstructed cosmopolitan theory - delinked cosmopolitanism - as a theoretical orientation for this analysis. In applying the discourse legitimation framework as an analytical tool, I conclude that the current discursive orientations of the Government of Canada are focused on helping while believing that Western ways of being, knowing and doing are the only way to live in the world. I then suggest possible applications of delinked cosmopolitanism and discourse analysis for future research, both in Canada and abroad, in order to support a possible shift in thinking and an improved ability to work across difference.

The Rwandan countryside is currently undergoing a process of rapid reform under ambitious government programs to modernize agriculture for participation in national and international markets. While the government asserts that it is pursuing pro-poor growth, many critics present significant evidence to the contrary. This thesis examines the use of farmers cooperatives within the ongoing government campaign of agricultural modernization, and it asks whether the co-ops themselves are sources of personal empowerment and material gain for the small producers. Adopting the “sceptical” post-development position advanced by Aram Ziai, the present research attempts to take a pragmatic look at the ways in which the co-ops meet or fail to meet the material and non-material needs of their members while appreciating that cultural preferences are heterogeneous and dynamic. While the use of farmers cooperatives appears appropriate for the Rwandan marshland, the co-ops examined very much fall short of the post-development social movement model.

Ivan Illich (1926-2002) propose dans ses ouvrages une critique radicale des « institutions » (Église, école, hôpital, transports, machines, etc.) qui toutes, à un moment de leur déploiement, se révèlent contre-productives. Peut-on transposer au domaine de l'urbain ses analyses ? Si oui, en quoi contribuent-elles à rendre intelligible ce qui « travaille » les villes à l'ère de l'urbanisation planétaire ? Cette recherche propose une lecture illichienne de « l'entreprise-ville » et suggère des pistes pour sortir de l'impasse productiviste dans laquelle elle est engagée. Elle s'articule autour de deux axes : Premièrement, dans le contexte du paradigme économiciste de la rareté et du paradigme cybernétique des systèmes, la Ville a été substituée par une entreprise urbaine contre-productive : une anti-ville. L'urbanisme devient iatrogène. C'est « le grand enfermement ».Deuxièmement, les idées d'Ivan Illich projetées sur l'espace habité nourrissent , et très généreusement, un nouveau paradigme pour sortir de l'industrialisme et reconstruire le territoire à travers des processus de réduction / reconduction. C'est la ville conviviale / In his work, Ivan Illich (1926-2002) makes a radical critique of “institutions” (the Church, schools, hospitals, transport, machines, etc.), alleging that at some stage in their development they become all counterproductive. Can these analyses be transposed to the urban domain? If so, how can they help to make what “shapes” cities intelligible in the age of global urbanisation? This research proposes an Illichian reading of “the business-city” and suggests ways to leave the productivist impasse it is now experiencing. It is structured around two axes : Firstly, in the context of the economic model of scarcity and of the cybernetic model of systems, the City has been replaced by a counterproductive urban business: an anti-city, in which Urbanism becomes iatrogenic. It is « the vast enclosure ». Secondly, Ivan Illich's ideas transposed to the habitable space significantly contribute towards nurturing a new model for leaving industrialism and reconstructing the territory through processes of reduction and reconduction. This is the convivial city