The aim of this thesis is to understand how a repertoire of municipal planning narratives evolved and how these were used as a means to explain, legitimise and produce change in a city that went through a process of urban transformation. The focus is set on the role of narratives in municipal plans as a mental preparation for change. In order to reach this aim, a framework for narrative analysis is developed that shall facilitate a critical reading of such municipal planning documents as comprehensive plans. This shall help to understand among other things how place and community are constructed. This framework is used to interpret four documents of the municipality of Karlskrona, one introductory guide for new inhabitants from 1980, and three consecutive comprehensive plans, adopted in 1991, 2002 and 2010. In short, the narrative analysis consists of four different ways of reading each respective document. First, more or less coherent narratives are identified in the texts. Second, they are analysed with respect to their literary and rhetoric form, in a way that is inspired by historian and literary theorist Hayden White. A third reading places the documents’ narratives into their historical context. Finally, they are classified as certain narratives of place identity on the basis of a typology developed by sociologist Manuel Castells. He states that identities can be constructed with help of narratives that legitimise the existing societal structures, that stand in opposition to these structures, or that create a new identity out of available resources. Based on these readings, I find that the four documents use very different literary and rhetorical forms and that they construct the place’s identity in ways clearly distinct from each other. They express various moral and political perspectives and convey clearly distinct social norms regarding the role of inhabitants and the municipality. Over the decades, there has been a clear shift of expressed values from those that support a leading role of the (local) state in fostering local development to those that highlight the importance of market actors and market forces. A similar change has occurred from the pronunciation of state responsibility for the inhabitant’s well-being to a greater focus on individual responsibility. This confirms the notion that municipal planning is increasingly influenced by ideas of neoliberal development. It could also be observed that storytelling and a purposeful narrative construction of place identity have become more prominent as instruments of planning. Planning narratives were clearly used to explain and legitimise shifts or persistence in municipal policymaking. Due to this it can be concluded that in the eyes of local policy makers, the municipality seems to have gone through a complete process of urban transformation from being in a state of decline to one of stabilised growth.

The World Bank is one of the most powerful institutions in the world. And it is charged with some of the world’s most important goals, at least in rhetoric. The World Bank’s mission is “A World Free of Poverty”. World Bank rhetoric now sees the institution embrace such goals as ‘poverty alleviation’, ‘environmental sustainability’, ‘gendermainstreaming’, ‘good governance’, and ‘partnerships for development’. These claims demand critical analysis so that the reality of the Bank’s agenda and work can be deciphered from its rhetoric. To that end, this research critically examines the World Bank’s rhetoric and strategies for engaging NGOs in what it describes as a ‘partnership for development’.¶ The World Bank, in the past two decades, has been at the receiving end of an increasing critical commentary, much of which emerges from the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). In response the World Bank has started opening its doors, slowly at first, and then with increasing rigour, the Bank sought to intensify its dialogue with NGOs. Its tone is conciliatory towards NGOs, giving the appearance of an institution that is willing to learn, willing to be moved, and willing to transform itself.¶ This thesis analyses literature and primary research gathered from fieldwork experience in Indonesia. In exploring the case study I unearth the ways in which the continuing neoliberal development agenda of the World Bank drives its NGO engagement strategies. I discuss questions such as, do dialogues with NGOs produce change to the World Bank and its development agenda, and if so then what is the nature of those changes? Might the building of relations with the World Bank cause NGOs and their agendas to be transformed whilst the Bank remains relatively unchanged? What is the gendered context of the relationship and how does this reinforce unequal relationships? The Indonesian case study provides the terrain upon which these questions will be explored. Exploring these questions makes evident what can be expected from the World Bank of its engagement with NGOs, in process and outcome. This, in turn, illuminates the agendas open for change and transformation at the Bank, the contested agendas, and the fundamental, non-negotiable and immutable agendas. In conclusion, this thesis reflects on the possibilities for change in the future.

More than a decade after the World Bank was forced out of the dam-building industry due to the social and environmental consequences of the projects they helped to finance, World Bank support for the development of the Nam Theun 2 (NT2) Hydroelectric Project, located atop the bio-diverse Nakai Plateau in central Laos, signals the re-emergence of the Bank’s involvement in large-scale dam construction initiatives. The NT2 project is the Bank’s response to its international critics. The project is a ‘test case’ for a new model of hydropower development that seeks to counteract any negative consequences to the surrounding environment and populations through the enactment of a new set of environmental and social safeguards that the Bank had spent over a decade developing. As the optimal consequence, if NT2 achieves the goal of safeguarding the bio-diverse environment of the Nakai region through the creation and implementation of long-term ‘socially and environmentally sustainable’ livelihood activities capable of raising the living standards and income levels of Nakai villagers beyond the national poverty line, then the NT2 model of development will be validated and its use in other World Bank supported hydroelectric initiatives all but assured. The alternative result is that the new safeguard mechanisms fail to achieve these goals, significantly contributing to the destabilization of one of the of the most environmentally and culturally unique regions in the world. This thesis analyzes the effectiveness of NT2 social and environmental safeguards in order to determine to what extent this new model of development is achieving the objectives it set prior to construction. Using a range of data, it analyzes outcomes produced from the core safeguards program of the project: the resettlement livelihoods’ programmes. Analysis of villagers’ livelihoods after resettlement clearly indicates that the NT2 model was never able to overcome challenges posed by reduced access to forest and agricultural lands for re-establishing villagers’ core land-based livelihood activities. As a result, many villagers have abandoned the livelihoods programmes at resettlement villages across the Plateau. In the short term, these villagers have, nevertheless, significantly increased their incomes through intensified commercial fishing and export-oriented rare timber and endangered wildlife extraction activities. The problem for NT2 developers such as the World Bank is that this form of economic activity is neither socially nor environmentally sustainable, placing the regional environment, local populations and the NT2 project in jeopardy. / Graduate