TY - JOUR
T1 - The Social Construction of Development Cooperation Success and Failure
AU - Fejerskov, Adam Moe
PY - 2016/9/1
Y1 - 2016/9/1
N2 - Determining the success of development projects and programmes is often portrayed and understood as a question of measurable impact and effectiveness. More often than not however, success is a negotiated truth, socially constructed between the involved stakeholders that does not require measurable results of impact, and may very well hold the opposite circumstances. By examining the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in the Horn of Africa, the article investigates one such case of development project success despite no substantial impact on the ground. Success in development cooperation, the article argues, is not a matter of attaining impact, but is rather constructed in the overlapping space between representation and interpretation of events, actions and discourses, made and sustained socially between recipient and donor.
AB - Determining the success of development projects and programmes is often portrayed and understood as a question of measurable impact and effectiveness. More often than not however, success is a negotiated truth, socially constructed between the involved stakeholders that does not require measurable results of impact, and may very well hold the opposite circumstances. By examining the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in the Horn of Africa, the article investigates one such case of development project success despite no substantial impact on the ground. Success in development cooperation, the article argues, is not a matter of attaining impact, but is rather constructed in the overlapping space between representation and interpretation of events, actions and discourses, made and sustained socially between recipient and donor.
KW - Development cooperation
KW - Horn of Africa
KW - IGAD
KW - development aid
KW - social construction
KW - sociology of development
U2 - 10.1080/08039410.2016.1164235
DO - 10.1080/08039410.2016.1164235
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0803-9410
VL - 43
SP - 365
EP - 383
JO - Forum for Development Studies
JF - Forum for Development Studies
IS - 3
ER -