The concept of development is at the core of the liberal international order. All member states of the UN have committed themselves to the Sustainable Development Goals, and most Western countries consider development to be a key tool in foreign policy. At the same time, the notion of development is an integral element in the modern conception of the human being and in the modern political imagination. In her recently completed thesis, Suvi Alt reveals that what often appears to be a self-evident undertaking – promoting development – is in fact a problematic ambition, precisely because the principles that drive it seem politically neutral.
In her research, Ms Alt examines the modern
understanding of development from the perspectives of power, governance and
politics. The thesis focuses on the assumptions that underlie the current
conception of development, probing the understandings of humanity and of the
relationship between people and the world that the concept of development has
acquired and investigating how humanity is produced and governed through these
understandings.
As Ms Alt points out in this regard, ‘Despite
well-intentioned aims, development always contains an element of governance.
Although it seems self-evident that ending poverty, reducing infant mortality
and preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS are worthwhile objectives, the means by
which they are pursued are not politically neutral.’
For example, justifications for the urgency
of controlling the birth rate often cite the need to adapt to climate
change and to empower women in developing countries by making it possible for
them to work outside the home. Yet, some of the means for controlling the birth
rate are dubious, such as pressuring women into sterilization. Drawing
attention to this issue also means ignoring the fact that the developed
countries contribute far more to the advance of climate change.
Development
as governance relies on assumptions as well as practices
The particular focus of the thesis is on
the ontological underpinnings of the idea of development. The results of the
research stress that the idea is part of the tradition of Western metaphysics,
in which everything that exists is viewed as a resource and thus as governable.
With the advance of neoliberal politics, the resource mentality has taken on
heightened emphasis, for neoliberalism interprets humanity through an economic
logic.
Recent decades have seen new concepts of
human development and sustainable development, ones marking a transition from
narrow measures of development towards a broader conception of the importance for
development of human well-being and the environment. Yet, the principles underpinning
these concepts do not challenge neoliberal economic thinking. Categories based
on economic logic – human capital, for example – and the requirement of
adaptability continue to dominate today’s conception of development.
In the thesis, Suvi Alt also highlights the
need to pay more attention to the places where humanity, ways of being in the
world and the relationship between the human being and the environment are
understood in ways that challenge both the modern resource mentality and categories
predicated on economic and biological thinking. She points out that the way in
which development is dealt with often fails to recognize the political nature
of such categories.
Ms Alt observes, ‘Public debate on
development easily becomes confined to arguments over funding for development,
and political criticism of development is often based on a turning inward and drawing
a line between “us” and “others”. What
we see is a discourse that more often than not fails to question the meaning of
development.’ She goes on to suggest that a politically and ethically more
fruitful approach would be to deconstruct the self-evident elements of the
prevailing liberal conception of development; rather than invoking exclusion, we
should emphasize alternative ways of understanding being in the world in both
the Global North and the Global South.
Information
on the defence
The public examination of MSocSc Suvi Alt’s
doctoral thesis Beyond the Politics of
Development: Being Politics and Worlds will take place in the Faculty of Social
Sciences on Friday, 9 December 2016, at 12 noon, in Lecture Hall 2,
Yliopistonkatu 8, Rovaniemi. The Opponent will be Professor emeritus Michael
Dillon of the University of Lancaster, and the Custos University Lecturer Mika
Luoma-aho of the University of Lapland.
Information
on the doctoral candidate
Suvi Alt (born 1984, Rovaniemi) completed
her matriculation examination at Lyseonpuisto Upper Secondary School in
Rovaniemi in 2003. She completed a master’s degree in Social Sciences with a
major in International Relations at the University of Lapland in 2009.
Ms Alt worked as a doctoral researcher on a
grant from the Kone Foundation in 2010, as a junior researcher in the
department of International Relations at the University of Lapland in 2011 and
as a fully funded doctoral researcher in the National Graduate School of
Political Studies (POLITU) from 2012 to 2015. In addition, she worked as a
visiting researcher at Griffith University in Australia in 2012, and at the
University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 2014. Since 2015, Ms Alt has
worked as a university teacher in the Department of International Relations and
International Organization at the University of Groningen.
Additional information:
Suvi Alt
Tel. 040 731 9203
suvi.alt (at) ulapland.fi
Information on the publication:
Suvi Alt: Beyond the Biopolitics of Development: Being Politics and Worlds. Acta Universitatis Lapponiensis 334. ISBN 978-952-484-926-5. ISSN 0788-7604. Online version (pdf): Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis 220. ISBN 978-952-484-972-2. ISSN 1796-6310.
Ulapland/Communications & Language Centre / J-EK&RF