Karen Ranke | Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (original) (raw)

Papers by Karen Ranke

Arturo Escobar (*1952), a Colombian-American anthropologist primarily known for his contributions... more Arturo Escobar (*1952), a Colombian-American anthropologist primarily known for his contributions to the Post-Development and Poststructuralist tradition, argues that development, Third World and poverty are concepts that were established in the post
World War II period.1 According to Escobar, development began as a discourse, which then led to the creation of truths that began shaping the realities in Third World countries. In his development as a discourse theory he identifies three axes that define
this development apparatus: knowledge, power, and the creation of new forms of subjectivity.

Escobar highlights the importance of the work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984) for understanding the mechanisms of discourse and power in society:
"Foucault’s work on the dynamics of discourse and power in the representation of social reality, in particular, has been instrumental in unveiling the mechanisms by which a certain order of discourse produces permissible modes of being and thinking while disqualifying and even making others
impossible." What is more: Escobar refers explicitly to Foucault while outlining his development as a discourse theory in the second chapter of his book ‘Encountering Development – The Making and Unmaking of the Third World’ (1995).

Following Escobar’s self-declared reference to Foucault’s work, this paper aims at showing how Foucault’s discourse and power/knowledge theories are employed as a basis of argumentation in Arturo Escobar’s development as a discourse theory. The definition of discourse in this essay follow’s Foucault’s according to which discourses must be treated as discursive events. Escobar’s development as a discourse theory is also based on an event, i.e. the end of the Second World War: the establishment of the traditional development discourse, in which development worked as a top down process in terms of modernisation and economic growth, took mainly place in the early post World War II period, i.e. in the 1940s and 1950s. This is also the timeframe taken into account for the present discourse analysis.
Besides the first two chapters of Escobar’s ‘Encountering Development – The Making and Unmaking of the Third World’ (1995), I chose three articles of Foucault’s monograph ‘Power/Knowledge’ (1980) (‘Two Lectures’, ‘Truth and Power’, ‘Power & Strategies’) as well as his ‘The Order of Discourse’ (1970) to conduct the comparative discourse analysis. These works of Foucault broach the issues of the role of the event, the apparatuses of knowledge and truth, the relation between subjects and objects, and the concept of normalisation, all of them being equally central aspects to Escobar’s development as a discourse theory.
In the conclusion, I will give a critical analysis of Escobar’s use of Foucault’s discourse and power/knowledge theories, answering the question if the use of Foucault’s concepts helps to prove Escobar’s development as a discourse theory in a convincing or in a not so convincing way with shortcomings, misinterpretations or generalisations that do not convince intellectually.

The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is an area bound together by the Mekong River, covering 2.6 mi... more The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is an area bound together by the Mekong River, covering 2.6 million square kilometres and an estimated population of 326 million. The GMS consists of the countries Cambodia, the People's Republic of China (PRC, specifically Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
In 1992, with assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the six countries entered into a program of subregional economic cooperation, designed to enhance economic relations among the countries. The GMS program aims at implementing high priority subregional projects in transport, energy, telecommunications, environment, human resource development, tourism, trade, private sector investment, and agriculture. Since the beginning, mainly large-scale infrastructure projects, such as highway and hydropower construction, worth $ 11 billion have been realized. In the face of increasing resource scarcity, climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, degradation and other environmental issues, efficient regional environmental governance is prominent for the GMS to achieve poverty eradication and sustainable development.One of the main challenges for the region is to guarantee a reasonable and equitable utilization of the water flowing through the major river basins of the region. The Mekong River supports the world’s largest inland fishery, its biodiversity is second only to the Amazon River, and its flood pulse is central to the region’s subsistence and commercial agriculture. The great majority of people in the subregion are still leading subsistence or near subsistence agricultural lifestyles.
At the same time, water resources development has assumed a central role for the region’s economic growth, with hydropower being the biggest investment area. Dams are therefore a major and growing source of conflict both within and between countries, major issues being energy production and allocation, interference with natural flows, and loss of beneficial flooding for farmers. The transboundary environmental issues in the Mekong river basin strongly affect the most vulnerable groups, like small-scale farmers, fishers and ethnic minorities. The economic benefits of the enhanced economic cooperation may have been large, but the gap between rich and poor has also grown enormously.
This paper purports to lay out the clashing interests between the state, private actors, and civil society when dealing with environmental issues and conflicts over resources, most of them being related to water management. It will become clear that there is currently a lack of accountability instruments for local communities to claim their rights or participate in the decision-making process for new projects.
The paper will first illustrate grievances in the current political architecture of the GMS. It will be shown that civil society agency in the case of environmental conflicts is not encouraged through the existing policy instruments (chapter 2). The paper will then elaborate on reformist suggestions for fostering an agency-based approach (chapter 3) and illustrate the advantages – and limits - of a grassroots activism approach (chapter 4) in the decision-making process for projects that might harm local communities’ livelihoods. It considers the structural burdens that impede efficient public participation by evaluating agency context-embedded, i.e. taking place in a non-democratic environment (chapter 1).

Engaged Buddhism’s overall mission is to show that Buddhism can be “a force to soften the damage ... more Engaged Buddhism’s overall mission is to show that Buddhism can be “a force to soften the damage caused to the human spirit by the onward march of globalization. ” This paper examines propositions put forward by three of the most influential contemporary Engaged Buddhists – Thich Nhat Hanh, Sulak Sivaraksa and the Dalai Lama – for changing the course of contemporary globalization. With a geographical focus on South East Asia, it first explores the theoretical and practical propositions Engaged Buddhism offers for resolving and preventing armed and religious conflicts. It further lays out Engaged Buddhism's answer to the global economic crisis, stressing the importance of giving a voice to the voiceless in our system, and to reform the current educational systems and the content they propagate. It will be shown that the movement of Engaged Buddhism is a strong advocate for more sustainable lifestyles, seeing nature and humanity as one inseparable entity.

Both Argentinian/ Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811-1888) and Cuban/ José Martí (1853- 1895) wer... more Both Argentinian/ Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811-1888) and Cuban/ José Martí (1853- 1895) were personalities whose thinking and acting had an outstanding impact on the national independence and identity building process in their countries.
On the first sight at least, Sarmiento’s and Martí’s ideological mind-sets seem irreconcilable: While the first admires the enlightened Europe, the latter strongly perceives the need for constructing a proper Latin American identity anchored primarily in local history and traditions.
This papers aims at discerning how the two authors judge the interplay between nature and civilization, and at assessing if their viewpoints in that respect are really as opposed as supposed above, or rather converging, or even similar. To do so, I will first examine how both authors see the role nature and geographical patterns play in the identity building process of their people. In a second time, I will have a closer look at Sarmiento’s and Marti’s description of the natural man: How do both authors evaluate the importance and usefulness of the native’s knowledge and tradition for their countries’ emancipation from foreign influences and for their identity construction? Furthermore, I will examine the way Sarmiento and Martí describe and judge city life and people – is the urban space seen as a cradle for civilization, or rather as a hotbed for decadence and disorder? In the concluding section I will sum up the question if Marti’s writing can be understood as a direct critique to Sarmiento’s theory of Civilization vs. Barbarism, reclaiming a stronger role for indigenous tradition instead of westernization.

Other by Karen Ranke

Ce mémoire final de la filière binationale « Études Européennes (Paderborn/Le Mans) » de l'an... more Ce mémoire final de la filière binationale « Études Européennes (Paderborn/Le Mans) » de l'année 2013 traite la question du rôle des entreprises et des politiques européennes dans le projet de barrage hydroélectrique de Belo Monte en Amazonie : est-que les acteurs mènent une politique de développement durable ou de Greenwashing ?
Selon sa définition généralement admise, le développement durable inclut une prise en compte équilibrée des composantes économiques, écologiques et sociales au niveau politique. Ce travail analysera le niveau d’application des principes du développement durable dans les relations politiques et économiques entre le Brésil et l'Union Européenne (UE) à travers l'étude de cas de Belo Monte. Le Brésil est devenu, au cours des dernières années, un important partenaire commercial pour l'UE et s'apprête donc en tant qu'objet d'analyse.
Dans leurs déclarations communes, l'UE et le Brésil mettent en avant leur détermination commune de vouloir promouvoir le développement durable. L'analyse amenée dans ce travail montrera toutefois que la mise en pratique de cette volonté s'avère être insuffisante. L'étude de cas de Belo Monte révèlera de manière exemplaire que les déclarations officielles tant de la part des entreprises et des politiques européennes en matière de responsabilité socio-écologique ne reflètent pas la réalité. Les délits sociaux et écologiques qui se produisent lors de la construction du barrage de Belo Monte démontrent qu'il faut acheminer des réformes structurelles à notre système économique et politique actuel: la mise en pratique du développement durable sur base volontaire a échoué.

Karen Ranke | Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (original) (raw)

Papers by Karen Ranke

Other by Karen Ranke

Posters by Karen Ranke