A survey of the World Development Reports I: discursive strategies

This is the first of two surveys of the World Development Report series. Here we focus on the discursive strategies adopted by the Reports. We begin by setting the Reports within the wider milieu of development theory and practice. Behind the pragmatic, problem-solving image that the Reports aim to promote we identify a narrow and pre-framed position that eschews radical or alternative agendas. The Reports engage in numerous discursive ploys to undermine, ignore or manipulate other positions and establish the Reports (and, by extension, the World Bank) as the repository of development ‘common sense’. While the Reports are impressive synthesizing documents, they have lost their ability to play a truly leading role in thinking about development because of their failure to debate alternative positions or fully acknowledge the mistakes of the past.