In recent years, the World Bank has begun to see itself as a’knowledge bank'[Stiglitz, 1998]. In its new role, the Bank will not only transfer capital to developing countries but also seeks to close the gaps that exist in the level of knowledge in the north and south. Part of the Bank’s new knowledge agenda is elaborated in its 1998-99 World Development Report (WDR), entitled’Knowledge for Development’. Is it likely that’knowledge for development’may in a few years attain the same seductive power as have concepts such as’ social capital’and’capacity building’in development studies and in the development dictionary of researchers and practitioners? To consider this, it is worth reflecting on what the World Bank really means by’knowledge for development’. The purpose of this essay, hence, is to explore the World Bank’s conception of knowledge. The main argument is that the WDR operates with a very narrow and reductionist notion of knowledge which ignores the dynamic and plural aspects shaping knowledge production and generation, and that its analyses are bereft of questions concerning a wider political economy. Furthermore, the Bank fails to reflect on its own role in knowledge generation. These arguments will be developed by drawing insights form a wide social science literature on knowledge and by reflecting on some of the examples cited in the Report.
Authors
