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The changing urban discourse of the multilateral aid institutions
Author(s) -
De Ponte Giulia
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
international social science journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.237
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1468-2451
pISSN - 0020-8701
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2451.00372
Subject(s) - meaning (existential) , general partnership , structuring , sociology , epistemology , political science , task (project management) , law and economics , positive economics , law , economics , management , philosophy
In the 1980s multilateral development aid organisations seemed to be almost unanimous in structuring their urban policy around the ideas of urban management and partnership. It was clear, however, that there was continuing wide–ranging uncertainty over the exact meaning attributed to these terms by such organisations. As a result, the debate was confined either to an excessively vague theoretical analysis or to a mere discussion of the empirical results of the programmes carried out. In these circumstances the commentators from outside the multilateral agencies have often undertaken the task of interpreting the two terms in question by trying to extrapolate a definition of them on the basis of the texts in which they have appeared. Without denying the usefulness of such approaches, an attempt will be made here to suggest a different path, retracing the historical development of the ideas from which these terms have sprung. Attention will be focused in particular on the relations of transmission and continuity — or conversely, of rupture — which have characterised this development, with a view to understanding in which of these relations the meaning of the terms in question is rooted.