Knowledges in competition: Knowledge discourse at the World Bank during the Knowledge for Development era

Abstract

In 1996, World Bank President James D Wolfensohn announced the World Bank’s plan to evolve from a traditional financial institution into the world’s ‘Knowledge Bank’. This rhetorical shift within World Bank discourse marked the institution’s intention to rebrand itself as the world’s purveyor of knowledge about development. However, despite this seemingly progressive discourse, the Knowledge for Development era did not symbolize a real shift in World Bank policy or practice. Throughout the Knowledge for Development era, the World Bank held on to a narrow conceptualization of knowledge as capital to be leveraged for economic growth. As the World Bank’s knowledge activities continue to expand during the 21st century, the Knowledge for Development era serves as an opportune epoch to explore the World Bank’s expanding knowledge agenda. The article contends that it is possible to better understand the World Bank’s current knowledge agenda by showing how and why a particular type of knowledge became institutionalized within the World Bank during the 1990s. Using paradigm maintenance as a theoretical framework, the article illustrates how indigenous knowledge was widely acknowledged in World Bank research during the 1990s, yet ignored in World Bank policy and practice. More specifically, while a significant amount of World Bank research highlighted the importance of indigenous knowledge in education during this time period; such knowledge was never incorporated into the World Bank’s education strategy. Ultimately, this case study illustrates how the World Bank uses paradigm maintenance in order to maintain command and control over the ‘right’ type of knowledge for development.