Knowledge matters in the World Bank : the KNETworking foundations of development policy

Abstract

Transnational ‘knowledge networks’ - also known as KNETs - are mechanisms and discursive venues for the construction and dissemination of ruling ideas of development when in league with major international organizations like the World Bank. Depending on how they are viewed analytically, KNETs have (1) the potential to inform the epistemic features of transnational governance in a scientifically dispassionate manner with evidence; (2) KNETs are vehicles for the development and dissemination of ‘scientized’ legitimizing discourses for the Bank’s involvement in governance; or (3) Bank sponsored KNETs are ideological platforms for the paradigmatic maintenance of neo-liberal world order. Adopting these analytical frameworks, it is not only possible to better understand why the World Bank sponsors selected KNETs (such as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research or the Global Development Network) but also the ways in which power relations are disturbed and then reconstituted by KNETs.