Imperial Nature: The World Bank and Struggles for Social Justice in the Age of Globalization (Yale Agrarian Studies Series) [Paperback]

Michael Goldman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 8125030476 | ISBN-13: 978-0300119749 | Publication Date: September 6, 2006

Why is the World Bank so successful? How has it gained power even at moments in history when it seemed likely to fall? This pathbreaking book is the first close examination of the inner workings of the Bank, the foundations of its achievements, its propensity for intensifying the problems it intends to cure, and its remarkable ability to tame criticism and extend its own reach.
Michael Goldman takes us inside World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C., and then to Bank project sites around the globe. He explains how projects funded by the Bank really work and why community activists struggle against the World Bank and its brand of development. Goldman looks at recent ventures in areas such as the environment, human rights, and good governance and reveals how--despite its poor track record--the World Bank has acquired greater authority and global power than ever before.
The book sheds new light on the World Bank's role in increasing global inequalities and considers why it has become the central target for anti-globalization movements worldwide. For anyone concerned about globalization and social justice, "Imperial Nature is" essential reading.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This probing study of the World Bank examines not its brute financial muscle but its "hegemony"-the rhetorical strategies, training programs and patronage networks that let the Bank frame debate and cajole even critics into endorsing its agenda. Sociologist Goldman focuses on what he calls the Bank's "green neoliberalism," a fashionable development ideology that packages poor nations' public services, natural resources and environmental diversity as undervalued economic assets to be profitably managed and conserved through the market. He explores this creed through interviews with Bank employees and onsite studies of Bank-financed projects, looking at the Bank's Policy Research Department, a project in Laos that links construction of hydroelectric dams with the set-aside of nature preserves, and an ambitious initiative to privatize water utilities. Goldman levels a biting but nuanced account of the Bank's dubious scientific studies, its cooptation of environmentalists and the "neocolonialism" of its new enthusiasm for pristine eco-tourism zones that are often as disruptive to traditional communities as old-style development. Unfortunately, he overlays it with a great deal of dense theory, heavily indebted to Gramsci and Foucault, about "power/knowledge regimes," adding little insight but lots of jargon. That's a shame, since this clumsy rhetorical strategy partly obscures an excellent critique of the Bank's inner workings and external image-making. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Michael Goldman's brilliant book will be widely read, admired, and quoted. Many ships will sail in its wake." James C. Scott, Yale University "An excellent critique of the Bank's inner workings and external image-making." Publishers Weekly "Imperial Nature's greatest strength is its analysis of the World Bank as an institution... A valuable resource for activists, students, and scholars, alike." Joshua Brook, TNR Online "A compelling study." Steve Lachman, Environment"

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8125030476
• ISBN-13: 978-0300119749
• ASIN: 0300119747
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #608,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative Read, May 29, 2006

By 

Daneo (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imperial Nature: The World Bank and Struggles for Social Justice in the Age of Globalization (Yale Agrarian Studies Series) (Hardcover)

Michael Goldman's Imperial Nature provides a compelling account of the ongoing struggles between the World Bank and its borrowers. It is unbiased in analyzing World Bank activities and their effects on the global South. The Bank's financial support for various projects merits applause from authoritative figures in diverse intellectual fields. However, its dealings in implementing policies stemming from this support can be viewed as less than wholesome. Goldman provides a good deal of history behind this, from American involvement in 19th century world development to the creation and expansion of the World Bank in the mid-twentieth century.
Goldman describes Robert McNamara's reign as a period of change for the World Bank. It was made both highly efficient and hegemonic. The efficiency factor allowed the World Bank to accrue funding from many international sources, and complete projects within short time spans. However, this same efficiency set the standard for future projects- that those researchers who wanted project funding and promotions would abide by bank rules. Important information involving local peoples would be excluded, adding to the bank's increasing hegemony. Negative consequences for the environment would also be ignored, so long as a neoliberal agenda for development was promoted.
The World Bank wields enormous power over the global South, as many national governments rely on it for economic prosperity. It has no system of checks and balances, nor is there another entity fit to replace it. As Goldman states, "A few well timed political victories could send tidal waves through the international financial system and create many new opportunities for social movements to create alternative structures." Thus we are left with the question: is there an alternative to promote economic development while maintaining environmental and social sustainability?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid framework of World Bank, May 30, 2006

By 

J. Santopadre "Ray Allen" (Hanover, NH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imperial Nature: The World Bank and Struggles for Social Justice in the Age of Globalization (Yale Agrarian Studies Series) (Hardcover)

Michael Goldman's Imperial Nature provides a concrete basis for the understanding of the World Bank's infrastructure and policies. Not only does Goldman explain how the World Bank functions, but he gives specific examples of projects from around the world such as the Nam Theun 2 dam in Laos. Goldman attempts to explain how the bank achieves its powerful status and remains a dominant structure worldwide. A passage reads, "From this perspective, the World Bank functions by borrowing capital from a global bond market (that it helped to create), lending it to governments that are deemed in need, and then requiring these governments to spend a substantial percentage of these loans to procure goods and services from firms of the Big Five creditor countries" (Goldman 155). Previously unaware of the World Bank's actual workings, passages like these opened our eyes to a somewhat startling power relationship the World Bank attains with underdeveloped nations. Although the World Bank is portrayed as a dominant "bully" in a way, they are a money lending institution similar to other businesses around the globe.

For somebody who has hardly any previous knowledge regarding the World Bank and its operations, this book will give you the basic understanding of how it works. For somebody who understands the inner-workings of the dominant World Bank, this book might seem monotonous and vaguely informative. But overall, the book is fairly entertaining and revealing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Concerned Citizen's Must-Read, May 30, 2006

By 

Marissa Knodel (Hanover, NH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Imperial Nature: The World Bank and Struggles for Social Justice in the Age of Globalization (Yale Agrarian Studies Series) (Hardcover)

Michael Goldman's Imperial Nature presents a well-grounded, in-depth analysis of the structure, formation, and implementation of World Bank development policies and the political, economic, social, and environmental ramifications for those who seek to benefit from them. The time Michael Goldman spent researching and working within the World Bank itself provides the reader with a critique that is well-informed and thorough as it brings together anecdotes and arguments from those working within and outside the World Bank. Throughout the book, Goldman emphasizes the complexity of the process of development and how one of the World Bank's primary flaws is its simple measurement of increase in yields or gross domestic product (GDP) as adequate assessments of development progress. The combination of this neoliberalism, promoted by the finance ministry, and civil society's pressure to be more socially just and environmentally sustainable has created a new developmental doctrine, what Goldman calls "green neoliberalism." The central tenet of green neoliberalism, environmentally sustainable development in combination with export-led capitalist growth, has allowed the World Bank to spread its influence and hegemony throughout the globe, primarily due to its efficacy in producing systems of knowledge and ideas that have since become the framework for development policies. Goldman traces the history of the World Bank from its first inception after World War II to the present day, noting how its "development for the poor" through providing financial loans more frequently benefits the Northern corporate investors and firms from which the World Bank borrows its money rather than the poor who really need it. Goldman, in a clear, effective style, reveals the World Bank as an institution concerned more with funding and profit than providing for basic human needs and a sustainable environment, with ensuring the completion and implementation of its projects over their efficacy and benefit for the poor, and with maintaining a status quo and contradictory public image over allowing critique, dissent, and reform.