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Partnerships as Interpellation

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Abstract

This article explores the consequences of labelling international development relations as partnerships, as has gained prominence over the past decades. It contributes to a growing literature on the ethnography of development by suggesting that ‘partner’ identity is destabilized and renegotiable rather than stable and predictable. By exploring how partnership works within a system of discursive interpellation we illustrate that donors and recipients are given a new set of possibilities and constraints in the practice of shaping their relation. We exemplify this through ethnographic analyses of the political partnership between Liberia and the European Union, and the partnership between a South African and a Danish NGO. Both illustrate how neither donor nor recipient, as it is otherwise often assumed, can univocally announce a partnership. Rather, representatives of the institutions involved mutually interpellate and constantly negotiate partner identities.

Abstract

Cet article analyse les conséquences de l’étiquetage des relations de développement international comme « partenariats », ce qui a pris plus d’importance ces dix dernières années. On contribue à la littérature sur l’ethnographie du développement, en suggérant que l’identité du ‘partner’ n’est pas stable et prévisible, mais plutôt renégociable et instable. On explore comment les partenariats fonctionnent au sein d’un système d’interpellation discursive, et on illustre comment les donneurs et les récipiendaires ont plusieurs possibilités et contraintes dans le processus qui donne forme à leur relation. On exemplifie ce procès à travers l’analyse ethnographique du partenariat entre la Liberia et l’Union Européenne, et le partenariat entre une ONG de l’Afrique du Sud et une ONG Danoise. Ces deux exemples illustrent comme ni le donneur ni le récipiendaire peuvent annoncer un partenariat non équivoquement, au contraire de ce qu’indiquent d’autres approches. Plutôt, c’est les représentatives de les institutions qui renégocient constamment et interpellent mutuellement les identités des deux partenaires.

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Notes

  1. The European officials are from the EU Delegation in Monrovia and from EU member state missions of Germany, France, Sweden, Spain and the United Kingdom, partly or entirely dealing with political relations to Liberia. The latter did not have a direct mandate from the EU as an institution, but at the same time did constitute the group of officials that referred to the European Council in Brussels on political matters (the ‘Head of Missions’ group). Designating them as ‘European officials’ indicates that these are European representatives, but not necessarily representatives of the EU Delegation in Liberia. The Liberian officials are officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the ‘Governance Commission’, the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs. As a group, they are not direct counterparts to the European officials. However, all of them represent Liberian government institutions and deal with a diverse range of international partners, including the EU, as an integrated part of their work.

  2. The two ethnographic encounters are clearly different as Sigrid encountered her interlocutors as a researcher interested in the political partnership between Liberia and the EU, while Steffen was for all intents and purposes an insider. Both positions have their merits and trade-offs. In the writing of the article as well as during the encounters described, both Sigrid and Steffen have reflected on their own role and its importance for the analysis. As one example described below, Steffen got irritated with the constant mentioning of power relations, drawing on South Africa’s racial and colonial past, which he experienced from his South African partners. While writing this article, he realized that this was in fact indicative of how he was being interpellated. only to realize during the writing of this article that this was in fact indicative of the way he was being interpellated.

  3. Personal interviews with officials from three EU member state missions, 17 June and 30 June 2010; personal interview with official from the Delegation of the European Union to Liberia, 16 June 2010.

  4. Personal interview with official from EU member state mission, 15 June 2010.

  5. Personal interviews with officials from four EU member state missions, 17 June, 30 June and 2 July 2010; personal interviews with officials from the Delegation of the European Union to Liberia, 16 June and 23 June 2010.

  6. Personal interview with official from EU member state mission, 15 June 2010.

  7. Personal interview with official from EU member state mission, 21 June 2010.

  8. Personal interview with official from the Delegation of the European Union to Liberia, 16 June 2010.

  9. Personal interview with official from EU member state mission, 15 June 2010.

  10. Personal interview with official from Liberia’s Ministry of Finance, Monrovia, Liberia, 30 June 2010.

  11. Personal interview with officials from Liberia’s Ministry of Public Works, 17 June 2010.

  12. This section is based on years of engagement and collaboration as a researcher from the Danish NGO with the South African organization and it might be a stretch to talk about participant observation. However, Steffen does attempt to remain analytical in this particular article. In this capacity, questions of positionality are clearly central. Given the subject under analysis here, these issues sometimes include race, gender and generation and they always include issues around Northern versus Southern positionality.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Lars Engberg Pedersen, Christian Lund and Ben Jones for commenting on earlier versions of the article. The two anonymous reviewers offered many instructive, critical and generous remarks that helped us clarify our arguments. Finally, Line Vestergaard Hansen proved invaluable in the final phases of the process.

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Correspondence to Steffen Jensen.

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Andersen, S., Jensen, S. Partnerships as Interpellation. Eur J Dev Res 29, 93–107 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2015.80

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