The Global Politics of Listening

What does it mean to listen to the poor in global development politics? Taking the World Bank’s participatory mega-study »Voices of the Poor« and the World Development Report 2000/2001 as its point of departure, Anne Reiff critically examines the promise of listening beyond narratives of empathy or co-optation. She reconceptualises listening as a form of global politics and develops the concept of »hegemonic listening« through a theoretically informed case study. An important contribution to international relations and postcolonial-feminist theory, offering valuable insights into participatory knowledge production in contemporary North-South relations.