Kapoor, Ilan2011-04-072011-04-072005Ilan Kapoor, "Participatory Development, Complicity and Desire," Third World Quarterly 26.8 (2005): 1203 – 1220.http://hdl.handle.net/10315/7851This article is an attempt at rethinking participatory development (PD) in terms of empire, undertaking a postcolonial and psychoanalytic reading. Postcolonialism helps point out that our discursive constructions of the Third World say more about us than the Third World; while psychoanalysis helps uncover the desires we invest in the Other. Thus, to the question, 'why do neo-imperial and inegalitarian relationships pervade PD?', the article answers, 'because even as PD promotes the Other's empowerment, it hinges crucially on our complicity and desire'; and 'because disavowing such complicity and desire is a technology of power'. The argument, in other words, is that complicity and desire are written into PD, making it prone to an exclusionary, Western-centric and inegalitarian politics. The article concludes with possibilities for confronting our complicities and desires through PD's radicalisation.enThis is an electronic version of an article published in Third World Quarterly [Ilan Kapoor, "Participatory Development, Complicity and Desire," Third World Quarterly 26.8 (2005): 1203-1220]. Third World Quarterly is available online at: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/CTWQ The article is available online at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a727545570~frm=titlelinkArticlehttp://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/CTWQhttp://www.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a727545570~frm=titlelink