The Gendered Violence of Development: Imaginative Geographies of Exclusion in the Imposition of Neo-liberal Capitalism

Citation:

Coleman, Lara. 2007. "The Gendered Violence of Development: Imaginative Geographies of Exclusion in the Imposition of Neo-liberal Capitalism." British Journal of Politics & International Relations 9 (2): 204-19. 

Author: Lara Coleman

Abstract:

In this article I consider how gendered hierarchies are constitutive of neo-liberal development and the violence attendant upon it. Building on Arturo Escobar’s observation that violence is constitutive of development, I explore how the violent imposition of neo-liberal development is legitimised through the inscription of gendered imaginative geographies, which define ‘savage’ spaces of exclusion in need of ‘civilising’ development interventions. Drawing on the example of contemporary Colombia, I trace how the development discourse produces space in this way by normalising certain identities and political rationalities—those associated with competition and rational economic behaviour—while representing others as errant, as hyper-masculine subjects prone to violence or ‘pre-rational’ feminised subjects.

Topics: Development, Economies, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Globalization, Violence Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2007