Rendering development investible: The anti-politics machine and the financialisation of development

Abstract

We critically engage with the so-called ‘Financialisation of Development’ and argue that such is neither automatic nor inexorable. We review and extend a body of recent research that underscores the extensive ‘work’ required by ‘big D’ Development actors to render target contexts legible, attractive, and amenable to private finance and investment. We introduce the framework of ‘rendering (Development) investible’ to help us unpack the attendant governmental rationality of Development institutions and professionals in the current financialised conjuncture. We reveal the drivers and primary characteristics of this rationality and we discuss its significant, yet unintended, consequences for Development thought and practice.