The BoP business paradigm: what it promotes and what it conceals

Ana María Peredo · Nick Montgomery · Murdith McLean

15 citations0/0 files storedOxford Development Studies

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Innovation and Socioeconomic Development Decolonial Thought and Epistemologies Development, Ethics, and Society

Abstract

The Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) is a popular paradigm within management circles concerning those in poverty. In this paper, we develop a critical analysis of BoP discourse and practice, drawing particularly on the works of Laclau and Mouffe, and enriched by post-development thinking as expressed in the works of Esteva and Escobar, among others. We argue that the BoP paradigm functions to reinforce market capitalist hegemony and – vitally – to conceal economic alternatives. Using the concepts of ‘discourse’, ‘hegemony’ and ‘performativity’, we analyse the politics of language and representation in the BoP discourse. Finally, we point to modes of scholarship that contribute to the nurturing and performance of diverse, non-capitalist economic worlds.

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References

2005A Brief History of Neoliberalism 2009Development as Freedom 1776An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations 1999Development as Freedom 1985Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics 2020A Brief History of Neoliberalism 2007Selections from the Prison Notebooks 1995Encountering development: the making and unmaking of the Third World

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