Paradigm Shift or Reinventing the Wheel? Towards a Research Agenda on Change and Continuity in EU Development Policy

Abstract

While policy and academic discourses point to important shifts in EU development policy, it remains difficult to ascertain the level of these changes. The main aim of this article is to propose a research agenda on change and continuity in EU development policy. Drawing on the literatures on paradigm change and post-development, this involves four key questions for future research: (1) How can we map the EU's current paradigm? (2) How can we map changes and continuities in this regard? (3) How can we explain changes and continuities? (4) What role do policy experiments play in this regard? In addressing these four questions, the article pays particular attention to what we already know from existing literature and to what issues could guide future research. We highlight that ostensibly significant changes are often 'merely' second order changes that do not challenge underlying philosophical ideas of the Eurocentric, modernist and colonial paradigm. Specifically, we point at the importance of studying whether policy experiments 'reinvent' this paradigm or induce paradigmatic change. In the conclusions, we summarize the research agenda and reflect on the need of a better acknowledgement of the 'PlEUriverse' of alternatives to 'development' within Europe.

Shifting priorities of the EU as a development actor: context and consequences

“…We acknowledge that the EU's actions have been informed by the wider post Washington consensus narratives (Delputte & Orbie, 2020) and that similar shifts have occurred in the development policies of other DAC donors creating a series of tensions in development policy in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom (Swiss, 2018). Thus, we see some convergence around the increasingly wide range of policy instrument designated as "development" tools, and aid-based actors, including those from the private sector.…”

“…Given its heritage, its normative content, and its deep connection to the identity of the EU itself, the shift from pre-2000 to post-2000 EU development policy goals via the introduction of policy nexuses including development-security/migration/climate change is substantive in nature (Carbone, 2013;Delputte & Orbie, 2020). The impact of nexuses however can be challenging.…”

“…Within development circles, there is an increasing focus on the "beyond aid" agenda and the EU is no different (see Delputte & Orbie, 2020). This is politically convenient given the impact of austerity and the uncertainty created by Brexit has meant that the question of where the money comes from for development is increasingly in the spotlight.…”

“…Together, these examples of migration, climate change and energy illustrate that EU development policy is now moving well beyond the initial narrative of poverty reduction and refocusing on migration/security and climate change/sustainable development, as well as private sector inclusion. Using the mechanism of nexuses, these iterative re-framings of EU development policies reflect a cumulative shift of EU development from core development goals to a broader range of ambitions, actors and approaches in a way that inevitably increases the politicization, monetization and securitization of EU policies, and possibly the EU itself (Delputte & Orbie, 2020). The direction of travel suggests that development policy is destined to do more, as exemplified by the pivot towards energy-climate-development as set out by the Green Deal.…”

“…These same changes have largely occurred in parallel to the seminal changes of the European Economic Community (EEC) and subsequently the EU itself, as a regional and global actor. The way the EU's development policy has evolved over time has been subject to recent academic study (notably Bergmann, Delputte, Keijzer, & Verschaeve, 2019;Delputte & Orbie, 2020;Furness, Ghica, Lightfoot, & Szent-Iványi, 2020;Hackenesch, Bergmann, & Orbie, 2021a;Saltnes, 2021). This literature highlights that by the early 2000s, EU development policy had evolved to become "a self-standing EU external policy area" (Bergmann et al, 2019) with an explicit legal focus on poverty reduction (Koch, 2015).…”