Promoting the human development model: transforming research into a promotional tool

Promoting the human development model: transforming research into a promotional tool Public Deposited

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Radke, Jordan Travis
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology

Abstract

Diffusion scholars have established that supranational organizations play a key role in disseminating international development norms, yet leave unexamined how they promote such norms. In a case study of the United Nation Development Programme, I coded 40 organizational documents to analyze the UNDP's discourse and practices around the promotion of the human development (HD) model. I found that the UNDP's primary promotional strategy is to support HD research worldwide, resulting in hundreds of reports; the process and products of this research are intended to diffuse the model and consequently supplant the reigning model of economic development. In short, the UNDP not only uses research as a tool to investigate, but as one to promote a cultural, normative argument about the appropriate goals of international development. This case study contributes to theories of diffusion by deepening understanding of promotional strategies, suggesting that one such strategy is the use of promotional research.

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