Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Globally, the agricultural sector confronts a wide range of development issues, from mitigating climate change to increasing economic growth and food security. To some extent, assumptions about development seem to differ between the Global North and South, thereby showing a continued divide between the two. This divide not only influences policymaking but also farmers, who are subject to external conceptualisations of agricultural development that subsequently impact their own agency and position.

To investigate this topic, I conducted a comparative discourse analysis based on the approaches of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Narrative Policy Analysis (NPA) to identify dominant discourses and policy narratives being formulated and applied by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in the context of sustainable agricultural development strategies both within Germany and in its foreign development projects. Furthermore, using the Discursive Agency Approach (DAA), I identified both the BMEL’s discursive agency and how the material assigned discursive agency and subject positions to farmers to further understand possible overlaps and differences.

My findings suggest that the discourses and policy narratives used by the BMEL show some similarities, mainly in the way that they privilege expert knowledge and in the focus on technical solutions for socio-political problems, thereby depoliticising development. This is not surprising, since the BMEL and the analysed material are embedded in the same institutions, namely the European Union (EU) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, there are still differences in conceptualisation, which might be due to the fundamental conundrum at the centre of development efforts. Here, a barrier is constructed between countries at the giving and countries at the receiving end of development, thereby continuously justifying intervention measures. This notion is further compounded by the concept of European Modernity, which creates a hierarchy between countries of the Global North as a pinnacle of development and countries of the Global South in need of the same development. These concepts create an ‘other’ when looking toward the BMEL's foreign development projects and a homogeneity of knowledge production in the domestic context. Furthermore, the BMEL discursively reduces farmers’ agency both domestically and abroad as a means to legitimise their policies. While farmers are conceptualised as heroes in need of financial support in the domestic context, they are imagined as an ‘other’ in need of empowerment and uplifting in the international context, thereby showing clear differences and indicating continued power imbalances within Germany and in its international development projects.