{"id":{"repo_id":"cornell","oai_identifier":"oai:ecommons.cornell.edu:1813/67272"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cornell/oai:ecommons.cornell.edu:1813/67272","repository":{"repo_id":"cornell","name":"Cornell University","base_url":"https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Unstable Actors, Alternating Currents: Reimagining Bureaucratic Knowledge Production in the Technopolitics of Development","abstract":"Contemporary international development bureaucracies are constituted by and operate through diverse actors whose work requires sustained interaction with changing material landscapes and the changing subjectivities of partners, clients, and intended beneficiaries. Understanding the production of knowledge and technical expertise within these bureaucracies requires a dynamic, historically contingent, and relational conceptualization of bureaucracy itself. This paper is divided into two parts: Part I critically examines the divergent ways that bureaucracy is framed within scholarly literature on the technopolitics of development, and the corresponding conceptual openings and closures that these different framings of bureaucratic rationality give rise to. Part II examines how permeable spaces of bureaucratic interaction continually reshape development projects through auto-ethnographic analysis of an evolving multilateral electricity development program in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper contributes to scholarly understanding of the social relations that shape the cultivation of specific forms of technical expertise, and calls for critical scholarly attention to the porous and dynamic dimensions of knowledge production within development bureaucracies. By foregrounding the relational, historically contingent forms of development bureaucracy, I hope to draw attention to its generative inconsistencies and reconfigurations that may, as yet, find unexpected uses.","abstract_html":"Contemporary international development bureaucracies are constituted by and operate through diverse actors whose work requires sustained interaction with changing material landscapes and the changing subjectivities of partners, clients, and intended beneficiaries. Understanding the production of knowledge and technical expertise within these bureaucracies requires a dynamic, historically contingent, and relational conceptualization of bureaucracy itself. This paper is divided into two parts: Part I critically examines the divergent ways that bureaucracy is framed within scholarly literature on the technopolitics of development, and the corresponding conceptual openings and closures that these different framings of bureaucratic rationality give rise to. Part II examines how permeable spaces of bureaucratic interaction continually reshape development projects through auto-ethnographic analysis of an evolving multilateral electricity development program in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper contributes to scholarly understanding of the social relations that shape the cultivation of specific forms of technical expertise, and calls for critical scholarly attention to the porous and dynamic dimensions of knowledge production within development bureaucracies. By foregrounding the relational, historically contingent forms of development bureaucracy, I hope to draw attention to its generative inconsistencies and reconfigurations that may, as yet, find unexpected uses.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Kintzi, Kendra Michelle"],"institution":"Cornell University","degree_name":"M.S., Development Sociology","degree_level":"Master of Science","degree_discipline":"Development Sociology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":["Wolford, Wendy W.","Minawi, Mostafa","Goldstein, Jennifer E."],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-05-30","date_published":"2019-05-30","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:49:00Z","subjects":["Bureaucracy","Technopolitics","Development","Sociology"],"languages":["en_US"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.7298/svpx-dm85"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://doi.org/10.7298/svpx-dm85","href":"https://doi.org/10.7298/svpx-dm85","code":true}]},{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["ProQuest Submission ID: 10467","ProQuest Publication ID: 13807261"],"render_values":[{"text":"ProQuest Submission ID: 10467","href":null,"code":true},{"text":"ProQuest Publication ID: 13807261","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1813/67272","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Wolford, Wendy W.","Minawi, Mostafa","Goldstein, Jennifer E."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Kintzi, Kendra Michelle"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2019-10-15T15:28:55Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-10-15T15:28:55Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2019-05-30"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["dissertation or thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Development Sociology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Master of Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S., Development Sociology"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Cornell University"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Bureaucracy","Technopolitics","Development","Sociology"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en_US"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.7298/svpx-dm85"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["ProQuest Submission ID: 10467","ProQuest Publication ID: 13807261"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/1813/67272"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Contemporary international development bureaucracies are constituted by and operate through diverse actors whose work requires sustained interaction with changing material landscapes and the changing subjectivities of partners, clients, and intended beneficiaries. Understanding the production of knowledge and technical expertise within these bureaucracies requires a dynamic, historically contingent, and relational conceptualization of bureaucracy itself. This paper is divided into two parts: Part I critically examines the divergent ways that bureaucracy is framed within scholarly literature on the technopolitics of development, and the corresponding conceptual openings and closures that these different framings of bureaucratic rationality give rise to. Part II examines how permeable spaces of bureaucratic interaction continually reshape development projects through auto-ethnographic analysis of an evolving multilateral electricity development program in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper contributes to scholarly understanding of the social relations that shape the cultivation of specific forms of technical expertise, and calls for critical scholarly attention to the porous and dynamic dimensions of knowledge production within development bureaucracies. By foregrounding the relational, historically contingent forms of development bureaucracy, I hope to draw attention to its generative inconsistencies and reconfigurations that may, as yet, find unexpected uses."]},{"key":"dc:format.mimetype","label":"Dc Format Mimetype","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Unstable Actors, Alternating Currents: Reimagining Bureaucratic Knowledge Production in the Technopolitics of Development"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Wolford, Wendy W.","Minawi, Mostafa","Goldstein, Jennifer E."],"dc:creator":["Kintzi, Kendra Michelle"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2019-10-15T15:28:55Z"],"dc:date.available":["2019-10-15T15:28:55Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2019-05-30"],"dc:description.abstract":["Contemporary international development bureaucracies are constituted by and operate through diverse actors whose work requires sustained interaction with changing material landscapes and the changing subjectivities of partners, clients, and intended beneficiaries. Understanding the production of knowledge and technical expertise within these bureaucracies requires a dynamic, historically contingent, and relational conceptualization of bureaucracy itself. This paper is divided into two parts: Part I critically examines the divergent ways that bureaucracy is framed within scholarly literature on the technopolitics of development, and the corresponding conceptual openings and closures that these different framings of bureaucratic rationality give rise to. Part II examines how permeable spaces of bureaucratic interaction continually reshape development projects through auto-ethnographic analysis of an evolving multilateral electricity development program in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper contributes to scholarly understanding of the social relations that shape the cultivation of specific forms of technical expertise, and calls for critical scholarly attention to the porous and dynamic dimensions of knowledge production within development bureaucracies. By foregrounding the relational, historically contingent forms of development bureaucracy, I hope to draw attention to its generative inconsistencies and reconfigurations that may, as yet, find unexpected uses."],"dc:format.mimetype":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier.doi":["https://doi.org/10.7298/svpx-dm85"],"dc:identifier.other":["ProQuest Submission ID: 10467","ProQuest Publication ID: 13807261"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/1813/67272"],"dc:language.iso":["en_US"],"dc:subject":["Bureaucracy","Technopolitics","Development","Sociology"],"dc:title":["Unstable Actors, Alternating Currents: Reimagining Bureaucratic Knowledge Production in the Technopolitics of Development"],"dc:type":["dissertation or thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Development Sociology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Master of Science"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S., Development Sociology"],"thesis:institution_name":["Cornell University"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:49:00Z"}