Agents, coercive learning, and social protection policy diffusion in Africa
Date Issued
2022
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper makes theoretical, empirical and methodological contributions to the study of social policy diffusion, drawing on the case of social protection in Africa, and Zambia in particular. We examine a range of tactics deployed by transnational agencies (TAs) to encourage the adoption of cash transfers by African governments, at the intersection between learning and coercion, which we term ‘coercive learning’, to draw attention to the important role played by TA–commissioned policy drafting, evidence generation, advocacy, and capacity building activities. Next, we argue for making individual agents central in the analysis of policy diffusion, because of their ability to reflect, learn, and Interpret policy ideas. We substantiate this claim theoretically by drawing on practice theories, and empirically by telling the story of social protection policy diffusion in Zambia through three individual agents. This is complemented by two instances of self-reflexivity in which the authors draw on their personal engagements in the policy process in Zambia, to refine ourconclusions about the interplay of structure and agency.
Subjects
Social protection
;
Politics and Power
Institution
Type
book
Serie(s)
Band
22
Secondary publication
No
Language
English
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Name
SOCIUM SFB 1342 WorkingPapers_No 22_Devereux et al (1).pdf
Size
533.73 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
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