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The goals of the World Bank Group, and how they value land in their development strategy.

Roman Fagerlind, Anton LU (2025) STVK04 20251
Department of Political Science
Abstract
The World Bank Group (WB) has often faced critique due to their inconsistency in keeping to their stated humanitarian or environmental goals in their efforts to promote economic development and the world-economy. Their practices are known and their stated goals. That leaves the question: What are their actual goals? In a time of increased mineral extraction due to the energy transition, facing the future environmental crisis of climate change, how do their goals then translate to the purpose of land? Based on Wallerstein’s World-System Theory (WST) and political ecology, a practical argumentation (PA) analysis of their strategy document shows that their stated goals conflict with the goals expressed throughout the text, which is the... (More)
The World Bank Group (WB) has often faced critique due to their inconsistency in keeping to their stated humanitarian or environmental goals in their efforts to promote economic development and the world-economy. Their practices are known and their stated goals. That leaves the question: What are their actual goals? In a time of increased mineral extraction due to the energy transition, facing the future environmental crisis of climate change, how do their goals then translate to the purpose of land? Based on Wallerstein’s World-System Theory (WST) and political ecology, a practical argumentation (PA) analysis of their strategy document shows that their stated goals conflict with the goals expressed throughout the text, which is the maintaining of existing economic relations and capital movements between states in such a way that a dependency between peripheral states and core states is kept in a way where core states are kept safe from potential crisis from peripheral states. To keep the world-system stable, access to resources for extraction, refinement and circulation must be prioritised to the benefit of core countries. WB’s role in this is to mediate access and trade in such a way that unrest is kept inconsequential, foremost through the construction of knowledge and market-positive culture. This translates to a valuation of land as little more than potential production for capital accumulation, valuating economic value over culture, ecological impact or the local community. (Less)
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author
Roman Fagerlind, Anton LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK04 20251
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Land-grab, World Bank Group, World-System Theory, Practical Argumentation, Political Ecology
language
English
id
9189871
date added to LUP
2025-08-08 11:09:05
date last changed
2025-08-08 11:09:05
@misc{9189871,
  abstract     = {{The World Bank Group (WB) has often faced critique due to their inconsistency in keeping to their stated humanitarian or environmental goals in their efforts to promote economic development and the world-economy. Their practices are known and their stated goals. That leaves the question: What are their actual goals? In a time of increased mineral extraction due to the energy transition, facing the future environmental crisis of climate change, how do their goals then translate to the purpose of land? Based on Wallerstein’s World-System Theory (WST) and political ecology, a practical argumentation (PA) analysis of their strategy document shows that their stated goals conflict with the goals expressed throughout the text, which is the maintaining of existing economic relations and capital movements between states in such a way that a dependency between peripheral states and core states is kept in a way where core states are kept safe from potential crisis from peripheral states. To keep the world-system stable, access to resources for extraction, refinement and circulation must be prioritised to the benefit of core countries. WB’s role in this is to mediate access and trade in such a way that unrest is kept inconsequential, foremost through the construction of knowledge and market-positive culture. This translates to a valuation of land as little more than potential production for capital accumulation, valuating economic value over culture, ecological impact or the local community.}},
  author       = {{Roman Fagerlind, Anton}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The goals of the World Bank Group, and how they value land in their development strategy.}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}