Inclusion and Exclusion in Local Governance: A Post-Development and Spatial Perspective on a Field Study from Benin
ISBN: 978-1-80071-371-0, eISBN: 978-1-80071-370-3
Publication date: 12 December 2022
Abstract
This chapter adopts a post-development framework in combination with a spatial lens exploring how actors in two localities in the South-East and North-East in the post-colonial setting of Benin (West Africa) interact in mediating the policy of education decentralisation. Doing so throws into sharp relief the multiple complexities of local practices and how these impact the processes of exclusion/inclusion, mitigating the achievement of equity and decolonisation. The findings point to how paradoxically, decentralisation processes, seeking to broaden participation, result in strengthening central and municipal government entities, thereby subjugating parents' voices. Simultaneously, this chapter nuances inclusion from a spatial lens, such as the influence of NGOs in one fieldsite and the power of the central administration in the other. In light of uneven power relations in enacting Benin's decentralisation policy and the insignificance of the local specificities, this book chapter concludes that inclusion remains a challenge to deal with beyond global governance policies.
Keywords
Citation
Bulgrin, E. (2022), "Inclusion and Exclusion in Local Governance: A Post-Development and Spatial Perspective on a Field Study from Benin", Amrhein, B. and Naraian, S. (Ed.) Reading Inclusion Divergently (International Perspectives on Inclusive Education, Vol. 19), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 93-108. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-363620220000019007
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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