| Abstract: |
The purpose of this paper is to make explicit the governmentality of the World Bank in the cases of Pak Mun Dam in Thailand and Nam Theun 2 Dam in Laos. Much of the literature on Nam Theun 2 Dam focuses on the incorporation of conservation practices and the creation of state apparatuses that account for natural resources and local populations through a discourse of environmentalism. Using World Bank planning and evaluation documents, I argue that although these practices represent an escalation of the role of environmentalism in the justificatory logic for new hydropower projects, they do not represent a change in the World Banks major justificatory mechanism, the presence or absence of institutional structures necessary for present and future project implementation. That is, project justifications continue to rest either on an already established relationship with the borrower that allows for the transmission of the World Banks technical and managerial expertise, or on the presumed likelihood that such a relationship can be established. In either case, the emphasis is on the creation of what I call a seasoned borrower and its inclusion in the production of knowledge that is legible to development discourse.
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