Full-text sample article FREE from Taylor & Francis. While global problems of poverty, inequality, and social upheaval are on the increase, the language used by development agencies and development experts sounds increasingly radical and idealistic. New socio-political conditions have been borrowed from real contexts in the South, only to be re-imposed on Southern `partners'. Notions like empowerment, participation, and governance are paradoxically enforced through top-down, external intervention.
