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Paper short abstract:

This paper sets out the forms of political economy, ideology & governmentality that led to social protection becoming a global public policy, with further insights on the role that organisational sociology played in this process through a case-study of how DFID has promoted cash transfers in Africa.

Paper long abstract:

International actors and ideas have shaped the uptake of social protection in sub-Saharan Africa for a century. However, this negotiated process of 'policy transfer' underwent a watershed moment in the early 2000s, since when international development agencies have played an unprecedentedly active role in promoting social protection as a new global public policy. Catalysed by significant shifts within the global political economy and a related ideological shift towards the more inclusive forms of neoliberalism, international development agencies have deployed strategies of governmentality to 'render technical' social protection, and cash transfers in particular, as the logical solution to myriad development problems. This involved building a new 'epistemic community' around researchers, think-tanks and policy entrepreneurs as well as often highly politicised campaigns to build support for social protection amongst political elites in Africa. These broad shifts were filtered through specific development agencies, whose distinctive ideas and approaches to development as a form of 'institutional practice' would play a critical role in shaping the form that social protection would take, not only as a new global public policy but also, via negotiation with African elites, as a particular type of political and developmental strategy within specific African contexts.