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E-book Economic Diversity in Contemporary Timor-Leste

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Penilaian

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For some time, narratives and projects aimed at improving and diversifying economic activities in Timor-Leste have been the leitmotivs of a number of development programs. Framing such endeavours are several assumptions about Timor-Leste’s economy, namely, that it is unproductive, weak and unfair; that most of it is made up of subsistence agriculture benefitting male interests (Brogan and TOMAK 2016); and that it is excessively dependent on oil and state spending (World Bank Group 2018; Scheiner 2015). To overcome this state of affairs, endless diagnoses and prognoses are undertaken by national and international experts, simultaneously building the received truth that the local economy is underdevel-oped and blaming it as a purveyor of poverty and for the country’s low position in the Human Rights Development Index. Out of these narratives, a picture of Timor-Leste’s economy as one in need of private/public investment and regulatory control emerges—processes, it is argued, that would make it more productive and diverse. arious phenomena have been mobilised to make sense of this picture and to legitimise this constructed truth. On the one hand, a lack of proper physical, legal, financial and other institutional infrastructure is pointed out. On the other, the sup-posedly negative effects of local practices and values are cited as explanations for many of the constraints on economic growth in the country: Timor-Leste’s people expend too much time on ritual practices (Alonso-población et al. 2015; Silva 2017); the fertility rate is too high (Burke 2020); ‘primitive’ agriculture techniques prevail, perpetuating a lack of skills. Low productivity rates and idleness are also often cited (dFAT 2014, 4, 32; Akta 2012). To counter this, economic pedagogies of multiple origins are promulgated by governance institutions with the aim of turning Timor-leste’s citizens into active economic agents (Silva 2017) in neoliberal terms.1As elsewhere in the world, measurement of the strength, weakness, growth or stagnation of Timor-Leste’s economy is made possible by the crafting and manage-ment of indexes, numbers and percentages that supposedly record all activities of production, service and consumption (World Bank Group 2018). Gdp (gross domes-tic product), Gni (gross national income), the poverty rate, and life expectancy at birth are exemplary of the serial global forms by which national economies are measured and crafted (Appel 2017; World Bank Group 2020, 34).

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

330.915897 ALO e

Penerbit

Leiden : Leiden University Press., 2023

Deskripsi Fisik

327 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9789400604407

Klasifikasi

330.915897

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Economic Geography in Timor Leste

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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