Taking Seriously the Voices of the Poor: Does Representation Matter? Analysis of the Panos Institute Approach

This research deals with the increasing use of the rhetoric of the voices of the poor by different development organizations and institutions, claiming the authenticity of these voices and the empowering role their communication to external audiences (policymakers, academics, development workers, general public) can have for the poor involved. This research challenges the simplifications and assumptions characterizing approaches based on this rhetoric, by investigating one such approach, its claims and practices of representation of the voices: the Panos Institute Oral Testimony Programme and its project Desert Voices. I investigate it by means of specific tools of Discourse Analysis: Narrative Analysis, Argumentation Analysis and Analysis of Representation. I argue that these approaches do not simply engage in the process of communication of the voices of the poor, but rather in the representation of the poor and their voices. Hence the need to problematize them as “discursive coalitions” (Hajer 1995) that partake into a process of reproduction of dominant development discourses on poverty, although still claiming to provide a counterpoint to the same by giving the poor the opportunity to express themselves in their own terms.