Politics, Statistics, and Affect: “Indigenous Women in Development” Policy

Participatory development (PD) is the focus of this chapter. Participatory development is analyzed in an original way as the construction of a social consensus, which relies on development policy identifying a social group that is viewed as implicitly needing inclusion in development decision-making. Building on previous analyses of pd, the chapter uses different pd programs rolled out in Chimborazo province, in the Ecuadorian Andes, to document how the search for consensus occurs in ways that again disavow social heterogeneity. Specifically, Kichwa women are marginalized, as their positionality is distinct from the consensual social group that pd aims to forge. Juxtaposing Kichwa women’s critical insights into four pd projects, the chapter uncovers the ways exclusion is produced. The end of the chapter turns to examine the recent social neoliberal policy discourse of vulnerability and social difference, which positions indigenous women as visible in public policy in ways that preempt their claims to agency, equality, or recognition.