Discursive (re)articulations of development policy in the light of Sustainable development goals: The case of Georgia

Abstract: The paper analyses the ways Georgian government produced development policy in relation to the changing global and local discursive formations of development. By bringing together post-development theory and Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse analysis method, I illustrated that the neoliberal discourse failed to generate meanings regarding social issues that created a danger of the dislocation of the discourse. Against this “lack of meaning”, the social democratic ideology inspired political coalition Georgian Dream produced its development policy first as a pre-election player and then as a ruling political party. I argue that in order to deal with the dislocation of discourse, Georgian government incorporated elements such as inclusive economic growth and environmental sustainability from the global discourse of development under its domain. Those elements were articulated in a way that reproduced the same neoliberal economic rationality though under the different ideological frame. Following the critical literature, I illustrated that discursive articulations occur within the existing discursive field meaning that possibilities of social changes, does not matter how radically they attempt to distance themselves from the hegemonic discourse, are heavily influenced by the pre-existing discursive structures.