Rural Poverty and Empowerment Processes. How Global Neoliberalism is Restructuring Local Economies

In the neoliberal paradigm the “poor” are often presented as the only responsible for their own condition as well as the only who can really do something to improve it. The neoliberal discursive order is reflected in the poverty reduction strategies put in practice by the global governance apparatus, where a new approach, oriented towards the so-called empowerment principles, is taking over classical welfare policies. Empowerment-based development interventions are here critically analysed with the support of empirical evidence from Nicaragua. The paper shows how development industry is restructuring local economies trough the manufacturing of entrepreneurial subjectivities, exposing smallholders to new risks.