The BoP business paradigm: what it promotes and what it conceals

Abstract

The Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) is a popular paradigm within management circles concerning those in poverty. In this paper, we develop a critical analysis of BoP discourse and practice, drawing particularly on the works of Laclau and Mouffe, and enriched by post-development thinking as expressed in the works of Esteva and Escobar, among others. We argue that the BoP paradigm functions to reinforce market capitalist hegemony and – vitally – to conceal economic alternatives. Using the concepts of ‘discourse’, ‘hegemony’ and ‘performativity’, we analyse the politics of language and representation in the BoP discourse. Finally, we point to modes of scholarship that contribute to the nurturing and performance of diverse, non-capitalist economic worlds.

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the research assistantship of Emmalee Brunt and Ella Carlson.

Notes

1. For a useful overview, see Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002.

2. We take the neoliberal outlook to be grounded in the conviction that human well-being, individually and in aggregate, is best achieved ‘by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade’ (Harvey, 2005, p. 2).