Normalising Market-Based Development : A Critical Discourse Analysis of IFC’s communication

Sammanfattning

This study examines how the International Finance Corporation (IFC) constructs development problems and legitimises market-based development solutions through institutional communication. Situated within the field of Communication for Development (ComDev), the study explores how market-oriented approaches become normalised within contemporary development discourse. The study applies Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), primarily drawing on Norman Fairclough’s dialectical-relational approach, alongside theories of representation and post-development perspectives. The empirical material consists of a qualitative analysis of IFC’s reports, strategy documents, flagship publications and official web communication published between 2015 and 2026, supplemented by two contextual interviews with professionals working within international development finance institutions. The findings show that development challenges are increasingly framed through financial and market-oriented logics, where poverty and inequality are represented primarily as problems of insufficient investment and limited capital flows. The analysis further demonstrates how private sector and private finance engagement are constructed as necessary, scalable and legitimate responses to global development challenges. Through recurring forms of legitimation, necessity language and references to global frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), market-based approaches become normalised as common-sense solutions, while alternative perspectives centred on redistribution, structural reform and public provision receive comparatively limited attention. The study contributes to critical discussions within Communication for Development demonstrating how institutional communication not only describes development challenges but also shapes dominant understandings of how development should be achieved and which actors are positioned as capable of delivering it.