Susan Engel, Ph.D.

sengel@uow.edu.au


Associate Professor

University of Wollongong

Year of PhD: 2008

City: Wollongong, New South Wales

Country: Australia

About Me:

I am an Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies at the University the Wollongong. I lecture in the areas of development, international politics and political economy and Southeast Asian politics. I've written on book on the Word Bank in Southeast Asia and over 30 journal articles and chapters. I'm currently researching multilateral development finance, microfinance, emotions in development, the politics of aid and development, and teaching and learning in international studies. I worked in the government, community, and aid sectors before becoming an academic and volunteer with indigo foundation, a not-for-profit community development NGO (board member 2002-2018).

Research Interests

Development

Political Economy

Asian Politics

Multilateral Development Banks

Economic Development

Politics Of Development

Emotions And Politics

Countries of Interest

Indonesia

Vietnam

Publications:

Journal Articles:

(2020) Multilateral Development Banks: Washington Consensus, Beijing Consensus or Banking Consensus?, Routledge

Susan Engel and Adrian Robert Bazbauers, 2020. “Multilateral Development Banks: Washington Consensus, Beijing Consensus or Banking Consensus?" In Viktor Jakupec, Max Kelly and Jonathan Makuwira (eds), Rethinking Multilateral Foreign Aid: The Changing Face of Development Finance (Oxon: Routledge), pp.113-131 This chapter uses cases studies of three Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to explore their developmental model and priorities. We start with two of the older, less studied but increasingly influential banks before turning to the most recently founded MDB: the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), respectively established in 1968 and 1974, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), established in 2016. We argued that while the Washington Consensus has influenced these MDBs, the Beijing Consensus has been less influential and that the impact of the banking consensus that is in their DNA is not well enough understood. Beijing has increased the focus on infrastructure lending and debt relations but infrastructure is complex and risky and growing debt is already a problem for many developing countries.

(2020) The Impact of Gender on International Relations Simulations, Journal of Political Science Education

Engel, Susan, Deborah Mayersen, David Pedersen and Joakim Eidenfalk, 2020. ‘The Impact of Gender on International Relations Simulations’ Journal of Political Science Education, early view pp.1-19 Model United Nations (MUN) simulations are an increasingly popular approach to teaching international relations, in both secondary and tertiary education. There is some evidence, however, that these simulations disadvantage female participants. Studies by Rosenthal et al. and Coughlin found that female students participate less in simulations than their male classmates. This may limit the value of simulations, which have otherwise been recognized as an effective active learning technique. This study investigates the impact of gender, and an intervention designed to address gender disparities in participation, on a MUN simulation conducted in a second-year undergraduate course. The study confirmed previous findings that women participate less than men, relative to their representation, and that this impacted their resulting grades. Participation was lowest on traditionally masculine topics. Furthermore, women enjoyed the simulation less than men, felt less included, and were less likely to report an increase in their confidence as negotiators following the simulation. The intervention we conducted, designed to ameliorate gender disparities in participation, was unsuccessful and may have inadvertently created a stereotype threat. This highlights that students come to the classroom with strongly gendered expectations, and that a short-term, explicit approach to addressing such expectations is insufficient.

(2019) Microfinance as Poverty-Shame Debt, Emotions and Society

Engel, Susan and Pedersen, David. 2019. ‘Microfinance as Poverty-Shame Debt’, Emotions and Society 1(2): pp.181-196 In an excellent anthropological study of microfinance in Bangladesh, Karim (2008: xviii) argues that it operates as ‘an economy of shame’. That is to say, microfinance is not the benign tool for financial inclusion and empowerment that mainstream development organisations proclaim. Rather, it unintentionally (perhaps) but nevertheless actively deploys shaming techniques in order to maximise loan repayment rates. Karim, however, does not employ an explicit analysis of shame; instead she emphasises its disciplining power for rural women in Bangladesh. Our article builds on this insight but applies a specific psychosocial approach to shame that critically examines a number of the emotion’s harmful practices and outcomes, especially when deployed within microfinance practice. It highlights that microfinance personalises and socialises people’s debt relations, making them a matter for group concern, but that at the same time money-debt’s impersonalising nature results in coercive and disciplinary actions that would otherwise be seen as intolerable. We demonstrate how the active shaming of microfinance participants all too often degenerates into human rights abuses, including violence. The shame of debt and the active shaming that facilitates microfinance’s high repayment rates harms the psychosocial wellbeing of those being shamed as well as their families, and can be linked to a range of concerning outcomes including self-harm and suicide. To conclude, we explore whether the coercion by shame and shaming of microfinance may be linked to its growing use in other areas of development programming.

(2019) South-South Cooperation in Southeast Asia: from Bandung and solidarity to norms and rivalry, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs

Engel, Susan. 2019. ‘South-South Cooperation in Southeast Asia: from Bandung and solidarity to norms and rivalry’ Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 38(2): 218-242

(2018) To Shame or Not to Shame? That is the Sanitation Question, Development Policy Review

Bateman, Myles and Engel, Susan. 2018 ‘To Shame or Not to Shame? That is the Sanitation Question’, Development Policy Review 36(2): 155-172 The Community‐Led Total Sanitation (CLTS ) programme aims to end open defecation through facilitating activities that evoke a sense of shame, shock and disgust. The programme's initial success and low‐cost design has seen it become hegemonic in donor‐supported rural sanitation. However, the theoretical basis of the use of shame has not been critically evaluated. Supporters claim that shame helps form and maintain social relationships, yet contemporary psychosocial literature highlights that it is a volatile and often harmful emotion, particularly in conditions of poverty. Using a case study of Cambodia, which rejected the coercive elements of shame in CLTS , we explore the problems of shame and limits of local ownership of development.

Book Chapters:

(2020) Official Development Assistance for the Poor and Vulnerable, Springer

Engel, Susan. 2020. ‘Official Development Assistance for the Poor and Vulnerable.’ In No Poverty: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, editors Walter Leal Filho et al (Switzerland: Springer Nature)

(2019) Development Economics: Classical, Neoclassical, Critical, Oxford University Press

Engel, Susan. 2019. ‘Development Economics: Classical, Neoclassical, Critical.’ Renée Marlin-Bennett (Editor in Chief), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies 2nd ed (Oxford: International Studies Association and Oxford University Press): 1-24

Media Appearances:

Radio Appearances:

(2020) ABC Australia

Interviewed for Christina Zhou and Michael Walsh, ‘Australia pledged to 'step up' in the Pacific amid growing Chinese influence, but are we on track?’ 18 January, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-18/australia-pacific-step-up-in-review/11863150

Blog Posts:

(2018) The Conversation

2018. ‘If there’s one thing Pacific nations don’t need, it’s yet another infrastructure investment bank’, The Conversation 21 November https://theconversation.com/if-theres-one-thing-pacific-nations-dont-need-its-yet-another-infrastructure-investment-bank-107198#comment_1781907