Relational Accountability Complexities of Structural Injustice

Accountability is a central yet vague and misunderstood term in development, which attracts little consensus on what it is or on the best route to achieving it. In this insightful new book, Moncrieffe argues that the traditionally narrow interpretation of accountability obscures relationships, power dynamics, structures, processes and complexities. The relational view, in contrast, seeks to understand the ways in which people perform in their roles as social actors, and how the quality of relationships influences the character of accountability. This book will provide a grounded theoretical background to accountability, using vivid case evidence to emphasize the significance of relational approaches to accountability using empirical data (from Jamaica, Haiti, Ethiopia and Uganda). Ultimately arguing that accountability is much more than a managerial concept; rather, it is deeply social and political. The result is a unique, coherent, perspective that will both explain and 'debunk' this central developmental concept.

Joy Moncrieffe is a political sociologist and Fellow at IDS, University of Sussex.She read for her PhD at the University of Cambridge, where she explored the politics of accountability, with reference to health administration and provision across a selection of socially and politically polarized communities in Jamaica.Currently, her research interests include power relationships, citizenship, and accountability; politics and inequalities; the politics of (in)securities; and history, race, and ethnicity.She is now applying these themes to action-oriented research with children who are growing up in violent and, otherwise fragile contexts in diverse locations, including Jamaica, Haiti, Uganda, and Ethiopia. Joy has worked as consultant for DFID, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, PLAN, SIDA, EU, World Bank, Woord en Daad, and various NGOs.She is an expert on social development and poverty reduction strategies and has served as a specialist expert in Participatory Poverty Assessments, Institutional Analysis, Gender Analysis, Power Analysis, Policy Design and Analysis, and Mixed Research methods.

1. Relationships and Accountability
2. The Complexities of Accountability
3. Cultivating Inequalities of Accountability
4. Sustaining Inequalities of Accountability
5. Producing 'Accountable' Actors?
6. Building Accountability? Boundaries and Social Actions