The Vicissitudes of Expertise: John F. C. Turner versus the World Bank

Abstract

John Turner’s role in the World Bank’s embrace of sites and services and squatter settlement upgrading projects in the 1970s, as the Bank sought to tackle uncontrolled urbanization, is well known, if not always well understood. Drawing on in-depth archival research, this article re-evaluates this relationship by examining key Turner publications, his correspondence with Bank officials, and the reports that they commissioned. Although Turner’s ideas, as selected and interpreted by the Bank, provided important theoretical support for its urban policies, Turner’s direct efforts to reshape those policies challenged many of the Bank’s core assumptions about how its programs should operate and were ultimately ignored.