Canadian Foreign Aid and the Helping Imperative: A Delinked Cosmopolitan Perspective

Abstract

This thesis examines the role of the helping imperative in Canadian foreign aid discourse. After weaving together post-development and decolonial theory and applying these theories to cosmopolitanism, I propose a reconstructed cosmopolitan theory - delinked cosmopolitanism - as a theoretical orientation for this analysis. In applying the discourse legitimation framework as an analytical tool, I conclude that the current discursive orientations of the Government of Canada are focused on helping while believing that Western ways of being, knowing and doing are the only way to live in the world. I then suggest possible applications of delinked cosmopolitanism and discourse analysis for future research, both in Canada and abroad, in order to support a possible shift in thinking and an improved ability to work across difference.