stakeholder = 'a party with any sort of interest whatsoever' (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Nonstate actor," at least, is now part of the core vocabulary. It works for
me because it's concise and intelligible.

As I read it, an "actor" in such contexts is usually taking, or already has
taken, significant action; a "player" may just be considering action; and a
"stakeholder" doesn't have to do anything but glower.

JL

On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 2:58 AM, Paul Frank <paulfrank at post.harvard.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: stakeholder = 'a party with any sort of interest
> whatsoever'
>              (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the last couple of years, I've noticed that many jargon-filled
> texts about international relations and development aid (or
> development assistance) are using the term "actors" where five or ten
> years ago they used "stakeholders." Some writers use the two terms
> interchangeably. I used to hate the term "stakeholder" but I see the
> term "actor" so often these days, that I'm beginning to long for
> "stakeholder." And then there is "player," which many government and
> NGO writers avoid.
>
> Paul
>
> Paul Frank
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