Full Description
Over the last two decades, anthropological studies have highlighted the problems of 'development' as a discursive regime, arguing that such initiatives are paradoxically used to consolidate inequality and perpetuate poverty. This volume constitutes a timely intervention in anthropological debates about development, moving beyond the critical stance to focus on development as a mode of engagement that, like anthropology, attempts to understand, represent and work within a complex world. By setting out to elucidate both the similarities and differences between these epistemological endeavors, the book demonstrates how the ethnographic study of development challenges anthropology to rethink its own assumptions and methods. In particular, contributors focus on the important but often overlooked relationship between acting and understanding, in ways that speak to debates about the role of anthropologists and academics in the wider world. The case studies presented are from a diverse range of geographical and ethnographic contexts, from Melanesia to Africa and Latin America, and ethnographic research is combined with commentary and reflection from the foremost scholars in the field.
Contents
Introduction. Anthropology and Development: critical framings Thomas Yarrow and Soumhya Venkatesan Part I: Anthropology and Development reconsidered Chapter 1. On Text and Con-text: toward an anthropology in development John Friedman Chapter 2. Framing and Escaping: Contrasting Aspects of Knowledge Work in International Development an Anthropology Maia Green Intersection 1: Economies of Knowledge Veena Das Part II: Enacting Development Chapter 3. The Progress of the Project: Scientific Traction in the Gambia Ann Kelly Chapter 4. Recursive partnerships in global development aid Casper Bruun Jansen and Brit Ross Winthereik Intersection 2: A Gift Back: the village and research Annmarie Mol Part III: Doing and Knowing Chapter 5. Beyond an Anthropology of 'the Urban Poor': rethinking peripheral urban social situations in Brazil John Gledhill and Maria Gabriela Hita Chapter 6. Extraordinary Violence and Everyday Welfare: The State and Development in Rural and Urban India Amita Baviskar Intersection 3: the anthropology of development and the development of anthropology Harri Englund Part IV: the Promise of Progress Chapter 7. Development, Participation, and Political Ideology in a Lebanese Town Michelle Obeid Chapter 8. Kastom Ekonomi and the Subject of Self-Reliance: differentiating development in Vanuatu John P. Taylor and Benedicta Rousseau Intersection 4: Modes of modernity Norman Long Part V: Forms and Effects Chapter 9. Effecting Development and the Effects of Development: Bureaucratic Knowledges of Development in an Indian District Nayanika Mathur Chapter 10. The transformation of compassion and the ethics of interaction within charity practices Catherine Trundle Intersection 5: The art of balance, or else... Alberto Corsin Jimenez
