Whose Development? : An Ethnography of Aid

by Emma Crewe and Elizabeth Harrison

• ISBN13: 9781856496056
• ISBN10: 1856496058
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 1999-02-15
• Publisher: Zed Books

Summary

This book is an ethnography of development in practice. It builds on recent work in the anthropology of development in its examination of the evolution and persistence of a number of key ideas about gender, technology and race. It explores how these are rooted in both material practices and ideologies, notably the Enlightenment and colonialism, but goes beyond previous studies which have tended to focus mainly on the apparently monolithic power of the developers. The authors argue for a more nuanced account of power through analysis of the relationship between individual agency and structural constraint. Their fascinating study shows how a simple dichotomy between "us," the developers, and "them," the victims of development, misconstrues the nature of the proccesses involved.

Author Biography

Emma Crewe lectures in the Department of Anthropology, University College, London.

Elizabeth Harrison lectures at the School of African and Asian Studies, University of Sussex.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii	(2)
Abbreviations and Acronyms	ix
1 Development Aid: Successes and Failures	1	(24)
The failure of fish-farming	2	(4)
An ethnography of aid	6	(2)
Fish-farming and FAO	8	(3)
Improved stoves and Intermediate Technology	11	(3)
The deconstructors of development	14	(5)
Writing the book	19	(3)
Summary of the book	22	(3)
2 An Intellectual Heritage of Development	25	(24)
Silent traditions	25	(2)
Development as evolution	27	(3)
The technology ladder	30	(6)
Rational Economic Man	36	(7)
Culture is a barrier	43	(3)
Conclusion	46	(3)
3 The Gender Agenda	49	(20)
An overview	51	(5)
Gender mainstreaming: still swimming against the tide?	56	(2)
A job for the girls?	58	(2)
Meetings and guidelines	60	(3)
The inevitability of it all?	63	(6)
4 Partnership	69	(22)
The evolution of `partnership'	71	(6)
Tales of partnership in practice	77	(10)
Exposing conflicts	87	(4)
5 Technology and Expertise	91	(22)
Who are the experts?	93	(6)
The impact of experts: the case for and against stove programmes	99	(3)
Traditional technology: open fires and improved stoves	102	(4)
Women cook, men innovate?	106	(3)
Conclusion	109	(4)
6 Money and Motivation: `My Wife Helps Me with Everything'	113	(19)
Household motivation	117	(2)
Why farm fish?	119	(6)
Why make or use new stoves?	125	(3)
Conclusion	128	(4)
7 Cultural Barriers: the Triumph of Tradition over Modernity	132	(23)
The reinvention of modernity	133	(4)
Individuals and communities in Luapula Province	137	(9)
Whose culture?	146	(6)
Conclusion	152	(3)
8 Who is in the Driving Seat?	155	(21)
Local people in the driving seat	156	(6)
Women working together	162	(4)
Men in women's groups	166	(5)
Villages, communities, locals	171	(5)
9 The Cohesive Machine	176	(19)
One of us?	182	(3)
One of `them'?	185	(2)
The gap between promise and practice	187	(8)
References	195	(15)
Index	210