Edition 2009/1
INDEX(in order of publication)
Toward a theory of Engagement: Development Anthropology in a Rural River Town in IOWA, USA.
by Barbara Dilly
Abstract: Development anthropologists identify the dynamic contested and changing local cultural and social dynamics that support or resist rural development agendas, whether defined at local levels by local elites or by external professional “experts” and policies. Resistance to externally and elitist driven agendas typically reflects on-going local social conflicts and fears of lost identities and eroded community solidarity. Therefore, engaging diverse interest groups and stakeholders in revitalization of local community cultural identities and interdependent processes through grass-roots activities is essential to on-going local development dynamics. Indentifying and engaging local “experts” in the creation and application of knowledge of community cultural processes and the development of local agendas builds bridges between stakeholder centers of local knowledge and practice inside the community as well as between communities and academic centers of knowledge. This theory of engagement expands the role of anthropology as is evidenced in environmental tourism and river recreation development policy research and implementation in Shell Rock, Iowa, U.S.A.
Negotiating Development and Identity: Brokering Unequal Relations of Power through Identity Politics in Ecuadorian Northern Highlands
by Moreno
Change from Within: Engaging Local Communities in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa
by Mary Nyasimi, Joseph Okanga, Patrick Mutuo and Jessica Masira
Abstract: As the rest of the developing world makes critical steps towards achieving economic and social progress in raising standards of living, sub-Saharan Africa continues to lag behind facing grave challenges of widespread extreme poverty, malnutrition, natural resource decline and human diseases pandemic. Faced with this predicament, scientists at the Earth Institute at Columbia University have pioneered the concept of Millennium Villages that is designed to demonstrate what it takes to meet the eight Millennium Development Goals in sub-Saharan Africa. The core idea of Millennium villages is that improvised African villagers will escape from extreme poverty and sustain their rural livelihoods through a combination of modern and traditional knowledge, technologies and practices. The project is being implemented in twelve sites identified as hunger hotspots in ten African countries. However, studies have documented that development programs in Africa are bound to fail due to the strongly embedded and practiced socio-cultural beliefs, rites and norms. In particular, these socio-cultural practices are hindering women from accessing critical resources and becoming active participants in development activities. This paper will address two issues which are a) to highlight how local communities’ capacity is strengthened and empowered by giving them resources and authority to use them flexibly through a participatory process and b) to demonstrate through an ethnographic study of 24 women residing in Sauri millennium village in western Kenya that to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, cultural change must come from within the community itself.
When we (women) are equipped with knowledge and empowerment and acquire self-esteem, nothing can halt the winds of change from blowing across our village.... a woman leader, Sauri village
Understanding Organisational Culture in a Development NGO in Nepal by applying academic theory to witnessed organisational behaviour
By Michael Schueber
Abstract: OD practitioners and managers are focussing on the culture of organisations with the aim to improve it and to steer and control the organisation towards optimal performance. Examining the organisational culture of SRWSP in Nepal through the lenses of academic theories reveals valuable details for interpreting and understanding witnessed organisational behaviour in a complex international organisation situated in a complex national culture. The influences of national culture, international corporate culture and SRWSP’s mission on the formation of its organisational culture are examined, before reflecting on the applicability of theoretical models to the case of SRWSP and their possible contribution to organisation development.
Empowerment through Participation? The Effectiveness of Participatory Approaches in Clientist Societies
by Roos Willems
Abstract: International development NGO's changed their intervention strategies and policies over the past decades following outsiders' criticisms and internal reflection processes. The traditional top-down approach made way for a bottom-up approach with a focus on identifying and supporting local initiatives through participatory methods. Yet when looking closer at the roots of the very concept of participation as well as the way it is operationalized in a West African socio-cultural context, unexpected findings turn up. Despite formal structures designed to guarantee the free participation of all individuals to decision making processes, whether at the national or local level, West-African cultural logic appears to prescribe men and women to comply with the existing inegalitarian power relations of their communities. This paper argues that concepts used in development approaches are very much culture-laden and that their meanings tend to change according to context. The application of participatory methods developed to ensure the empowerment of marginalized groups may lead to results quite different from those initially intended.
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