Synopsis
The ‘anthropology of development’ is already challenging the received wisdom of development thought and practice. In this book, Crewe and Harrison build on existing work by using their own experience of aid projects in Africa and Asia to examine a number of deep-seated assumptions in the minds of ‘developers’. Flawed notions about progress, gender, technology, partnership, motivation, culture and race persist, and there are yawning gaps between these and the policies and actual practices of development. Through ethnographic case material from two different organizations - one an international NGO, the other a multilateral agency - the authors explore what actually happens when expatriate development personnel, local government officials and the intended beneficiaries of aid interact with one another. They describe how power inequalities based on race, class and gender are reflected in the processes of aid. This is a work of considerable subtlety. The authors find the dichotomies between ‘us’, the ‘developers’, and ‘them’, the ‘beneficiaries’ of development, inadequate. They question the apparently monolithic power of the developers, and show the need for a more nuanced, contextual account of the complex and often ambiguous relationships that exist within the aid industry. And while it refuses to provide simple answers, this book greatly enriches our understanding of the cultural and structural dynamics of the development process.
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Review
'A fine-grained ethnography of aid... showing well the context sensitivity of all participants in development projects and their multiple identities and shifting roles.' Frederique Apffel-Marglin, Smith College, Massachusetts 'This book moves beyond the conventional deconstruction of development and stimulates new, relational ways of thinking about it.' Cecile Jackson, University of East Anglia 'A rich picture of the complexities and power relations involved in foreign aid.' Michael Edwards, NGO Division, World Bank
From the Publisher
'A fine grained ethnography of aid'
WHOSE DEVELOPMENT? An Ethnography of Aid Emma Crewe and Elizabeth Harrison
'A fine grained ethnography of aid.... showing well the context sensitivity of all participants in development projects and their multiple identities and shifting roles.' FREDERIQUE APFFEL-MARGLIN, Smith College, USA
'This book moves beyond the conventional deconstruction of development and stimulates new, relational ways of thinking about it.' CECILE JACKSON, School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia
‘A rich picture of the complexities and power relations involved in foreign aid.' MICHAEL EDWARDS, Senior Policy Advisor, NGO Division, World Bank
The ‘anthropology of development’ is already challenging the received wisdom of development thought and practice. In this book, Crewe and Harrison build on existing work by using their own experience of aid projects in Africa and Asia to examine a number of deep-seated assumptions in the minds of ‘developers’. Flawed notions about progress, gender, technology, partnership, motivation, culture and race persist, and there are yawning gaps between these, the policies and the actual practices of development.
Through ethnographic case material from two different organizations -- one an international NGO, the other a multilateral agency -- the authors explore what actually goes on when expatriate development personnel, local government officials and the intended beneficiaries of aid interact with one another. They describe how power inequalities based on race, class and gender are reflected in the processes of aid.
This is a work of considerable subtlety. The authors find the dichotomies between ‘us’, the ‘developers’, and ‘them’, the ‘beneficiaries’ of development, inadequate. They question the apparently monolithic power of the developers, and show the need for a more nuanced, contextual account of the complex and often ambiguous relationships that exist within the aid industry. And while it refuses to provide simple answers, this book greatly enriches our understanding of the cultural and structural dynamics of the development process.
Dr Emma Crewe is a development consultant and Research Fellow in the Department of Social Anthropology, University College London. Dr Elizabeth Harrison is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex.
Development Studies/Anthropology
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