Copyright by Kumiko Kawachi 2013
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Copyright by Kumiko Kawachi 2013 The Dissertation Committee for Kumiko Kawachi Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Constructing Notions of Development: An Analysis of the Experiences of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and the Peace Corps in Latin America and Their Interaction with Indigenous Communities in Ecuadorian Highlands Committee: Maria F. Wade, Supervisor Bryan R. Roberts, Co-Supervisor Iyo Kunimoto John W. Traphagan Raúl L. Madrid Constructing Notions of Development: An Analysis of the Experiences of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and the Peace Corps in Latin America and Their Interaction with Indigenous Communities in Ecuadorian Highlands by Kumiko Kawachi, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2013 Dedication To My Advisors Dr. Maria F. Wade & Dr. Bryan R. Roberts With Respect and Gratitude Acknowledgements I owe the deepest gratitude to my advisors, Dr. Maria F. Wade and Dr. Bryan R. Roberts. Without their delightful guidance and encouragement throughout my doctoral career at University of Texas at Austin, I would not have been possible to finish writing this dissertation or survive my graduate school life. I truly admire both of my advisors and I feel honored to have been able to have such great researchers and educators as my advisors. And, I also would like to express my sincere gratitude to my other committee members, Dr. Iyo Kunimoto, Dr. John W. Traphagan, and Dr. Raúl L. Madrid. They taught me and inspired me throughout my doctoral career, and helped me develop my idea and transform it into this dissertation. And, I want to extend special thanks to JOCV volunteers who shared their experiences and their life history with me. I also want to express sincere gratitude to all staff members from University of Texas at Austin and Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, JICA Library, JOCV Office in Quito, and Peace Corps Office in Quito. And, I want to extend special thanks to Professor Tomomi Kozaki who encouraged me the idea of the dissertation and helped me to access to JICA/JOCV office in Quito. I would like to acknowledge the organizations that my graduate study made possible. Special thanks to the Center for Asian Studies and Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies for providing me financial assistances as well as teaching experiences. And, I owe gratitude to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and University of Texas at Austin for providing me generous fellowship to make my graduate study and fieldwork possible. v Finally, this dissertation would not have possible without the support and encouragement from the wonderful friends and families in Japan, Ecuador as well as in the United States. I am grateful to Chika Kodaka, Eiko Yasui, Jennifer Barangan, Maeri Megumi, Nozomi Sumida, Tatsuya Imai, Tien-Wen Lin, Tomoko Sakuma, Tomotaka Umemura, and Yasuhiro Shiroshita for their continuous and tremendous supports and even being patient with me during my long graduate school life. And, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my parents, Masayuki Kawachi and Akiko Kawachi, and my younger brother Yamato Kawachi, my sister in low, Sayaka Kawachi, and my grandmother, Motoko Tanaka. And, I would like to extend my special thanks to my lovely and wonderful Ecuadorian father and mother, Carlos Valladares and Norma Terán, and to my delightful brother and sister in Ecuador, David Valladares Terán and Paolita Valladares Terán. vi Constructing Notions of Development: An Analysis of the Experiences of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and the Peace Corps in Latin America and Their Interaction with Indigenous Communities in Ecuadorian Highlands Kumiko Kawachi, Ph.D The University of Texas at Austin, 2013 Supervisors: Maria F. Wade and Bryan R. Roberts Post-development theorist, Arturo Escobar’s influential work, Encountering Development as well as other post-development academic works discussed the concept and delivery of “development” based on known antecedents— Western countries as practitioners and non-Western countries as beneficiaries. Even though cultural sensibility has become a significant issue in development today, there is little research that analyzes the construction of non-Western donors’ discourse such as those of the Japanese governmental aid agency, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers. Moreover, non- Western aid donors and practitioners’ engagement with indigenous development in Latin America has not been discussed. This dissertation aims to answer the following questions: How do Western and non-Western governmental donor agencies construct and deliver ‘development’ to ‘non-developed’ countries in Latin America, particularly to vii countries with large indigenous populations? How do these donor agencies’ volunteer practitioners implement development projects in the field? What are the differences in the aims and delivery of development projects between Western and non-Western donors and their volunteer practitioners, especially in those projects aimed at indigenous populations? A corollary to those questions was to attempt to discover how the agencies and their volunteers negotiated notions of development with indigenous peoples as well as how agencies and volunteers perceived and addressed ethnic differences in the aid recipients’ countries. To answer these questions I compared and contrasted two governmental agencies that are the most prominent and with the longest record of volunteer aid in Latin America: the United States Peace Corps and the Japanese agency, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV). Although the U.S. Peace Corps and its notion of development were models of “development” for the JOCV program, JOCV’s discourse of development and its development practices are not the same as the Peace Corps. Both agencies’ cross-cultural policies for their volunteers as well as the development practices the agencies adopted likely reflect how the Japanese and United States understand their own societies in general cultural terms, as well as in terms of moral and religious preferences, ethnicity and sexual orientation. The Peace Corps and JOCV volunteers’ experiences with indigenous populations showed several limitations to their programs and provided suggestions for the future particularly in the area of indigenous development. viii Table of Contents List of Tables ...................................................................................................... xii List of Figures ...................................................................................................... xiii Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 Japan and the United States in Development ............................................... 6 Literature Review: The Peace Corps and the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers ........................................................................................... 12 Methodology ................................................................................................ 16 Defenition of Terms ............................................................................ 17 Archival Research ............................................................................... 19 Fieldwork in Ecuador .......................................................................... 23 (a) Semi-structured Interviews ................................................... 24 (b) Survey ................................................................................... 25 (c) Observation ........................................................................... 25 (d) Disclaimer ............................................................................ 26 Privacy and Confidentiality of the Research Data ....................................... 27 Overview of the Dissertation ....................................................................... 28 Chapter 1: Historical Background and Ideologies of Peace Corps and JOCV ..... 30 Historical Background and Ideologies of Peace Corps ................................ 31 The Establishment of the Peace Corps ................................................ 31 The Peace Corps and the Cold War .................................................... 36 Peace Corps Mission Statement and Volunteers ................................. 39 Historical Background and Ideologies of JOCV ......................................... 44 The Establishment of JOCV ............................................................... 44 The Peace Corps and the Establishment of JOCV .............................. 47 JOCV and the Cold War ..................................................................... 51 ix JOCV Volunteers ................................................................................ 56 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 60 Chapter 2: The Peace Corps in Latin America ..................................................... 63 U.S.- Latin American Relations ................................................................... 64 Peace Corps Program in Latin America ....................................................... 69 Withdrawal of the Peace Corps Program from Latin America ...................