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BA Ritgerð Anthropology and Development BA ritgerð Í Mannfræði Anthropology and Development An uneasy romance Björg Karlsdóttir Leiðbeinandi: James G. Rice Júní 2018 Anthropology and Development An uneasy romance Björg Karlsdóttir Lokaverkefni til BA–gráðu í Mannfræði Leiðbeinandi: James G. Rice 12 einingar Félags– og mannvísindadeild Félagsvísindasvið Háskóla Íslands Júní, 2018 Anthropology and Development Ritgerð þessi er lokaverkefni til BA í mannfræði og er óheimilt að afrita ritgerðina á nokkurn hátt nema með leyfi rétthafa. © Björg Karlsdóttir, 2018 Prentun: Háskólaprent Reykjavík, Ísland, 2018 Abstract Since the end of the Second World War, International Development has become one of the most dominant ideas of the twentieth century with its goal to encourage positive change in the so called ‘Third World’ or ‘global South’. Anthropologists have been involved in international development since it was established in the 1950s, both in theory and practice, but have found it difficult to agree on the discipline’s professional and intellectual relationship with it and this has been an ongoing debate within the field. In this thesis, the relationship between international development and anthropology will be examined. First, an historical overview of development and its theories will be laid out and the ideologies through which it was constructed. Anthropology’s beginnings as a discipline will also be considered and how it later informed some core ideas of development. Anthropologists’ involvement in development will be explained and how it has divided the discipline into two sub- disciplines, based on very different theoretical orientations. Then, the influential post- development critique that was dominant during the late 1980s and 1990s in anthropology will be introduced as well as its theoretical foundations and the historical circumstances it was born into. The work of Arturo Escobar and James Ferguson will be presented and how it has influenced the discipline. Then, will be demonstrated how development has been treated within anthropology since the turn of the millennia and the work of anthropologists that have tried to move beyond the post-development critique as well as the suggested alternatives that have been presented. Lastly, a brief discussion of new challenges that the world of development and anthropology of development face with a changing global scene will conclude the thesis. 4 Table of Contents Table of Contents ........................................................................................................ 5 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 6 2 The development of Development .......................................................................... 8 2.1 Historical overview ................................................................................................. 8 2.2 Theories of development ..................................................................................... 11 2.3 Dependency and World System theories ............................................................. 13 3 Anthropology and Development – an uneasy romance .......................................... 15 3.1 Development anthropology and Anthropology of Development ......................... 15 4 Post-Development ................................................................................................. 21 4.1 Post-modernism ................................................................................................... 21 4.2 Post-structuralism ................................................................................................ 22 4.3 Post-colonialism ................................................................................................... 24 4.4 Arturo Escobar ...................................................................................................... 25 4.5 James Ferguson .................................................................................................... 28 5 New Anthropology of Development ....................................................................... 29 5.1 Moving beyond the critique ................................................................................. 29 5.2 ‘New’ issues – ‘new’ development’ ...................................................................... 34 6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 38 References ................................................................................................................. 40 5 1 Introduction The concept of ‘development’, in the sense it has been used since the late 1940s, has become one of the most dominant ideas of the twentieth century, with the implication to promote positive change in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the so called ‘Third World’ (Lewis, 2005) or ‘global South’ and has been used to describe social and cultural differences around the globe ever since (Venkatesan & Yarrow, 2012:1). There are very few terms or concepts that provide as many difficulties in its definition as ‘development’. In a standard dictionary definition, ‘development’ is explained as a state of growth or advancement but as a social practice it is and continues to be highly complex with multiple meanings and explanations which people within various fields have found problematic to agree on (Lewis, 2005). Within anthropology, development has been a central subject since its emergence. Development is studied as an institution that affects a large part of the world’s population. It is construed differently by different people and holds many different cultural practices. Development plays a major role in the life of many people, mostly in non-Western societies, which have been the central focus of anthropologists (Rossi, 2004a:556). In this thesis, the relationship between international development and anthropology will be examined. Since anthropology’s inception, the discipline has been the study of ‘native’ and ‘traditional’ peoples, and it is the discipline that has reflected upon and criticized its own colonial history the most (Escobar, 1991). This has played a major role in this problematic relationship between the two fields. Anthropologists have been involved in international development since it was established in the 1950s both in theory and praxis but have found it difficult to agree on the disciplines professional and intellectual relationship with it. In the first chapter of this thesis the history of International Development will be traced, and the ideologies through which it was constructed. Anthropology’s beginnings as a discipline will also be considered and how it informed some core ideas of development. In the second chapter, anthropologists’ involvement in development will be explained and how it has divided the discipline into two sub-disciplines, based on very different theoretical orientations. The post-structural critique of development that was dominant during the late 1980s and 1990s will be introduced as well as its 6 theoretical foundations and the historical circumstances it was born into. The most influential anthropological work of the time will be presented, the work of Arturo Escobar and James Ferguson and how it has influenced the discipline. In the last chapter, it will be demonstrated how the post-structural critique has influenced the discipline and been criticized and the work of anthropologists that have tried to move beyond the critique and suggested alternatives is presented. The relationship between anthropology and international development since the 2000s will be explored as well as some of the latest work of anthropologists focusing on development. 7 2 The development of Development 2.1 Historical overview The very foundations of what we understand today to be interventionist international development was laid during the colonial era (Gardner & Lewis, 2015). In the late 1930s and 1940s, a development framework in a form of interventionist policies and metropolitan finances was first presented in the colonial world. The colonizers, desperate to re-legitimize an empire that was challenged by nationalist movements, labor unrest and a growing resistance towards colonial rule, relied on this new development framework to stabilize their rule. But this would only create more conflict instead of solving it as the resistance grew. This made the colonial development turn out in a very different way than was intended: “it provided a means by which imperial powers could reconcile themselves to their loss of power, while maintaining a connection with their ex-colonies and a continued sense of their mission in shaping their future” (Cooper & Packard, 1997:7). What characterized these earlier forms of development thought were notions of mutual benefits, which are still common today. The goal was first and foremost to stimulate markets in the colonies to boost the economy at home (Gardner & Lewis, 2015:15). Despite the colonial history of development, the activity of ‘international development’, as we know it today, is seen as emerging in the end of Second World War when important multilateral development agencies were established (Gardner & Lewis, 2015:15). In the first years after the War significant amounts of aid were provided to Europe which was in ruins. In anticipation of the reconstruction that would be needed in the years after the War, and to encourage international economic cooperation, the World Bank and
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