Adventures in Aidland
Adventures in Aidland

Author: David Mosse

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2011-04-01

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 0857451111

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Anthropological interest in new subjects of research and contemporary knowledge practices has turned ethnographic attention to a wide ranging variety of professional fields. Among these the encounter with international development has perhaps been longer and more intimate than any of the others. Anthropologists have drawn critical attention to the interfaces and social effects of development’s discursive regimes but, oddly enough, have paid scant attention to knowledge producers themselves, despite anthropologists being among them. This is the focus of this volume. It concerns the construction and transmission of knowledge about global poverty and its reduction but is equally interested in the social life of development professionals, in the capacity of ideas to mediate relationships, in networks of experts and communities of aid workers, and in the dilemmas of maintaining professional identities. Going well beyond obsolete debates about ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ anthropology, the book examines the transformations that occur as social scientific concepts and practices cross and re-cross the boundary between anthropological and policy making knowledge.

After Socialism
After Socialism

Author: R. G. Abrahams

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9781571819109

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Contains papers from a September 1993 workshop on the privatization of agriculture in Eastern Europe, exploring the situation in several countries. Discusses reform policies and actual processes of land reform, the emergence of new family farms, and the creation of new forms of cooperative and joint stock company, with papers on land reform in a Bulgarian village, redefining women's work in rural Poland, and decollectivization and total scarcity in High Albania. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Who Knows Tomorrow?
Who Knows Tomorrow?

Author: Sandra Calkins

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2016-02-01

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1785330160

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Although uncertainty is intertwined with all human activity, plans, and aspirations, it is experienced differently: at times it is obsessed over and at times it is ignored. This ethnography shows how Rashaida in north-eastern Sudan deal with unknowns from day-to-day unpredictability to life-threatening dangers. It argues that the amplification of uncertainty in some cases and its extenuation in others can be better understood by focusing on forms that can either hold the world together or invite doubt. Uncertainty, then, need not be seen solely as a debilitating problem, but also as an opportunity to create other futures.

Management by Seclusion
Management by Seclusion

Author: Glynn Cochrane

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2019-05-03

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1789201322

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50 years ago, World Bank President Robert McNamara promised to end poverty. Alleviation was to rely on economic growth, resulting in higher incomes stimulated by Bank loans processed by deskbound Washington staff, trickling down to the poorest. Instead, child poverty and homelessness are on the increase everywhere. In this book, anthropologist and former World Bank Advisor Glynn Cochrane argues that instead of Washington’s “management by seclusion,” poverty alleviation requires personal engagement with the poorest by helpers with hands-on local and cultural skills. Here, the author argues, the insights provided by anthropological fieldwork have a crucial role to play.

The Paradoxes of Aid Work
The Paradoxes of Aid Work

Author: Silke Roth

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-03-24

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1317754107

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This book explores what attracts people to aidwork and to what extent the promises of aidwork are fulfilled. 'Aidland' is a highly complex and heterogeneous context which includes many different occupations, forms of employment and organizations. Analysing the processes that lead to the involvement in development cooperation, emergency relief and human rights work and tracing the pathways into and through Aidland, the book addresses working and living conditions in Aidland, gender relations and inequality among aid personnel and what impact aidwork has on the life-courses of aidworkers. In order to capture the trajectories that lead to Aidland a biographical perspective is employed which reveals that boundary crossing between development cooperation, emergency relief and human rights is not unusual and that considering these fields as separate spheres might overlook important connections. Rich reflexive data is used to theorize about the often contradictory experiences of people working in aid whose careers are shaped by geo-politics, changing priorities of donors and a changing composition of the aid sector. Exploring the life worlds of people working in aid, this book contributes to the emerging sociology and anthropology of aidwork and will be of interest to professionals and researchers in humanitarian and development studies, sociology, anthropology, political science and international relations, international social work and social psychology.

NGOs and Lifeworlds in Africa
NGOs and Lifeworlds in Africa

Author: Melina C. Kalfelis

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2021-06-11

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1800731116

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Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become ubiquitous in the development sector in Africa and attracting more academic attention. However, the fact that NGOs are an integral part of the everyday lives of men and women on the continent has been overlooked thus far. In Africa, NGOs are not remote, but familiar players, situated in the midst of cities and communities. By taking a radical empirical stance, this book studies NGOs as a vital part of the lifeworlds of Africans. Its contributions are immersed in the pasts, presents and futures of personal encounters, memories, decision-making and politics.

Authenticity and Authorship in Pacific Island Encounters
Authenticity and Authorship in Pacific Island Encounters

Author: Jeannette Mageo

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2021-04-01

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1800730551

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The insular Pacific is a region saturated with great cultural diversity and poignant memories of colonial and Christian intrusion. Considering authenticity and authorship in the area, this book looks at how these ideas have manifested themselves in Pacific peoples and cultures. Through six rich complementary case studies, a theoretical introduction, and a critical afterword, this volume explores authenticity and authorship as “traveling concepts.” The book reveals diverse and surprising outcomes which shed light on how Pacific identity has changed from the past to the present.

Unruly Hills
Unruly Hills

Author: Bengt G. Karlsson

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2011-05-01

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 0857451057

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The questions that inspired this study are central to contemporary research within environmental anthropology, political ecology, and environmental history: How does the introduction of a modern, capitalist, resource regime affect the livelihood of indigenous peoples? Can sustainable resource management be achieved in a situation of radical commodification> of land and other aspects of nature? Focusing on conflicts relating to forest management, mining, and land rights, the author offers an insightful account of present-day challenges for indigenous people to accommodate aspirations for ethnic sovereignty and development.

Disasterland
Disasterland

Author: Sandrine Revet

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-04-28

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 3030415821

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This book analyses the making of the international world of ‘natural’ disasters by its professionals. Through a long-term ethnographic study of this arena, the author unveils the various elements that are necessary for the construction of an international world: a collective narrative, a shared language, and standardized practices. The book analyses the two main framings that these professionals use to situate themselves with regards to a disaster: preparedness and resilience, arguing that the making of the world of ‘natural’ disasters reveals how heterogeneous, conflicting, and sometimes competing elements are put together.

Development as Process
Development as Process

Author: John Farrington

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2005-08-16

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1134664826

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Process" approaches to economic and social development appear to be more flexible and offer greater prospects of success than traditional "project" methods. Development as Process addresses the questions raised by the different natures of the two approaches. The authors examine development projects through experience in water resources development in India and in organizational learning by a Bangladeshi NGO. Inter-agency contexts are examined in the setting of an aquaculture project in Bangladesh and in the setting of agriculture and natural resources development in Rajisthan, India. Finally, the role of process monitoring is explained in the context of policy reform, with illustrations from forestry in India and land reform in Russia.