Anthropology, Development and Modernities
Anthropology, Development and Modernities

Author: Alberto Arce

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-12-16

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1134628420

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While the diffusion of modernity and the spread of development schemes may bring prosperity, optimism and opportunity for some, for others it has brought poverty, a deterioration in quality of life and has given rise to violence. This collection brings an anthropological perspective to bear on understanding the diverse modernities we face in the contemporary world. It provides a critical review of interpretations of development and modernity, supported by rigorous case studies from regions as diverse as Guatemala, Sri Lanka, West Africa and contemporary Europe. Together, the chapters in this volume demonstrate the crucial importance of looking to ethnography for guidance in shaping development policies. Ethnography can show how people's own agency transforms, recasts and complicates the modernities they experience. The contributors argue that explanations of change framed in terms of the dominantdiscourses and institutions of modernity are inadequate, and that we give closer attention to discourses, images, beliefs and practices that run counter to these yet play a part in shaping them and giving them meaning. Anthropology, Development and Modernities deals with the realities of people's everyday lives and dilemmas. It is essential reading for students and scholars in anthropology, sociology and development studies. It should also be read by all those actively involved in development work.

Author:

Publisher: Bib. Orton IICA / CATIE

Published:

Total Pages: 74

ISBN-13:

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Driving the State
Driving the State

Author: Dolores M. Byrnes

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2018-08-06

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1501722468

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In her absorbing ethnography of the everyday practice of public policy, Dolores M. Byrnes focuses on Mi Comunidad, a job-creation program founded in 1996 by Vicente Fox when he was governor of Guanajuato. This program was intended to reduce migration and became an important source of empowerment for small businesses in rural Mexico. A significant aspect of the program is the way it encourages former residents who have successfully migrated to the United States to invest in the maquilas back home. Byrnes's close look at policy implementation reveals changing relationships between families and the state. Working as a volunteer in Mi Comunidad, Byrnes attempted to understand how the program worked. As she traveled from site to site with the two female state employees who implemented the program's policies, she saw that program practices reproduced middle-class values rather than female solidarity. In spite of this, she argues for the potential of female professional power, with implications for democracy and social justice. Perhaps most interesting of all, Byrnes portrays the formation of nonborder maquilas in rich detail and shows how government employees at the local level personally engage in "driving the state."

'The People You Live With'
'The People You Live With'

Author: Carin Vijfhuizen

Publisher:

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13:

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Extrait de la couverture : "Little researcg has been done in southern Africa that perceives women as strategic social actors who also reproduce and transform everyday life. Carin Vijfhuizen spent two years studying the lives of Ndau women and men in Manesa village, in the Chipinge disctrict of Zimbabwe. Using the concepts of practice, power and discourse, and an actor-oriented approach, her study combined detailed observations and case studies with situational analysis, informal interviews and group discussions. The result is not only coherrent sociology of the village and its irrigatuib scheme, but also a compelling narrative that captures the emotional and psychological textue of people's lives."

Picture Planning Perspectives
Picture Planning Perspectives

Author: Hugo de Vos

Publisher: Rozenberg Publishers

Published: 2004-01-06

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 9051707584

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This book investigates problems of GIS implementation in three Costa Rican ministries. It reveals that embedding technology is part of complex institutional processes where actors and politics shape contexts. By linking an historical analysis of land use

Moruroa and Us
Moruroa and Us

Author: Pieter de Vries

Publisher: Nicholson

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13:

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"During the last thirty years thousands of Polynesian men and boys worked at Moruroa and Fangataufa, the two atolls in the Pacific where France conducted its nuclear tests. A curtain of silence has so far existed around their experiences, motivations and anxieties. In this report a representative number of former workers and islanders living in the vicinity of the test sites speak out. Their hidden histories and problems are revealed." -- Back cover.

Handbook of Latin American Studies
Handbook of Latin American Studies

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 968

ISBN-13:

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Contains scholarly evaluations of books and book chapters as well as conference papers and articles published worldwide in the field of Latin American studies. Covers social sciences and the humanities in alternate years.

Grassroots Struggles for Sustainability in Central America
Grassroots Struggles for Sustainability in Central America

Author: Lynn Horton

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13:

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In recent years, sustainable development has emerged as a central goal of the World Bank and grassroots activists alike. In Grassroots Struggles for Sustainability in Central America, Lynn R. Horton explores the implications of this new, often contested discourse and related policies for Central America's rural and indigenous poor. Drawing on the testimony of leaders and residents of three communities in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, Horton explores grassroots assumptions, values, and practices of sustainable development and, in particular, the ways in which they overlap with or challenge international financial institutions' discourse of sustainability. With a comparative, empirical approach, Horton also analyzes dominant practices linked to sustainable development - neoliberal reforms, project interventions, and environmental protection. She reveals how these practices support or undermine economic, cultural, and political opportunities for the rural and indigenous poor and impact these communities' advancement of their own visions of sustainability. Finally, the author explores processes of empowerment that enable communities to articulate and put into practice local visions of sustainability, which contribute toward broader social and structural transformations. Grassroots Struggles for Sustainability in Central America will interest sociologists, anthropologists, and others who study the theory and practice of sustainable development.