«4 Anthropology, Development and the Post-modern Challenge jobs in the centre of the city, and some have commissioned space to be reserved for them as their households in other areas expand. Bustees are thus being 'gentrified' as these richer dwellers move in. Meanwhile landlords are illegally extracting higher rents in a variety of hidden ways. Slum upgrading adds momentum to this process, attracting wealthier inhabitants and. enabling landlords to charge more and more. The poorest households, and especially those headed by women, who ^K_^aj^ajlar^vulnerable to Uandlecdslj^per^^ out. Foster argues iJtaTThlTk^^ of urban environmental upgrading lies in understanding existing patterns of land control. By failing to consider these factors and treating slum-dweilers as all the same, it seems that once again development aids the richest while disadvantaging the poorest. These effects could only have been avoided by understanding the complex nature of tenancy and property ownership in Calcutta bustees at the planning stage, rather than assuming that bustees are homogeneous communities, with shared interests. JThe negative side effects of slum improvement cannot of course be entir^l5rarnedjonbustee upgrading. Given the pressure on urban laud, ttGch processes are also likely to occur without, physical improvements. Avoiding such negative effects is also difficult, for clearly the legal changes necessary for this are beyond the powejipf urban development authorities or aid agencies. More recent projects fiinHpH hy mrPign HrSnAfg h'AVP nfif-JTPPn permitted by Ifoal government to work with the poorest pavement dwellers, beca'use they are regarded as illegal squatters. Here,' then, constraints imposed by the recipient government have prevented aid from being as 'poverty-focused' as the donors might have wished. As we know, unequal access occurs within households, as well as between them. In the next case, we shall see how the construction of gender relations in Bangladesh means that even if projects are specifically aimed at women, they do not necessarily benefit from them. Case 4. Women's credit groups in Bangladesh: inequality within households7 In 1975 the Bangladeshi government introduced a programme of rural women's cooperatives in 19 selected administrative districts controlled by the Integrated Rural Development Programme. These women's cooperatives were village-based and structured on the Subverting tne Discourse model of pre-existing men's peasant committees. Each cooperative was; run hy a management committee, elected by members. These represented the cooperative at fortnightly training sessions in health, nutrition, family planning, literacy, vegetable gardening, livestock and poultry rearing and food processing, sharing their knowledge with other members back in their village. Their primary focus was, however, the granting of small loans, which in conjunction with the training was supposed to increase members' income-earning capacity. In a village studied by Rozar4a-(1222ithese loans seemed to be the mairLr^a^oqwiiyj^ the cooperatives. At an interest rate of 12.5 per cent, a woman could apply for 500 taka8 if she had at least 50 taka worth of shares. Since the interest rates cbiitged^by^pnyate moneyJe£idersare extortionateinBar^ad^sh (sometimes running at 100 per cent), and banks are unlikely to give credit to small landowners and the landless, obtaining these loans was obviously highly desirable. Rozario's research indicates that loans intended to be used by women for their own income generation were either going towards joint hQqsehoM expenses ..or being coop ted by men. Loans taken out by the poorest women were often spent on basic household items, such as food, clothing and medicine. These women, however, were the ones most likely to invest their loans in growing vegetables, or poultry raising. In contrast, wealthier women told Rozario that they did not know how their husbands spent the loans, which they had passed directly to them. They simply signed the forms to collect the loan. Since so many loans were not repaid, with women claiming that they could not control their husbands' decisions or ability to repay, eventually husbands' signatures were required before a loan was made. Men were thus XLffIciaily_^^ women/s_creclit. Evidence from elsewhere in Bangladesh suggests similar processes are common to credit programmes which give loans to women (Goetz, 1994). Because womenand men donoUiajy^^qj^La^c^sj^ resources within households, time~a7i3Tirne_again loans which are ^ given to women are passed by the recipients to their husbands. Combined with this, becauaajtis w^omen's responsibility to feed and^clothe theirjar^ is ..jspent on a household's reproductive needs. Class is clearly an important factor too. Women from richer households, who are more strictly secluded, seem to have the least control over the credit. This may be because ideologies ojpuj^d^ prevent 86 Anthropology, Development and the Post-modern Challenge such women from entering markets and other public and male domains. The buying and selling of vegetables or poultry may therefore be seen as /unrespectable'for them, while for poorer women spoa) pmstigp is not something they can afford. All women, however, shoulder the burden of repayment if and when their husbands default. By disregarding the ways in which resources are allocated within Bangladeshi households, the cultural construction of women's work and their access to markets, credit programmes in jjangladesh are likely to be con^r^Uejd^by_n^n, even if they are originally intended for women. A key factor here might be that it is cash, rather than other resources, which is loaned. Cash is traditionally associated with male domains, whereas other commodities (poultry, grain, household goods) are traditionally within the female domain. If project planners had located gender relations and inequality within the specific cultural context of Bangladesh, the results reported by Rozario might therefore have been avoided. To summarise, anthropological study of—eWvelopmerjj^heJps generate a range of quesjicmswhicj^ focus on peopfe^5_access to resources provided by planned change. These may bp answered Access: Key Questions What are the most important resources within society? \t How is access to resources organised? Are key resources equally shared, or do some groups have more control than others? Are there obvious economic differences within communities? Do some groups have more decision-making power than others? Are some groups denied a voice? Are some people incited to speak? Is access to resources equal within households? Do some groups have particular interests/needs? Are there project criteria which constrain some people's access? Is a certain level of capital necessary ? Does the project only apply to preconceived categories, e.g. landowners, male farmers or household heads? Are these factors adequately considered in the development plan/policy? Subverting the Discourse 5/ through the anthropological methods outlined in Chapter 2, or through more participatory methods (see Chapter 5). Conventionally in development practice such questions are posed by 'expert' consultants, but this need not necessarily be the case: local participants, activists, non-governmental workers and so on may all, contribute. Most important is that the answers are fed back effectively into planning and policy. Gathering such ilU^rm^on__is_not of course unproblematic; whethgr or not the ohjprt.ivp 'truth of sociopolitical relations can ever be reached is a moot point, not only because outsiders tend to find it extremely difficult to find such things out, but also because the 'truth' tends to vary according to th,e positioning and pppppr-tives oidifierent actors: it jsunfixed and variable. We shall return to these problems at tnVenS^I^Schapter. Effects What are the social and cultural effects of development? This question is clearly closely linked to relative access. Rather than focusing on the distribution of benefits, however, it teases out different questions. By asking about the social effects of development, we are forced to consider the often_comp_lex social repercussions which may spill over into quite unexpected domains. Such questions are also vital in assessing projects or programmes which planners lacking in anthropological insight may not have orginally considered to have any particular social implications, since these projects were primarily conceived of in technical terms. Focusing upon social effects also demonstrates the highly complex nature of social change. People are embedded in a range of social, economic and political relationships which affect their access to property and labour, their decision-making power within their communities and households, their position in the division of labour and so on. Although anthropologists may not be able to predict exactly what the social effects of development will be, from wT[iOEi$Ei5a^^ they are often far better equipped than most to make informed guesses. While the social effects of development must clearly be investigated during and after projects, through procedures of evaluation and appraisal, such questions also need to be posed at Qieirlhception. As we seeTbelow, the failure to do this has led to many grave mistakes. ,tvyiucru unu me fost-mouern challenge Case 5. The Kariba Dam: the effects of resettlement9 Many large-scale projects which are designed to improve national infrastructure, and which are perceived as being solely technical, require the resettlement of large numbers of people. The building of roads, air-strips and dams to generate hydroelectric power provides classic examples. The social implications of these projects are often not fully comprehended until after they are underway, and key questions which might at least have limited the damage done to the groups that are forced to move are not asked. The Kariba Dam is a classic example (see Scudder, 1980). As Mair points out, when hydroelectric dams are built the displaced population is unlikely to benefit directly, for the electricity ii~usuairy inTerided for thelnhabitants"of^Slant cities (Mair, 1984:110). The hardarups^auiedfor those who areforcecTto move can, however, be reduced if their social, economic and cultural circumstances are considered by administrators. In the Gwembe country (Zambia and Zimbabwe) where the Kariba Dam was built, there was insufficient consideration of these factors, even though many officials were deeply concerned for the people's welfare. In addition, a series of organisational mistakes were made. The Voorst of these was that although the population was originally allowed to choose where they would relocate, a technical decision was taken to raiseJiieJsy^Li^Jhe^kike, resulting in the flooding of the area proposed for resettlement. This effectively destroyed any goodwill or conTicielicVu^^ that the relocatees might have had. While some villagers did move to sites they had chosen, at l^ast 6000 were sent to the Lusitu Plateau, 160 kilometres away. Although the government had promised that water would be supplied, not only was the drilling machinery provided inadequate, but the water proved to be undrinkable, so that pipelines eventually had to bring water from the Zambezi River. In the time it took for these to be built, many people suffered from dysentry. The people were moved to the area by truck. They were not allowed to return to Gwembe country. Since the administrators assumedjhey had^toprc^erty r many valuaMe,pgssessions wereTert behind or broIt-muucrn i^nauenge modernity is highly valued in Kajiado, the distribution and control of modern houses leads to more status than that of traditional houses. This may be another reason why men are becoming increasingly involved. There is therefore a very real danger that men may increasingly control housing, while women will continue to do the bulk of the work and be the main users of the completed houses. Changes in the_j?ende^^ groduction may also therefore leaďtóto changes in thegina^r relations of house design and control. Rather than benefiting from the project, women will be disempowered by it. One way that these negative effects may be avoided is by ensuring that men are paid by women for their labour, thus giving them few rights over the finished product. Likewise, by improving traditional housing designs which are associated with female knowledge, male control of innovation might be reduced. It should also be remembered that the social relations of technology are not only culturally specific, they are also technologically specific. Housing among the Maasai is not an exclusively female domain. This means that men may choose to become involved in housing projects if they perceive that they will benefit from them. In contrast, other technologies are locally constructed as being exclusively female. For example, the production of stoves is seen by the Máasai Technological Change; Key Questions How is local knowledge used, produced, distributed and controlled? Who does what, and how is the work organised? What is the relationship between these activities and decisionmaking power and status? What are the constraints facing women? How can project activities (training, group meetings and so on) fit most appropriately into women's tight work schedules? Boiv might the new houses be more appropriately designed? Could the new designs be less, rather than more, labour-intensive? What is the relationship between production, distribution and control? Does the building and distribution of houses automatically lead to their control? Would paying male house-builders wages reduce the danger that they will control the finished product? Subverting the Discourse as 'women's work'. Improved stove technology is therefore offered only to women by projects, without apparently discriminating against men. In this case, the new technology saves women time, rather than increasing their workload. The Maasai Housing Project has not had wholly negative effects on local women. Indeed, great efforts have been made to recognise their productive role in house building and to enable them to participate in the design of new houses. The accompanying questions (see box) might, however, help 'fine tune' it. Control As the above case studies indicate, it is crucial to understand the dynamics of local societies if particular groups are not to be margih'alised or further" disadvantaged through development inter-ventidnsr If 'would, however, be misleading to indicate that these Issti'e^are resolved solely through top-down planning. Indeed, this replicates dominant development discourses which presuppose that planning and policy-making simply need to be tweaked in particular directions to 'solve' the problems of development. Top-down planning is far from being the only solution. However weli thought out development plans are, if they are designed and implemented by outsiders they are in continual danger of being unsustainable in the long term and of contributing to dependency; when funding ends, so does the project. Unless people can take control of their own resources and agendas, development is thus caught in a vicious circlg; by 'providing' for others, projects inherently encourage the depend ency_ofreci]^ Development discourses must therefore be chaUeng^until they recognise that local people are active agents^ahd by changing their practices enlibTethem to participat?nn project planning and implementation. In this section we indicate how development practice prevents people from taking control and how it might be changed from within. As in the rest of this chapter, we are confining our attention to planned change and assuming that, at some level, external donors are involved. Working with local groups and institutions Development plans often assume that the implementing agencies of a^proje^r'" or ■•programme' will come from outside the local _ -, - ■ ■ ^' ttle^giyers' o f a . .^.^pmeftt workers) and the "receivers' (local" .^^c/rsincTclevelopers are primarily interested in problems and solutions which are perceived in technological terms, local social structures tend to be seen as at best irrelevant and at worst an 'obstacle'. Indeed, outsiders often fail to recognise the degree to which communities have their own internal forms of organisation, decision-making and lobbying. Unsurprisingly, however, projects are often most succes^fujwhen they work through pre-existtrt^socIaT strucTures^n^^ There may, forl>x1mKpIe7T5e~]^^ to bring resources or services to their communities. These may take many different forms. For example, as we saw in Chapter 3, Latin American squatter settlements are often carefully planned by inhabitants, with local neighbourhood committees formed to develop the settlement In other communities thegroup may have formed for a single purposej^a^henng togeln^FloTaise money for a school, a cTJrucor a placlToT^worl^ clubs are common forms of community-based groups, as are political parties. All of these vary from place to place; their suitablity as implementors orc lej/ejs^Jhejn^ groups are not excluded from or disadvantaged by planned change. Although one clbes hot need to be an academic anthropologist to obtain this information, w^ suggest that understanding, what questions to ask is JMJrj&arjO^ We are not suggesting that the insights and strategies discussed in this chapter should be confined to an elite of international anthropological consultants or 'experts'. Rather than certain individuals being the repositories of such knowledge, it is particular insights and methods which are important, and these are potentially accessible to everybody. Indeed, anthropological perspectives already inform much work being carried out by NGOs, and form the basis of various new research methodologies (such as participatory action research and participatory rural appraisal) which are currently gaining widespread acceptance in some developmental domains. We shall discuss these in the next chapter. There is also no single way of gaining the sort of knowledge we have been discussing here. While traditional participant observation is certainly a possibility, such in-depth and.Jime-consuming research is often hot possible within tfte _conjgxt_of development . work. The use_of local consultants is nearly always^rHeTablFto hiring expatriates;Jpcai partlapanfs can aisbbecome 'indigenous _a^^^jg5^gllt£ - setting their own research agendas and answering questions on their own terms. Likewise, locally based NGOs ..often have extensive, knowledge ,oJ Jpcal culture and. social or^r^Uajdor^(almough this is not always the case). TKeeasewitx^^ should not be overestimated, however. Questions can be asked in any number Af-uTSyrmTF^^ that thecorrprt, answers wiU he given, or even that there are 'cor™^' answers. To a certain extent socialrealities always depend upon the subjective perspectives of those viewing the situation. Rejyity^sjjlsj^^^ different mteresj^groups will represent it in different ways (landlords and tenants, for example, are unlikely to agree about what the 'correct' level of rents should be). The ways in which outsiders are perceived may also influence how reality is represented to them. Itesi?ajxhers associated with aid agencies, for instance, may be seen as potential 'providers', in these contexts it iruiyj^j^tivejyjn more in te^HlS-Si^ieeoV than of self-sufficiency. In other contelup instead of through top-down policies and the agency of the state. Only when the supposed beneficiaries of development interventions participate in the planning and implementation of the projects which are intended to benefit them wJHjftexJiavj^ projects succeed. Participation is therefore a key prerequisite for """Some agencies, such as the UK's Overseas Development Administration, thus now talk of local people as being 'stake-holders' in development, seeing this as a way of forming a stronger basis for their involvement. If people know that they stand to benefit from a particular intervention, the reasoning goes, they will work to ensure that the project suceeds and will contribute ideas for improvement. NotorUy^wiU thisj^ad^to^betterprojects, itwill formanJinDortant goak)f deyelpgm^nt rnany^c^ democracy (Eyben, 1994). . - However, as anthropologists will already be aware, the nation of 'participation' is itself problematic. For a start, it rnasj^sjiifferences between people: local heterogeneity is dissolved into vague notions ot commurutv . (-This may cus^g^Q~important cross-cutting ^ irvEions biclass, gender and age, which may lead to substantial differences in local views and interests. Notions of effective participation therefore involve having to disentangle conflicting interests within local communities and building support for the . interests of particular, identifiable groupings of people. Participation, if it is handled properly, can create an opening for more vulnerable sections of the community to determine the form and outcome of development initiatives which are being undertaken in their name. This is undoubtedly a difficult, time-consuming and complicated process.-------- In practice, the rhetoric of participation can easily be misuseqO .while real power remains in the hands of outsiders: 1. It can legitimise a project by gaining the sanction or formal approval of key people in the community, which then feeds back into project appraisal criteria and helps to make the project a 'success'. 2. 'Participatory discussion' can provide an opportunity for local people to 'understand' what it is that the development agency seeks from them. Certain people can then, in return for the New Directions 113 promise of a supply of resources to the community, tell 3. It can open up an opportunity for certain interests within the community to be 'written in' to the project design, or to gain control of its implementation, which tends to skew benefits towards better-off sections of the population. Just as some government agencies are now seeking to establish greater credibility for their still essentially 'top-down' programmes by enlisting the services of locally based NGOs, D^rjicipatjpn is often desired bv development agencies for the ideological ^g^mc^tbnnes(Yetisjs alsofejirjraj^ •> ^lan^psus^auy do not wish to involve ToliaT^onm^ ^y^jn^ti^utional deadlines ana^prea^termined agenda, which by the time it reaches the community cannot be changed'. TKes'e contra- . dictions show how easily an objective of participation can teed ■ effortlessly, back into exhtmgrrTcTt^^ ■' jmd become neutralised by tr^dommanfcliscourse. ■'■ '•'-<■( .v.-../ Participatory research methodologies With the increasing acceptance of participation as a desirable goal in development practice have come other important changes in research and project methodologies, particularly within agricultural work. This is closely related to the anthropological perspectives on local knowledge and human agency, outlined in previous chapters, as well as anthropological methodologies. l^cJeas^ingl^ co"sjde4- • .t.. ----:—^e^avs.in which, local Sment activities*. me worK oxJ«obe£t_C^^ influential in this regard, incite attempts to counter excessTveTy^formalistic ajpjgttaehesj^^ workers and profes- sionals. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and its variants aim to eriable rural people to plan and enact solutions to problems by analysing their own knowledge of local conditions, facilitated by outsiders^This approach (Chambers, 1992: 5) has drawn upon insights borrowed from social anthropology, such as: 1. The idea of learning in the field as 'flexible art rather than rigid science'. 2. The need to learn in the field, informally, through conversations W and relaxed observation. no Anthropology, Development and the 114 Anthropology, Development and the Post-modern Challenge 3. The importance of the researcher's attitudes, behaviour and rapport with local people. 4. The emic/etic distinction, an anthropological concept drawn from linguistics, which contrasts the 'indigenous' reality of social actors with the observer's perception of that reality. 5. The validity and potential value of indigenous knowledge. (^R^hej^ore^^ training rese^rc^r^to_gojto yillagej^and spertcf time talking to groups ol people 'in situ', encouraging them Care is takerCto represent as many different sets of interests as possible,.jmd_ the focus is onjnutuaj learning between researcher and informant. While such ideas are familiar to anthropologists, one has Jcj Utilfcpr. no training in sucfamatters JThe research and administrative culture of many development agencies and government departments places scant value on direct communication with their ccmstituenqgg, m environments where peoplehave usually oeen seen as trie 'objects' rather than the 'subjects' of the development process.CPRA^has.therefore. hegun to challengeJth^ssumpjtions of development practitioners trained within bureaucratic, status-conscious and quantitative research-based institutional cultures. The growth of PRA, and the quite surprising amount of attention it currently receives, provides an opportunity to examine whether anthropology can really bejoseaL&jLj^^ development <\ practitioners in this way. JlJEEA^sj^ ^ anthropologists do, how realistic is it to attem^ ' f the surface _of a community? PRA, Ms become a tool which is now included in many projects, buj it..'jgj?, jJx 22^1^*^*1^^^iT^rv.! -^f.1 V-&.tgCz5J5-?-'ty" .frameworks, if,,i *• is^i^appjjed. It can sometimes be used to legitimise certain approacfies and ideas and, if it is carried out cynically, can be employed to show support for pre-existing viewpoints. There is a temptation for those utilising PRA less scrupulously to enact what might be termed a 'participatory ritual', either because they are cynical about tne whole process in tne ftfst place or because it has become just another part of their job. While such people might be sympathetic to the aims of PRA, they may balk at the levels of complexity (and resulting frustration) which arise from taking participation too seriously. For example, ylUa^ers^^can.pe raulinely New Directions 115 Participatory action research3 Participatory action research is a loose group of methocjojogies undertaken by agencies - such as NGOs - in areas of Asia) and v^ijP- Ij assumes that the mainobjective!jdev-elopmentls the Rgfiurient of foe human urge for creative engagement^ and_do.es noTlKerelore rocus on poverty™alIe^Bbn'" 'basic'*needs' or strjt^hj^^ ^itiusway, PAR seeks tq_ aypjid the dependence which results J^eio^ient. Iheihfluence of the radical Brazilian educator Paulo Freire can be seen in this line of flunking. Typically, catalytic initiatives are brought about by educated outsiders," free of party goUticaluaJl^^^/jw^_encourage_groups of people to get together to discuss the reason for their.poverty and engage in their own social investigation. Group building follows, combined with discussion of prioritised actions which can be undertaken to address the principal causes of their poverty. External resources can be provided for support, but are not regarded as a precondition for problem-solving.(The aim is to_generate a^'progressive action-reflection .rh^tfynlpi 'peo^le^^praxjs^s the groups form links with other similar groups and encourage new ones, the dependence on the initial external stimulus is then supposed to fall away, though contact may be maintained. consulted, maps and charts can be drawn, games can be played to reveal ^oc^.jeailtieS/ but experts may well go off and implement their project much as planned. Like 'participation', PRA is easily abused in practice.4 But even if PRA is carried out properly, can workable compromises be reached between the interests of the rich and the poor members of communities through such open discussion?QVho jsjje^sjirtd^wto an anthro- pologist needs at least a year to start understanding how a village community actually works (as anthropological tradition tells us), how can PRA achieve genuine community-based insights in such a short period of time, even if a more participatory methodology than usual is adopted? What are the dangers of 'quick and dirty' anthrp-— :l lus^gg^xn certain situations? All these 5i tiruufjotogy, uevetoptnent and the Post-modern Challenge questions need to be examined further. While PRA in many ways provides an easy target for the critiques of anthropologists, it is probably the case that the methodology is only rarely carried out in the ways and to the lengths which were originally intended. Some NGOs have developed similar forms of research which are geared towards a more responsive approach to local problems, much of which can be undertaken by people themselves. The (concept.oTachon r^s^arcn' attempts to combine learningjand doings Proshika, for example, haTHewlo^^a fefl^exlve research rr^&od-ology which the NGO terms 'parjtidjDa^^ (Wood and Palmer-Jones, 199U: 25): ~~~~ While projects are designed between groups and the field staff with as much forethought as possible, new forms of social action obviously generate unforeseen processes and problems, which have to be studied by those involved as part of the social action itself. A link between research and action has a two-fold purpose. It prevents the emergence of discrete elements within the NGO whose research and evaluatory functions 'constitute judgements' on the work of others. It provides constructive opportunities for the 'subjects' of the research to tie the research agenda to tf>eir needs. Action research becomes a process in which research is combined with practical problem-solving, with the participation ofthose who have identified and need to overcome a problem. This brings us full circle back to Chapter 2: reflexive action research haslonj^been one of J^jajms of the more jadica^proponents of 'applied anthropology'. It may be that the NGO context forms one of the mbjst fruitful arenas for work of this kind. 'Empowerment' The(sMft in ^development; thought during the 1980s away from the assumptions ojiopidown change towards-altematiite development models has>(at its root^a conc&ptior^f^ a form of deveIogment^~?g^artge brought ahguf^b]/ local prob^jn^pTving el!orb^rj2|e^hru^u^s. Empowerment has been described as being, 'nurturing, liberating, even energisingto the una ffluent and the \ unrxjwerlul' (black, 1991: 21). This concept oflmvpowerrnent is in J part drawn from the ideas~of the Brazilian educationalist Paulo Freire, based on the need to stimulate and support people's abilities to understand. nupR^c^^na^gs^Jse,.sjrjuctr ------- to understan„ poverty tr 'Development and New; Directions .theorists^ iromoting 117 ?K|i^s^rtic^^^apfer^ >e empowerment (Carroll, 19 Development and literacy5 Considerable attention has been given to the issue of literacy in developing countries. In Bangladesh, where the literacyleydis around 35 per cent, illiteracy has been correctly identified as one of the country's most pressing development problems. It has been a prevailing mytK of deveTbpmentlhat literacy can be seen as an independent variable in the development process which can be measured by a universal yardstick. Anthropologists and sociologists have shown it is important to recognise that literacy has to be viewed in the context of other variables and should therefore form part of an integrated approach to development. For example, people use the skill of literacy for their own and perceived interests, which are not always 'development-oriented': in rural Bangladesh, such skills can sometimes be used to further the interests of the literate at the expense of the illiterate. Literacy grogrammes therefore have to be based on a firm imderstanding oTtfietl^eT^ put - literacyjfe^^ t The NGO Friends in Village Development Bangladesh (FIVDB) j has developed a functional literacy programme for landless men!, . and women, who organise themselves into groups. Literacy(q training is combined with organisation support, savings andj credit, technical assistance for income-generating activities and! the gradua.lJmJJdingaf-a^lf.rofipeohArid se(f-cpnfidenre. Literacy is; therefore linked to generating local group structures and capacity-j building. Basic aspects of health and nutrition are taughtj alongside literacy. K A useful discussion of empowerment emerges from John Friedmann's analysis of the politics of alternative development. Friedmarur) develops a theory of poverty which views it not simply ^^he^abs^tce of matem as a form of social, pofiBcajrana psychojogkaj^ cRall^^dnnTrus view, wfiole sections of the population - landless ruraT workers, subsistence peasants and shanty town inhabitants, for example - have been systematically excluded from participation in the development process. ^mmJ^&^$^^M^^ empowerment the central aim in his discussion or the politics of juternatwe development: 118 Anthropology, Development and the Post-modern Challenge The empowerment approach, which is fundamental to an alternative development, places the emphasis on autonomy in the decision-making of territorially organized communities, local self-re 1 iance (but not autarky), direct (participatory) democraxJyTlmd 1^ Its starting point is the locality, because civil society is most readily mobilized around local issues. Friedmann sees the need for alternative development models to acknowledge the rights and established needs of citizen households and individuals, which involves a political struggle for empowerment and against stmrhiral OT^rainK. For example, the NGO Proshika's work has included group formation in which landless people take action in pursuit of their rights against locally powerful individuals. "(he local power structure in countries such as Bangkdeshjs a >crucial Barrier to'more equitaSIe forms of change; it siphons off externally supplied resources mtended for the poor, impedes the rule of law by substituting formal justice by de facto rules of force to settle disputes, and contributes to growing impoverishment by supporting moneylending with exploitative rates of .interest (see BRAC, 1979). In one example documented in a recentjcollection of case studies from Bangladesh, groups of landless people in Gazipur district successfully organised a public boycott of a local landowner who was engaged in stealing public agricultural land by securing false land-title documents. The landowner had no access to public transport or hired labour and suffered public humiliation, and the group members who had lost rightful access to the lapd won the legal case against him injhp £gurts (Kramsjo and Wood; 1992: 63). There are of course contradiction^ withinThei;cittrent^^urse of empowerment. Like paTffi?rpaTi6n, gmpo^ a itefluently aggraded, term in mainstream ■devel^ment7T^nnerria (1992: i.23) sees the term simply as providing development discourse with a new form of legitimation and convincing people 'notonly thateconomic;.and^te^uAprities are the real power, J?ut thatlhg.)L£ie within everyone's reach, provided everyone is ready to participate fully in the development design'. HffiTsorhe countries^ j^veTnments now tallTglibly of empowerment of the poor in their development plans, having stripped the term of any real meaning. In other planning^documents there^js_an assumption that empowerment~^car\ be acnievecl" 'sanjgly by pFoviffin^^^ it is hot really possible for one person to 'empower^Q^^fpeoi fa- New Directions i^lJ^P^^mrt&TlL (----- well-versed in t s facUUators^The danger of cr 119 "etoric of j^onsdoujs^^ P-^gfou^Tu^^ experience, has been observed in Bangladesh (Hashemi, 1989). On a more practical level, outsiders need to think very,carefully. abSSFfRSr^ "potentially violent con-' ,onT^^^ approach favoured by or 'alternative' discussions of empowerment within the development discourse as inadequate or compromised. For example, the Naxalite Maoists in India in the 1960s demonstrated, at an extreme level, the futility of such confrontation in terms of securing long-term change in rural areas (Cassen et al., 1978). Many of the rural fuanplp-wareJ^ff pypn more W^nerable to violent reprisal faring the repression which followed the uprisings. Farming systems research As wehayes^ nas tended to jippjy W^g230SES£S5S55^£^^ *° Problems of poverty while undervaluing or jjjjsre^ajding.lQcalforrr^ an area in which anthropologists are often very interested. Local knowledge, it has_been argued, is often situafedJn__practice and in real situations (P. Richards, 1993). For example, whereas in Bangladesh small-scale fish-fry traders are encouraged by 'expert' outsiders to transport their fish over long distances using expensive and cumbersome oxygen cylinders and plastic bags, one recent anthropological study found that there was little reason why they could not continue to rely on a far more practical, local low-cost solution developed locally over generations, which uses clay or aluminium cooking pots and involves the oxygenation of the water by hand 'splashing' (Lewis et al., 1993). The emergence of farming systems research (FSR) in the late 1970s reflected many of these concerns. FSR focuses on the small farm as a basic system for research and development and attempts to bring about the strong involvement of farmers themselves in every stage of the research and development process (Conway, 1986: 18). The farmer's decision-making is treated as being rational rather than guided, as was often supposed, by ignorance or conservatism. The objective is to improve the relevance and appropriateness of research, and this includes the participation of social scientists alongside biological scientists. FSR is also emphatically holistic, -— — —i\fpinrrjTrp:i:i-W)Ti5 r______.u.c ivsi'tmjuern ^nallenge treating decisions and procedures for one crop within the wider farming systejrwand its economic, social and environmental components.feR^nerefore draws upon a number of anthropological insights inthe way it<|ttejnr^tsJCijiunim asj;umprions^jidj9_un^ jof social, econc^^ The new ejmo^gj^pn indigenous knowledge (wjhat might be termed the(%rmeT^rsp^^roacH: plSmD^rTeTar/jj^ has also encouraged some organisations to a^mpTto work with local or traditional inshtunons instead of creating new ones. Some NGOs have been able to link up with existing people's organisations, with which they can then work in a servicing and advocacy role, strengthening and supporting the development and adaptation of local organisational forms. For example, the Mag-uumad Foundation Inc. (MFI), which works in Cebu in the Philippines, has worked with upland farmers to develop soil and water conservation technologies. Although the approach is relatively labour-intensive in the first few seasons of operation and could therefore be prohibitively costly for farmers, it has been found that work can be undertaken by farmers within the existing framework of alayon reciprocal village work groups. This age-old system jrjas now successfully adapted itself to accommodate this newer form of community labouring (Cerna and Miclat-Teves, 1993) ;< While some NGOs and government agencies have turned FSR into a progressive tool, its terms and concepts have now entered the mainstream, so that it is common to hear many agricultural extension workers and researchers talk of 'farmer participatory research' while retaining essentially top-down approaches. Likewise, ttennsjUej\c^ j/systematised, and reduced to a quasi-scientific schema which J ignoj^sjts widermistemologkal b|jse. Local knowledges cannot j always bel a J ^yejppmenj:£pjan, especially when they spring from quite different cultural contexts from those of the developers./These problems have been raised in a number of critques of the 'farmer first' movement (in particular, see Scoones and Thompson, 1993; 1994). Like many of the new ideas we have discussed, FSR has found favour in some areas of the development mainstream, but usually in a form which conforms to existing paradigms and practices without challenging ftie wider assun^tions and objectives of development. Whether or not this continues to be the case remains to be seen. New Directions 121 Community development Anthropologists and sociologists have long argued that life is not divided neatly into compartments and that the workings of a local economy are inseparable from wider social, political and cultural processes. The concept of community development is central to this integrated approach. Without lengthening local communities, and encouraging them to take a more active role in tKe planning and maintenance of their facilities, the argument goes, strategies for improvement are doomed to.fail. Many projects therefore now involve a_ community development component. One example is recent slum improvement pro ects in India. Here, slum upgrading' (the provision of improved sanitation and houstngJisDeing increasingly integrated with social strategies. Setting up local committees that are responsible for maintaining the improved facilities and planning the future development of their community, the provision of halls or libraries, or the establishment of savings groups to encourage a sense of community are all strategies in recent British projects aimed at integrated sjum improvement projects which have a. strong community development component. cosmeat\graiiiiuiu£as it involves the.....active, participation of the community in the planning stages of the project. One very reaLarea of difficulty is that these approaches rest on a notion Qj^ommunity''1 which any anthropologisjjffliws Js_ by^_definitipn very ^shaky ; ground. Whoor. what constitutes the community? There are bound to be different sets of interests with a range of different needs, different types of power and varying degrees of visibility. Furthermore, its origins can>be traced back to colonial social welfare policies in Africa in the 1940s (Midgley, 1995), and the notion of 'social development' as deployed by development agencies can at times be dangerously close to modernisation-type thought in which communities arejudged, by a variety of ill-defined criteria, to be either more or less developed. Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD) Debates surrounding empowerment share some of their origins with the recognition of the importance of gender issues in development As we have seen, during the 1970s and into the 1980s gender rgj^na were as central in determining 122 Anthropology, Development and the Post-modern Challenge people's access tq: resources and the ways in which they experience development. In this section, we shall consider how some of these debates have been translated into policy within development agencies. A major step towards official acceptance of the need to consider more carefully the relationship between development and gender came in the guise of the UN Decade for Women (1975-85). During this period there were important changes in the ways both policymakers and academics approached gender. Whereas previously both groups had tended to concentrate on 'women' and their domestic reproductive roles, by the mid-1980s policy increasingly emphasised women's employment, income-generation and so on, rather than the provision of weUsr^SOTicej^forJhgm. We ..shall outline these different policy approaches and their relationship to different theoretical positions within development shortly. The UN Decade marked what appeared at first to be a growing institutional commitment to women's issues, although the rationale behind this varied. Prompted partly by the work of yvriters such as Boserup, and also as a reflection of the successes of (feminism in the North, which had enabled a few women to reach managerial positions within aid agencies and had pushed feminist issues on to the political agenda, many^development agencies by, the early 1980s had detenrrined - to "dp something' lor women. For example, in Sweden parliament was subject in the 1970s and 1980s to successful lobbying pressure by Swedish women's organisations for official aid to address specifically women's needs and this became reflected in SIDA's programmes. The United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) also rapidly adopted*the new phrase 'women in development', with the establishment of an Office of Women in Development. Although the meanings of WID are far from fixed, USAID seemed to use it in terms of the potential contribution women could make to the development effort, as a so far untapped resource. Many other institutions followed suit, setting up WID offices or, like the British ODA, building a commitment to women into official policy. Indeed, it is now commonplace for government ministries, NGOs and multilateral agencies to pay lip-service (if nothing else) to the aims of WID, and some donors insist on a WID component in project proposals before they consider funding. The WID approach, however,, tends to focus only on women in isolation, rather than the social, cultural and political relations^of which they are a part. As feminist anthropologists have frequently pointed out, it is gender and not sex which is a^sue^This has led to a shift towards 'gender and development'/ (GAD]) which turns New Directions 123 attention away from women as an isolated category to the wider relations of whicK tHey_arej^part. It should, however, be noted that Ihe^eTrns^are often used interchangeably, and policies all too frequently focus attention only on women, kideed, despite the energy and resources directed at gender issues, J^P7£AD still frequenti^ 'aad-oh' to mainstream policy (Moser, WID/GAD approaches are far from homogeneous. In her account of WID projects, Caroline Moser outlines five main approaches, each associated with a distinct developmental philosophy (1989: 1799-825). While we must beware of over-schematising affairs (for example, policies and projects often involve a variety of assumptions and approaches), this clearly indicates the range of responses to gender issues within development practice. A^welfare^type project, for example, is linked to charitable notions of .'doing goprd' for women an^cruldren"fflcr"ihvcUves' the top-down provision of services and goods for beneficiaries, wifequ^demanding any return qnjheir^behalf. While this approach was common in the 1960s and early 1970s, with the growing influence of feminism as the 1970s unfolded, notions of 'equity' increaslnSy™gained" swlr^m^ome development circles. These aimed at boosting the rights and power oi women within developing countries, again usually through top-clown change intervention and so on. ""gather approagj- which gained popularity in the 1970s and (198CK is^^a^l^nypeTtyVin which poverty is recognised as women's maln^probTemT'This was cIosely~aHied ~To~~the 'basic needs' movement, which hadJaken off during the 1970s. Solutions include (fincome-gj^fatibn j^jecfe^k^jge^^ These strategies are~o?ten identical to those advocated by the 'efficiency approach', but their undej^jng_r^losqphy is fundamentally different. Efficiency was central to much developmental philosophy during the 1980s, in line with the dominant political ideologies of the time. Accordingly, women.were targets of development projects qnly, because^ me, cej^allty .o£..tE&..productivg contribution was r^c^gnjge^d. If projects aimed to improve recipients' well-being, , rather than being based in notions of welfare or universal human rights, the ujig^riying^r^^ increase their efficiency in the procfuctive process and thus add to capitalist groyyth'., OT^r&Se^roaches assume that^ange is initiated first and ioremost fern^thi"outside,r through . donor-led policies and Pla^igT^well as being fundamer^y.^ have. akTbTen SSfcEFuSte antics are -----r.,n * 1 unu trie ijost-moaern Challenge Southern women, who argue that discourses of WID/GAD reflect the preoccupations and assumptions of Western feminists rather than the women they purport to be representing and assisting. Indeed, by homogenising all Third World' women (in concepts interests of women in vastly different cultural, economic and litiral rnnrpvtc m-*^ — -1 1----41 ' dire i^fs^^^^'^6 °f ^^Jwpi^fWhite; Anomej^dSmlmade o^D^GSSapproaches is that they societies, seeing only exploitation, subordination and conflict, whereas the women concerned ™gh^uJmore Kh needs to examine $yhat happens 'on the ground', over many years/) ,In whose hands does powers aware, this is not an easy question to answer; it requires consid- f-erably more research and is an area in which anthropologists 1 of development potentially have much to contribute. The out- \ come of developmental work is also affected by factors outside the jj control of developers.^Itls'tnus too sim^é~áIw^ys"to argue thaFthei \ ^abrnmáht'"developm discourse has once again^ucceeded in) ! neutralising radical alternatives. jFor exampleT"Soutnern gwern- fc merits may actio'c.uj^^e^ch'viiies of NGOs funded by Northern I (p. a shift towards gena -------r New Directions t. ''• aid agencies if their work is too threatening to local power relations, j Likewise, projects which attempt to increase the status of women ^ 1 may be unintentionally scuppered by inattention to the complexities of local gender relations. This may be the result of misinformation : and bad practice, but does not necessarily indicate an international \' conspiracy of patriarchy. I; ^tW^chapter^we have therefore suggested that processes are I. working in "several directions at'once - botK towards arid against I §\ang"e. At tirnes'and m"someWays'^ \ power*relations it involves are maintained; at other times, in other j ways, they are challenged and slowly transformed. In the next | chapter we examine in more detail the actual processes which take [ place in the machinery of development both to repress and neutralise challenges and - slowly - to adapt to new ideas and alter- ■ natives. ' i