Culture and Development Lecture 3

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Culture and DevelopmentLecture 3

• NGO Culture and Cultures of Consultancies

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Review of Lecture 2 Topics

• 1) The cultural underpinnings of the idea of
  development (especially the idea of progress)
• 2) The implications of these ideas for
  development practice
• 3) How scholars like Weber and Geertz have
  theorised the relationship between economic and
  social change

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Review of Lecture 2 Case Study
Development as Universal Progress

• Undeveloped
• Traditional
• Unclothed
• Poor
• Pre-industrial

Developed Modern Clothed Rich Industrial
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Review of Lecture 2 Questions

• What is the relationship between economic and
  social change?
• Is economic development a consequence of cultural
  change?
• Is cultural change a consequence of economic
  development?
• What cultural ideas and social conditions precede
  economic take off and how do these differ in
  different societies?

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Week 3NGO Culture and Cultures of Consultancies
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Lecture 3 Questions

• What (cultural) ideas inform the way development
  consultants work?
• Does Marcel Mauss theory of The Gift help shed
  new light on the relationship between donors and
  recipients?
• How does development seen as a Gift make
  humanitarian aid or charitable giving a problem
  for both donors and recipients and what is to
  be done about it?

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Lecture 3 Overview

• Marcel Mauss, and the theory of the Gift
• Development practitioners, and cultures of
  consultancy
• Is development a Gift? If it is, what are the
  implications of that for the relationship between
  donors and recipients?

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Mauss Theory of The Gift
Marcel Mauss (1872-1950)
The Gift (1925)
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Mauss Theory of The Gift

• Gift exchange is serious business.
• Elementary morality of reciprocity.
• Three types of gift obligation to give, to
  receive, to repay.
• A gift, once given, retains something of the
  givers essence

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The Problem of The Gift

• Gifts are supposed to be freely and selflessly
  given.
• There is no such thing as a free gift.
• Gifts set up relationships of obligation.
• Once a gift is received, it must be reciprocated.
• Gifts are vehicles of social and moral projects
  in our relations with other people.

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Three Points on Reciprocity

• Why , when someone gives us a present do we feel
  compelled to make a return gift?
• Because the gift contains something (the
  spirit) of the giver
• The principle of giving and returning gifts is
  the means to establish and maintain social
  relations it is the basis of social life

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• Development Anthropology
• versus
• The Anthropology of Development
• Whats the difference?

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Anthropology and DevelopmentTwo approaches

• Development anthropology
• How can anthropologists contribute to development
  to help make it more effective/successful?

• Anthropology of development
• What ideas and preconceptions inform the way the
  development industry is organised?

• Focus on the development industry (consultants,
  NGOs etc)
• Anthropological (relativist) view of culture
• Academic exercise, but has practical application

• Focus on beneficiaries (poor)
• Local knowledge of specific cultures
• Growth industry
• Practical application

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The Exotic Other (Part 1)
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The Exotic Other (Part 2)
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Cultures of Consultancies
Stirrat, R.L. 2000. Cultures of Consultancy
Critique of Anthropology 20(1)31-46.

• Temporary (short term) contracts (a week to a
  couple of months work) given to specialists
  (economists, anthropologists, agronomists, health
  specialists, engineers)
• Produce an output (report) that feeds back into
  the development process
• Stirrat argues that consultancy work is judged
  far more on aesthetics than on impact

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Cultures of Consultancies Contd
Stirrat, R.L. 2000. Cultures of Consultancy
Critique of Anthropology 20(1)31-46.

• Specific issue requires rational response
• Checklists define problems, questions, etc.
• The report must be structured in a particular way
  (chapter headings, guidance on content, etc.)
• Work not judged on quality or practicability of
  advice given, but on aesthetic norms

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Two Central Assumptions

• Assumption 1
• There is an objectively knowable world which is
  understandable through the application of
  rational thought
• Assumption 2
• Elements in the objective world are
  systematically related (cause and effect)

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Cultures of Consultancies Contd
Stirrat, R.L. 2000. Cultures of Consultancy
Critique of Anthropology 20(1)31-46.

• Human ability to understand and control the world
• Shared commitment to this vision allows
  development consultants to work together
• Contrast between rational, objective, truth that
  consultants have and irrational, non-objective
  culture of everyone else

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Example 1 Participation

• Use of maps, diagrams, charts etc.
• Specific organisational forms
• To what extent is this accultural, and to what
  extent does it reflect and reproduce a western
  viewpoint?

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Example 2 Local knowledge

• Move to downplay expert knowledge and promote
  local knowledge in its place bottom-up instead
  of top-down development
• Implicit value judgment about knowledge!
• Good local knowledge is that which can be seen
  to have instrumental benefits
• Bad local knowledge is that which appears to
  have no instrumental benefits ? consigned to the
  dustbin as superstition

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Civil Society

• Why are so many people attracted to the idea of a
  vibrant civil society?
• What do we mean by civil society?
• What is its relation to other areas of life?

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Uses of Term Civil Society

• Slogan (opposition to the state)
• Analytic term (with concrete referents)
• Normative concept (distinctive vision of a
  desirable social order)
• What will that desirable order look like?

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Assumptions about Civil Society

• Civil society mediates between selfish goals of
  individuals and collective solidarity of moral
  community
• Yet, the idea of the moral collective has been
  largely replaced by citizenship and individual
  rights
• Is civil society a response to the demise of the
  moral community an attempt to reassert and
  activate collective values?

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Civil Society and Development A match made
in heaven?

• Optimistic view of civic groups, NGOs,
  international organisations etc.
• Good way to organise development and society
  (especially in the south)
• Proliferation of civil society entirely
  beneficial (the more NGOs the better)
• Diffusion of power power to the people!

Read Cooley, A. and J. Ron, 2002. The NGO
Scramble. International Security 27(1)5-39.
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Competition within Civil Society
Cooley, A. and J. Ron. 2002. The NGO Scramble.
International Security 27(1)5-39.

• There is a problem in civil society
  (proliferation of NGOs and IOs, increasing
  marketisation of development)
• Market generated pressures lead to competition
  between bidders
• To compete successfully they must downplay or
  hide problems and failures

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The Ideology of The Gift

• First, that gifts should be given without
  calculation or expectation of return they should
  be given out of pure generosity or perfect love.
• Yet there is no such thing as a free gift!
  Reciprocity is expected when a gift is given.
• This expectation of reciprocity is what makes
  gift exchange so important it ties people
  together in relationships of obligation.

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The Problem of Charitable Giving
Stirrat, R.L. and H. Henkel. 1997. The
Development Gift the problem of reciprocity in
the NGO world. Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science 554 66-80.

• The motive in giving may be pure and unselfish
• Yet the act of giving establishes a link between
  giver and receiver
• What is the nature of that link? It is often a
  relationship of unequal power

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Development as Gift Giving?
Stirrat, R.L. and H. Henkel. 1997. The
Development Gift the problem of reciprocity in
the NGO world. Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science 554 66-80.

• What starts off as a pure gift, an act of
  seemingly disinterested giving, morally and
  ethically divorced from the mundane world,
  becomes in the end an object or service entwined
  in the mundane and interested world. Furthermore,
  in the course of its journey, the gift creates a
  series of problematic relations, frequently
  ambiguous in terms of their meaning, and often
  paradoxical in terms of their implications.

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The Donor-Recipient Relationship

• The gift of development (e.g., humanitarian
  aid, NGO-driven development projects) cannot be
  reciprocated by the beneficiaries.
• Yet, because the development gift cannot be
  reciprocated, recipients are locked into a
  passive role
• Resentment, distrust, and feelings of further
  impoverishment

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Example of the Development Gift An Indian
village in Ecuador

• Lentz, C. 1988. Why the most incompetent are on
  the village council. Sociologia Ruralis
  28(2/3)199-215.

• Deep cynicism among local people about the
  motives of outsiders who come to help
• How do we react when we learn that our money, our
  desire to help is not wanted?
• What are our motivations as development workers
  (whether as consultants, NGOs, academics, and so
  on)?

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Example of the Development Gift An Indian
village in Ecuador

• Lentz, C. 1988. Why the most incompetent are on
  the village council. Sociologia Ruralis
  28(2/3)199-215.

The whites come here although we havent asked
them to. They talk to us about our poverty and
underdevelopment. Sometimes they take photos and
finally they figure out some project and apply
for money in our name. They receive millions and
keep them. We only see a minimal part of that
money. We are sick of all that business and
dont need anybody else around here.
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Summary of Anthropology and Development Two
Approaches

• Anthropologists use their understandings of
  culture to engage with development

1) In an instrumental way to try to improve the
development process (development anthropology) 2)
In a more critical way to try to understand the
culture and ideas that inform the development
process (anthropology of development)
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Summary of Consultants and NGOs

• How do we understand the cultural ideas
  consultants bring to the development arena?
• NGOs Why do we tend to see them as positive? Is
  this warranted?
• What is the nature of the relationship between
  donors and recipients?
• Does Mauss theory of The Gift reveal anything
  new about the kinds of relationships that are
  created by development encounters?