Development refers to the strategies which aim to transfer resources and assistance from the world’s economically richer nations to poorer nations. This transfer can occur either directly (known as bilateral aid – eg the UK government’s Department for International Development) or indirectly (known as multilateral aid – eg the UN’s various agencies like the Food and Agriculture Organisation). Development is a somewhat unhappy notion because it implies improvement, which is not always the experience of those subjected to economic development programmes. Anthropologists have demonstrated how technological and economic innovations invariably bring other changes in their train, which may not be perceived by all those caught up in them, in the short-term at least, as desirable or in their interests. Distressing social consequences of development can more than cancel out any material benefits. The disturbance and bewilderment experienced by people when changes proceed swiftly have been well documented by anthropologists.
The realisation that development programmes have been responsible for undesirable and unsustainable change, often involving a considerable waste of resources, has promoted a fundamental re-think of the very idea of development. Previously, governments and international agencies imposed interventions on the so-called ignorant poor who were thought to demand modernisation. Economists, technocrats and policymakers dominated this process and anthropology had scarcely any meaningful part to play other than as critic of the sometimes devastating consequences. The field of applied anthropology was marginal to the carrying out of these programmes. Today, development agencies are increasingly interested in facilitating initiatives which promote the participation of the poor and, with the assistance of anthropologists, are paying closer attention to indigenous systems of knowledge and understanding. Non-government organisations have played a prominent part in promoting this grass-roots perspective. It is a perspective which offers anthropology a central role in development practice.
Text written by Professor Paul Sillitoe
Postgraduate programmes in the UK
School of Oriental and African Studies
Recommended Resources
Film
The following trailer is for The Water Goddess and the Computer, a film distributed by the RAI Film.
The Water Goddess and the Computer
Directors André Singer and Steven Lansing
Location Indonesia
Released 1989
Length 58 minutes
The film demonstrates how in Bali, development projects can threaten a carefully balanced ecological irrigation system that is maintained by temple priests. A biologist and an anthropologist look at the traditional irrigation system and show through the use of a computer how it works. They then present the computer system to the temple priests as an aid to explore the effect of changes in the traditional irrigation system.
RAI Film is the Film section of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI). Their Ethnographic Film Catalogue is an extensive ethnographic film catalogue (over 600 titles) that are variously available to purchase as DVDs, personal rent on demand (Vimeo VOD), and accessible to institutions via our online streaming partners for educational and academic purposes. The following films are examples of anthropology of development: Calcutta Calling, Depending on Heaven, Between Two Villages, Reclaiming the Forest, The Kapayo: Out of the Forest, The Carrot and the Stick, Letter to the Dead, Since the Company Came.
General
https://r4d.org/ – an open access portal containing information about research programmes supported by the DFID.
http://www.kiwanja.net – an organisation which aims to combine technology, anthropology, conservation and development.
Books
Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems 6th Edition
Bodley, H.J. (AltaMira Press, 2012)
Differentiating Development : Beyond an Anthropology of Critique
Venkatesan, S. and Yarrow, T.(Eds.) (Berghahn Books,2012)
The Aid Effect: Giving and governing in International Development
Mosse, D. and D. Lewis (Eds.) (Pluto Press, 2005)
Articles & Online Journals
https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/165717 – a working paper from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Helinski on the Cultural process of Development.
Radio
Visit our Anthropology on the Radio webpage for radio programmes on Anthropology of Development.
Professional Organisations, Groups & Associations
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office – the part of the UK government that manages Britain’s aid to developing countries and works to eliminate extreme poverty.
Overseas Development Institute – ODI is Britain’s leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues.
