Anthropology for Development: From Theory to Practice connects cross-cultural social theory with the concerns of development policy and practice. It introduces the reader to a set of key ideas from the field of anthropology of development, and shows how these insights can be applied to solve real-world development dilemmas.
This single, accessibly written volume clearly explains key concepts from anthropology and draws them into a framework to address some of the important challenges facing development policy and practice in the twenty-first century: poverty, participation, sustainability and innovation. It discusses classic critical and ethnographic texts and more recent anthropological work, using rich case studies across a range of country contexts to provide an introduction to the field not available elsewhere. The examples presented are designed to help development professionals reframe their practice with attention to social and cultural variables as well as understand why mainstream approaches to reducing poverty, raising productivity, delivering social services and grappling with environmental risks often fail.
This book will prove invaluable to undergraduate and postgraduate students who are professionals-in-training in development studies programs around the world. It will also help development professionals work effectively and inclusively across cultures, tap into previously invisible resources, and turn current development challenges into opportunities.
Table of Contents:
List of Figures
List of Boxes
INTRODUCTION
Doing development
Many developments
Success and failure
Change and continuity
Development in social context
Development actors
Economics and beyond
Policy in context?
An anthropological approach
About anthropology
Anthropology of development
Applying anthropology in development work
Aims of this book
CHAPTER ONE: ANTHROPOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT IN THEORY
Development in context
Anthropologists and development
Development up close
Anthropologists in development work
Development actors: the people in the process
Actors on the margins
Anthropologists as development actors
Developers as social actors
Development knowledges: what people know
The idea of development
Indigenous knowledges
Development logics
Development institutions: what people do
Culture and institutions
Institutions and development
Institutions across cultures
Summary: Understanding development
CHAPTER TWO: ANTHROPOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT IN PRACTICE
Stories of change on the ground
Grassroots actors
Invisible knowledges
Institutions and power
Learning from change on the ground
Stories of development practice
Actors in development practice
Knowledge for development
Old institutions and new
Learning from development practice
Summary: Lessons for practice
CHAPTER THREE: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE
Framing and reframing development
The dominant framework: Problems, targets, solutions
An anthropological framework: contexts, actors, and resources
The development landscape
Development in context
Unpacking actors
Knowledges and logics
Institutions and change
Summary: Doing development anthropologically
CHAPTER FOUR: APPLYING THE FRAMEWORK: TOOLS AND APPROACHES
Assessment tools: Understanding contexts
Tools for desktop assessment
Tools for assessment workshops
Community-based assessment tools
Design tools: Crafting actions for change
Visioning and planning tools
Resourcing tools
Implementation tools: Life on the development landscape
Participatory governance tools
Participatory management tools
Evaluation tools: Learning and accountability
Practice learning tools
Accountability tools
Tools for reflexive practice
Working with anthropologists
Summary: Tools and their uses
CHAPTER FIVE: ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES
A recipe for effectiveness?
Poverty as a verb
From participation to recognition
The challenge of sustainability
Summary: From challenges to opportunities?
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSIONS: USING ANTHROPOLOGY IN DEVELOPMENT WORK
Lesson One: Development abhors a vacuum
Lesson Two: Development is always about people
Lesson Three: Reframing is the key to change
Anthropology for development, toward the future
FURTHER READING
Development case studies – useful collections
Ethnographies of local economic development
Unpacking the idea of development
Anthropology of / for practice
REFERENCES
INDEX
About the Author :
Robyn Eversole is Professor with the Centre for Social Impact, based at Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia.
Review :
"Using the tools and concepts of anthropology, Robyn Eversole provides a map of the development process as it really is. Practitioners and students learn how to recognize and respond to the needs of diverse communities while also juggling the complex dilemma of how to obtain and use scarce resources. This is a clear, concise and critical book which reinforces the fact that all development must be a collaboration within a specific context. It’s the book I needed while teaching and doing development!" - Jeanne Simonelli, Professor Emerita, Wake Forest University and SUNY-Oneonta, US.
"A welcome book that gives a straightforward account of what anthropology has to offer in development contexts. Those of us from the discipline, largely ignored until relatively recently, have long argued that it has much to offer with respect to the cross-cultural challenges faced by development programmes. This book puts the argument clearly, and is particularly useful in giving an update on current issues, with development being a field that features rapid change." - Paul Sillitoe, Professor of Anthropology, Durham University, UK.
