Anthropology of development

The anthropology of development is a term applied to a body of anthropological work which views development from a critical perspective. The kind of issues addressed, and implications for the approach typically adopted can be gleaned from a list questions posed by Gow (1996). These questions involve anthropologists asking why, if a key development goal is to alleviate poverty, is poverty increasing? Why is there such a gap between plans and outcomes? Why are those working in development so willing to disregard history and the lessons it might offer? Why is development so externally driven rather than having an internal basis? In short, why is there such a lack of planned development?

This anthropology of development has been distinguished from development anthropology.[1][2] Development anthropology refers to the application of anthropological perspectives to the multidisciplinary branch of development studies. It takes international development and international aid as primary objects. In this branch of anthropology, the term development refers to the social action made by different agents (institutions, business, enterprise, states, independent volunteers) who are trying to modify the economic, technical, political or/and social life of a given place in the world, especially in impoverished, formerly colonized regions.

Development anthropologists share a commitment to simultaneously critique and contribute to projects and institutions that create and administer Western projects that seek to improve the economic well-being of the most marginalized, and to eliminate poverty. While some theorists distinguish between the 'anthropology of development' (in which development is the object of study) and development anthropology (as an applied practice), this distinction is increasingly thought of as obsolete.[3]

  1. ^ Gow, David D. (1996) Review: The Anthropology of Development: Discourse, Agency, and Culture Reviewed work: An Anthropological Critique of Development: The Growth of Ignorance by Mark Hobart and Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World by Arturo Escobar, Anthropological Quarterly Vol. 69, No. 3, Healing and the Body Politic: Dilemmas of Doctoring in Ethnographic Fieldwork, Jul., pp. 165-173
  2. ^ Edelman, Marc, and Angelique Haugerud. (2005). The anthropology of development and globalization: from classical political economy to contemporary neoliberalism. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Pub.
  3. ^ Edelman, Marc, and Angelique Haugerud. (2005). The anthropology of development and globalization: from classical political economy to contemporary neoliberalism. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Pub, page 40

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