Making Development Anthropology More Public: A Study of Displacement and Resettlement by the World B
MAY 16, 2018
by KATALINA KHOURY
Development anthropologists embody a niche existence that is not always easy to navigate. There are naysayers and antagonists to the discipline on all sides of the political field; the hegemonic scientific and economic communities overwhelmingly discount the value of social science and the knowledge it generates; and policymakers often do not prioritize development issues. Development anthropologists have not only had to learn and adopt much of the language, presumptions, and social constructs of its audiences and interlocutors, but have also had to make problematic compromises working with a broken system in order to make small advancements in society. In other words, challenging the prevailing paradigm of development work is an “up-hill battle.” This struggle to impart positive social change from the unique perspective of and position as a development anthropologist is heightened by the fact that institutions and people with socio-economic power (in academia, within development agencies, Governments, etc.) disagree about what actions and policies are ethical, would enable human progress, and are practical. In addition, those with socio-economic power advance their own ideologies of what these three conditions entail and mean, so that they continue to profit economically, or to maintain a position of dominance.
But, what are these elusive institutions and who are these people with socio-economic power? In 1972, anthropologist, Laura Nader, popularized the term “studying up,” which pushed the discipline to reinvent itself. No longer ought the subject(s) of anthropological inquiry and study be the exotic, the paternalistically called “primitives,” and the powerless; instead, anthropologists were to study the familiar and the powerful. Institutions, people, and structuresof power became the subject(s) of a newly developing form of cultural anthropology: applied, or public, anthropology. This sub-discipline rejects anthropology’s apolitical history and futile attempt at objectivity, for a militantly political praxis. The point of anthropological work is no longer merely to study culture and human development, but to change it…for the sake of equity, human rights, and informed human progress. Ethnography, as an empirical science, is therefore used to investigate nodes and structures of power and what can be done to improve equity between individuals in terms of livelihood standards (e.g., health, access to healthcare, food security, housing, income, etc.).
Development anthropology can be a taboo subject, because outsiders to the discipline are not aware of this turn in the discipline’s history and its newfound objective and purpose. Even some anthropologists are weary of development anthropology, because they do not understand and trust its strategies and tactics. They accuse its affiliates of “selling out,” if you will, of engaging with a broken system that continues to serve those already with socio-economic power and of reestablishing the exploitative anthropological practices of the not-so-distant past. Theoretically, the existing literature on development-caused forced displacement and resettlement(DFDR), for example, has extensively posited the question, “Development for Whom?” (see Mahapatra 1991), which reevaluates who actually profits, and who disproportionally suffers, from development projects; however, in practice, development scholars have only their intellectual weapons with which they can arm themselves to convince those with socio-economic power to relinquish it for the sake of equity and human rights.
Development scholars have indeed had to make complex choices, with dire implications, for the limited societal advancements that they have achieved. This is because despite the “lessons learned” and advocated by development scholars, which emphasize risk assessment and prevention (see Cernea 1997), many development projects cause the involuntary displacement and resettlement of indigenous people. Development projects furthermore cause “new poverty,” primarily by externalizing the costs of DFDR on those uprooted (see Chen 2018). For example, development practitioners widely assert that restoring people to pre-displacement livelihood levels via compensation is a sufficient goal. However, if a development project in question had not existed, the displaced and resettled population would have developed itself to a level much significantly higher on its own during the 8-9 years of average project preparation and implementation.
More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/16/making-development-anthropology-more-public-a-study-of-displacement-and-resettlement-by-the-world-bank/
