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- Convenors:
-
Astrid Jamar
(The Open University )
Stephanie Ketterer Hobbis (Wageningen University)
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- Formats:
- Papers
- Stream:
- Interrogating development through stories and experiences
- Location:
- Library, Seminar Room 1
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 19 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel critically thinks through the role of aid objects such as billboards, pamphlets, policy documents, humanitarian kits or medicines in development and asks how an analytical focus on aid objects allows for rethinking knowledge hierarchies and power differentials.
Long Abstract:
Building on recent trends in anthropological theory that emphasize the analytical benefits of Thinking through Things (Henare, Holbraad and Wastell 2006; also Latour 1992; Escobar 2018) this panel seeks to think through "aid objects" to open up new perspectives on development. This artefact-oriented approach highlights how interactions between humans and non-humans shape development and, crucially, how gaps are created between the envisioned (imagined) and eventual performance of aid objects and associated programmes.
Lisa Smirl and others already demonstrated how this approach reveals the unintended effects of "hidden aid objects" (e.g. hotels and SUVs) that primarily serve to facilitate the work of development professionals. In comparison, we are especially (but not solely) interested in "hyper-visible aid objects" such as billboards, pamphlets, posters, policy documents, humanitarian kits, tents and even seeds and medicines, artefacts that are explicitly designed to achieve development goals and/or to advertise the contributions of donors. Despite, or perhaps because of, their hyper-visible omnipresence, the material turn in development has largely overlooked these artefacts.
We invite papers that (1) take these aid objects seriously by examining "how they present themselves, rather than immediate assuming that they signify, represent, or stand for something else" (Henare, Holbraad and Wastell 2006, 3), that (2) address processes through which development professionals and/or alleged 'beneficiaries' envision and uses these objects; (3) that discuss what this means for knowledge production, dissemination and hierarchies in development. How can thinking through aid objects open up new venues for de-colonizing and addressing power inequalities in development theory and practice?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 19 June, 2019, -Paper short abstract:
Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya, this paper argues that the conditions of the fortified humanitarian compound common to many disaster areas shape relationships between the aid worker and colleagues, 'beneficiaries', family and loved ones.
Paper long abstract:
Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Kenya, this paper proposes that the conditions of the fortified humanitarian compound common to many disaster areas shape how aid workers interact with the outside world.
Focusing on national and international staff working for humanitarian agencies in Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya, I will argue that the humanitarian compound and its related policies have evolved from a security narrative that emphasises the dangers of the aid environment. The compound serves to increase the social and spatial distance between aid giver and aid receiver, whilst also creating close bonds between aid agency staff who are largely confined within this infrastructure. The rules of the compound impose specific restrictions on what sorts of relationships are acceptable and which are not - with family life largely written out of policy and practice. This has implications for how men and women, and staff from the global north and global south, navigate their social lives and career aspirations.
In a situation where many everyday norms governing human interaction don't apply, there emerges a culture of permissibility regarding particular social relations, including extra-marital affairs and the use of sex workers. The paper argues that the humanitarian compound and its associated objects and working practices provide a space for both escapism and isolation, and that behaviour is shaped by an aid worker's socio-economic circumstances, by their status of 'national' or 'international' staff, and by gender and race.
Paper short abstract:
Based on fieldwork in South Indian villages, the paper demonstrates the way use of hybrid seeds is 'transforming' farmers' society by breaking down the traditional knowledge system. On another hand use of hybrid seeds is maintaining the existing social and economic hierarchies among the farmers.
Paper long abstract:
The paper argues that the development aid in the form of subsidised hybrid seeds of rice distributed by the agricultural extension service providers not only diminishes the traditional knowledge system but also affects the traditional community practices around the seeds among the farmers. However, the new relationship constructed among the farmers around the use of hybrid seeds not necessarily break down the existing social and economic hierarchy among the farmers. Rather we find that capital and knowledge required for the use of hybrid seeds reinforces the existing social and economic hierarchies among the farmers. In this way, hybrid seeds are 'transforming' society on the one hand and also strengthening existing hierarchies among the farmers. The study based on fieldwork carried out in the villages of South India in Mandya district in Karnataka. I used a qualitative approach to understand the way development aid objects such as hybrid seeds shape the relationship among the farmers in the region.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores dairy dwvelopment as a 'programme of action' (Latour 1992), comparing paradigm shifts within an NGO's work donors and 'beneficiaries'. It suggests that focussing on materiality can help to reinvigorate the interrogation of development hierarchies
Paper long abstract:
Dairy cows are lauded as an appropriate technology that can transform the lives of Tanzanian smallholder farmers. In Rungwe District, these cows have become near ubiquitous in some areas. This paper looks at the processes through which am NGO promoting dairy development has achieved such success. It focusses on the introduction of these cows as a 'programme of action' (Latour 1992) in which a series of paradigm shifts are needed to further the innovation, and through which it is transformed. The supposed 'beneficiaries' have remade dairy development as they have enabled it. The NGO rely on another group in order to instantiate their programmes: and they have proved extremely popular with US donors. Sourcing money,through a distinct set of paradigm shifts, is a second'programme of action' for the NGO. Through it they 'concretise' compassion (Feldman 2011) and fund the purchase of cows and their ongoing operations. But attention to materials, and to processes, shows that donor preferences are not forced on 'beneficiaries', and is the reverse allowed. The programmes of action diverge through the paradigm shifts I note. In tracing this divergence and comparing the efficacy of these processes I propose a method of interrogating development hierarchies that is grounded in materiality.