Paper short abstract:

This contribution discusses the value of phenomenology-informed approaches for studying the traces of development interventions. Such approaches can help to honour the site-specificity of such interventions and bridge (temporal) gaps between prospective planning and lived reality.

Paper long abstract:

In development-related research, little attention is paid to phenomenological approaches. One explanation for the omission is that phenomenology represents something of an antithesis to development: while development is a forward-looking, pragmatic field preoccupied with the application of grand schemes along (largely predetermined) objectives, phenomenology “is the scientific study of experience. It is an attempt to describe human consciousness in its lived immediacy, before it is subject to theoretical elaboration or conceptual systematizing” (Jackson 1996a, 2). Applied to development, phenomenology invites us to ‘bracket’ top-down scripts and immerse in everyday lived experience. While development only engages with material culture for its utility, phenomenological research assumes the ‘constitutive coingredience’ of humans and their environment (Casey 2001, 684). Rather than talking about development, such scholarship would recognize the multifaceted impact of the ongoing, in-situ concreteness of development’s lingering legacies both tangible and intangible.

Drawing on the work of phenomenology-inspired thinkers (notably Tim Ingold), this contribution will discuss phenomenology-informed research into the traces of development: ruinations, reappropirations, contested legacies, etc. Such approaches, I will argue, are especially useful for concretizing the temporal disjunctures between prospective planning and lived reality, and for bridging such gaps. I will emphasize the value of such approaches not only for researchers (e.g., through walking interviews) but also for activists wishing to draw attention to the ongoing, often unintended consequences of development interventions (e.g., through soundwalks).

This contribution is presented in the context of ongoing ERC Starting Grant project AfDevLives, and will offer illustrations from fieldwork in Eastern Africa.