Participatory Development and the Appropriation of Agency in Southern Tanzania

Abstract

Ideologies of participatory development promoted by development organizations in Tanzania are at odds with popular aspirations. Popular understandings of development emphasize individual achievement in a context of social differentiation, in what amounts to a recognition of the importance of individual agency in bringing about social transformation. Despite the claims of participatory development ideologies to foster the empowerment of the poor, the interventions it promotes are premised on a denial of poor people’s capacity to bring about change for themselves. Agency can only be effected through the imposed institutional structures for participation.

The Depoliticisation of Development and the Democratisation of Politics in Tanzania: Parallel Structures as Obstacles to Delivering Services to the Poor

“…At the same time, the methodology most often entails external facilitators -as in the Tanzania Social Action Fund. The use of external facilitators reveals that, despite the rhetoric, people are not judged to be fully capable of leading their own development after all (Green, 2000). Moreover, local understandings of 'development' may be quite different from the version propagated by development agencies.…”

L’hôpital comme espace de circulation d’une norme globalisée

“…Comme cela a été souligné dans d'autres contextes, au niveau des organisations internationales la participation est avant tout synonyme d'empowerment (Green 2000 ;Morgan 2001 ;Marsland 2006). Ce concept anglo-saxon en vogue -qui n'a pas réellement de traduction en français -, signifie littéralement « renforcer ou acquérir du pouvoir ».…”

“…La participation des patients s'inscrit dans la continuité de ces initiatives. Or, trente années de littérature sur ces initiatives -considérées ici sous le terme large de participation -montrent qu'elles recouvrent une multiplicité de significations (Green 2000 ;Morgan 2001) Nous proposons dans cet article de rendre compte des significations locales de cette norme globalisée (la participation des patients) qui circule dans le contexte hospitalier au Cambodge. Après avoir décrit la manière dont les promoteurs perçoivent la participation et clarifié l'approche qui se diffuse à travers le monde par les organisations internationales, nous rendrons compte des représentations et des usages de cette norme par le personnel hospitalier et les experts profanes 4 .…”

Community development in Ok Tedi, Papua New Guinea: the role of anthropology in the extractive industries

“…In this regard, local constructions of development also echo the standard institutional definitions 84 Paul Gilbert 15 Compare Pigg (1992) on bikās in Nepalese national development policy, which frames villagers lacking bikās as backward and problematic, but structures a desire among villagers to have "more bikās" (1992:505-507), which can be indexed by no longer having to carry heavy loads. See also Gardner and Lewis (2000:17) on development as unnoti, desired by Bangladeshi rich and poor alike; Green (2000) on msaada in Tanzania, involving a desire for personal improvement not concordant with the desires of development workers; Orlove of development as progress-oriented planned change leading to improvements in education, healthcare and utility provision (Pigg 1992:496;Grillo 1997). Yet simply treating these answers as stereotypical adoptions of modernization discourse, and thus as unhelpful (e.g.…”