UNDERSTANDINGS OF ‘DEVELOPMENT’: AN ARENA OF STRUGGLE: The story of a development project in Zambia

External support to local institutions: providing political leverage to weaker groups, or sustaining traditional relations of power?

“…On the contrary, such institutions open up new arenas for contestation, rivalry and positioning. Often old rivalries are sharpened and fought out and new alliances or power constellations may be formed, challenging old-established social positions of control and power (Bierschenk 1988;Crehan and Von Oppen 1988;Elwert and Bierschenk 1988).…”

“…3 This article is based on the assumption that externally supported institutions open new 'arenas' for struggle over resources (see, e.g., Bierschenk 1988;Crehan and Von Oppen 1988;Elwert and Bierschenk 1988;IBRD 1996). In this context the concept of an arena refers to 'social locations or situations in which contests over issues, resources, values and representations take place.…”

“…It is characterized by the relative abundance of economic resources, which enables struggles over both economic and symbolic resources (Bierschenk 1988;Crehan and Von Oppen 1988;Elwert and Bierschenk 1988).…”

Clearing the ground in the Spatial Development Initiatives (SDIs): Analysing 'process' on South Africa's Wild Coast

“…Thus, project implementation becomes less of a planned programme, but more of a constant process of negotiation between social actors who have their own respective 'projects'. A similar view is offered by Crehan & Von Oppen (1988), who argue that development projects should not be seen only in terms of the goals and their achievement or non-achievement, but rather as a social event and an arena of struggle between different groups with diverse interests. While the role of the outsider (the development agent) may be in uential, it is not the only role.…”

The politics of development: anthropological perspectives

“…The notion of interface was intended to enrich or supplant the mechanical understanding of development as the introduction of a technological innovation with a more nuanced and politicized analytic. Development projects could no longer be seen as orderly, linear processes of technological adoption or adaptation, but were now cast in quasi-military metaphors, as 'arenas' (Crehan & von Oppen 1988) or 'battlefields' (Long & Long 1992).…”