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Today there is a preoccupation among development agencies and researchers with getting policy right; with exerting influence over policy, linking research to policy and with implementing policy around the world. But what if development practice is not driven by policy at all? Suppose that the things that make for 'good policy' - policy which legitimises and mobilises political support - in reality make it impractical and impossible to implement? By focusing in detail on the activities of a development project in tribal western India over more than ten years as it falls under different policy regimes, this book takes a close look at the relationship between policy and practice in development. David Mosse shows how the actions of development workers are shaped by the exigencies of organisations and the need to maintain relationships rather than by policy. Raising unfamiliar questions, Mosse provides a rare self-critical reflection on practice, while refusing to endorse current post-modern dismissal of development.
Today there is a preoccupation among development agencies and researchers with getting policy right; with exerting influence over policy, linking research to policy and with implementing policy around the world. But what if development practice is not driven by policy at all? Suppose that the things that make for 'good policy' - policy which legitimises and mobilises political support - in reality make it impractical and impossible to implement? By focusing in detail on the activities of a development project in tribal western India over more than ten years as it falls under different policy regimes, this book takes a close look at the relationship between policy and practice in development. David Mosse shows how the actions of development workers are shaped by the exigencies of organisations and the need to maintain relationships rather than by policy. Raising unfamiliar questions, Mosse provides a rare self-critical reflection on practice, while refusing to endorse current post-modern dismissal of development.
Acknowledgements
Glossary and abbreviations
1. Introduction: The Ethnography of Policy and Practice
2. Framing a Participatory Development Project
3. Tribal Livelihoods and the Development Frontier
4. The Goddess and the PRA: Local Knowledge and Planning
5. Implementation: Regime and Relationships
6. Consultant Knowledge
7. The Social Production of Development Success
8. Aid Policy and Project Failure
9. Aspirations for Development
10. Conclusions and Implications
Bibliography
Index
David Mosse is Professor of Social Anthropology at SOAS, University of London. He is author of The Rule of Water (Oxford University Press, 2003), Cultivating Development (Pluto, 2004) and The Aid Effect (Pluto, 2005).
'A superb book, one of those rarities that can change entire ways
of thinking'
*Scott Guggenheim, Lead Social Scientist, The World Bank*
'Strongly argued, vividly illustrated and fluently written. Highly
recommended'
*Amita Baviskar, Visiting Professor, Department of Cultural and
Social Anthropology, Stanford University*
'Any development professional will find scenarios that are
recognisable here. As the many entry points slowly build up into a
rich and thick description of the project' world, it becomes clear
that this candid depiction forces us to engage with candid
questions especially about the book's two principal concepts:
practice and policy'
*Ingie Hovland, Development Policy Review*
'A brave and crucial work which dismantles the accepted orthodoxies
about the making of development by development agencies. Everyone
with an interest in development - whether practitioner or critic -
should read this book'
*Dinah Rajak, Development in Practice*
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