DVM 2106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Postdevelopment Theory, Cultural Relativism, Ecofeminism
21 Jun 2018
School
Course
Professor
The Role of the Privileged in Responding to Poverty: Perspectives Emerging from the Post-
Development Debate – Sally Matthews
- How relatively privileged people may respond meaningfully to poverty while not perpetuating
the flaws of past development practice?
- Three ways:
1. We can work to rethink the concepts informing development practice
2. We may find ways to give our support to popular initiatives
3. There are aspects of our own societies which may change in solidarity with the struggles of
distant others
Prominent debate between post-development theorists and their critics
- PD theorists criticize past development theory and practice;; promotion of development can no
longer be regarded as an adequate response to poverty
- Their critics agree but warn us that we must still respond meaningfully and in timely fashion to
poverty
- How can privileged people respond meaningfully to their own situation of privilege and to the
contrasting situations of poverty experienced by so many?
- Distinction between “We, the privileged” vs. “the poor”
- Many don’t fit comfortably in either category
- Difficult to outline clearly of “poor”
- Usually we label “poor” or “underdeveloped” without much consideration of differences
between them
- “Poor” = “those whose lives are characterized by such deprivation, material and otherwise, that
both they and most onlookers would agree that their situation is in need of immediate
amelioration”
- So, privileged people are charged with finding ways to respond ethically to such situations of
poverty
- “Distant others” = responsibilities to those who live radically different lives than we do
(geographically distant; but mostly about lives, experiences radically different)
- 1W & 3W – vice-versa conditions
- “Societies” = privileged people (groups which associate in some way and have some sense of
commonality)
Debating our responsibilities
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- Draws on texts from James Ferguson, Gilvert Rist, Lakshman Yapa, (all three are PD) David Simon
and Stuar Cordbridge (critical of PD) – highlighting common themes and differences
- Ferguson, Yapa and Rist – “what should we do”
- Doesn’t really mean we need to go out there and intervene in poor communities
- Ferguson feels that two approaches are often unhelpfully juxtaposed:
‘Applied’ researchers, the cliche´ goes, are willing to go out and get their
hands dirty working for ‘development’ agencies; ‘academic’ researchers, on
the other hand, stay in their ivory towers, and keep their hands and consciences clean.6
- To “do something” many scholars use their position to give advice to state agencies who will use
this advice
- Ferguson says it has many limitations
- Says that we need to guard against a “Falsely universalizing or even heroizing view of the state”
- Another way is to provide advice to national and international dvm orgs, but usually flawed as
they don’t accept this advice
- Ferguson “doesn’t change fundamental character of interventions”
- Ferguson says overall character of such interventions (not just specific strategies) need changing
- Ferguson is optimistic of political participation in one’s own society ; western anthropologists
are able, through their teaching and through public speaking and advocacy, to apply their
knowledge to the task of combatting imperialist policies and advancing causes of 3W people;
Sally adds research
- Yapa argues that we need to stop thinking that poverty is “over there” so we need to intervene
- Rather, poverty is of complex relations so it extends to non-poor communities and regions; so,
one can help to transform relations that cause poverty and oppression w/o intervening
‘My solution’ [to the problem of poverty] is aimed at fellow academics who, like
myself, are deeply implicated in the problem and whose power lies primarily in
-our capacity to engage the discourse critically.11
- Yist argues that we need new concepts of informing development theory
- Need to interrogate failed ideas; and then challenge the “evident ideas” that form part of
contemporary discourses on development
- Once the currently dominant ways of analysing and
explaining poverty and related problems have been interrogated, other kinds of
analysis and other explanatory models can be proposed and their merits debated
- So, thinking and writing about concepts and theories, teaching is also “doing something” that is
viable and important way
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
