Cultivating Development: An Ethnography Of Aid Policy And Practice (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780745317991)

What if development agencies and researchers are not driven by policy? Suppose that the things that make for 'good policy' - policy that legitimises and mobilises political support - in reality make it impossible to implement? By focusing in detail on the unfolding activities of a development project in 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; but also that development actors work hardest of all to maintain coherent representations of their actions as instances of authorised policy. Raising unfamiliar questions, Mosse provides a rare self-critical reflection on practice, while refusing to endorse current post-modern dismissal of development.

Author: David Mosse
ISBN-10: 0745317995
ISBN-13: 9780745317991
Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
Language: English
Published: 01/01/2005
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.26lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.88d