Discursive Development Order and Local Informal Practices

To what extent does development discourses shape §development practice? Drawing on post-structural §approaches to development, this monograph provides §an ethnographic account of a development projects in §Northern Ethiopia. Grounded in empirical research, §it analyses the discrepancy between a donor''s §rhetorical claims of a participatory and bottom-up §approach and the practices of how recipients relate §to external knowledge-power formations. This study §shows how a small development project is embedded in §a global development discourse which has profound §effects of inversing attempts of a bottom-up §approach. Recipients are, however, not powerless §victims. Combining post-development theory s §discursive approach with a focus on actors everyday §practices yields a more nuanced picture of §development discourse s formative power. In the §interface between donor and recipient, actors not §only adopt but also translate, contest and §manipulate external knowledge. As such, this book is §both a substantive contribution to the ethnography §of aid as well as an important input to the §theoretical debate on the interrelationship of §discourse and agency.