Synopses & Reviews
Development and assistance in disasters is about helping people to help themselves. It is to do with facilitating ‘sustainable livelihoods and addressing the ills of social discrimination. These seem to be self-evident propositions. In fact, they are a minefield.If development workers intervene to assist in the creation of environmentally sustainable livelihoods, what judgemental codes are contained in the everyday cultural and linguistic assumptions of development practitioners? What account do they give of the environment and peoples relationship to it? If livelihoods are to be economically sustainable, by which economic criteria is the judgement made? Is the objective to keep projects going until the funds run out, or, like cancer patients, to survive for five years, or to knit people into the worlds trading systems? If projects are to be sustainable, they must be socially just. By whose justice do we judge? At present much development and disaster relief work derives its importance solely from providing opportunities for honing survival skills.The authors of this book examine these questions and others in detail and argue that the assumptions of the social-democratic world, including those of international NGOs, are tied to the perpetuation of capitalism. Neil Middleton and Phil OKeefe suggest that the issue, in the face of anarchic global financial power, is to re-think the nature of class in a late capitalist world and to recognise indigenous NGOs as the new political vehicles for its struggle.
Synopsis
A critical perspective of the complex issues surrounding disaster relief and development where decisions are driven by capitalist forces.
Synopsis
A critical account of the politics of aid-giving.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [167]-173) and index.
About the Author
Katy Gardner is Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and is the author of several books including Global Migrants, Local Lives: Travel and Transformation in Rural Bangladesh (1995) and Discordant Development (Pluto, 2012). David Lewis is Professor of Social Policy and Development in the Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics. He is the author of Bangladesh: Politics, Economy and Civil Society (2012) and co-editor of The Aid Effect (Pluto, 2005).
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: The Rich Wage War, the Poor Die
2. Polite Meaningless Words
3. All Nature Is But Art
4. Opportunities Legally Monopolised
5. Si Quid Usquam Iustitia
6. Everlasting Groans
Abbreviations
References