Decentring Development: Understanding Change in Agrarian Societies

208 Pages·2015·0.73 MB·English

by  Tanya Jakimow (auth.)

Decentring
Development
Understanding Change
in Agrarian Societies
Tanya Jakimow
Decentring Development
Anthropology,ChangeandDevelopment
SeriesEditors:
LauraCamfield,SeniorLecturerinInternationalDevelopment,Schoolof
InternationalDevelopment,UniversityofEastAnglia,UK
CatherineLocke,ReaderinGenderandSocialDevelopment,SchoolofInternational
Development,UniversityofEastAnglia,UK
LanAnhHoang,LecturerinDevelopmentStudies,UniversityofMelbourne,Australia
Mainstreamdevelopmentstudieshavetendedtoneglectimportantaspectsofexpe-
rience in developing countries that fall outside the conventional preserve of devel-
opmentintervention.Theseneglectedphenomenaincludeconsumption,modernity
andmobilityandambivalentexperiencessuchasuncertainty,mistrust,jealousy,envy,
love,emotion,hope,religiousandspiritualbelief,personhoodandotherexperiences
throughout the life course. They have most closely been addressed through critical
ethnographyinthecontextofcontemporarydevelopingsocieties.Weinvitesubmis-
sionsthatfocus onthevalueofethnographyofthese contemporaryexperiences of
development(aschange),notonlytoaddresstheseneglectedphenomena,butalsoto
enrichsocialsciencethinkingaboutdevelopment.
Titlesinclude:
ElizabethCooperandDavidPratten(editors)
ETHNOGRAPHIESOFUNCERTAINTYINAFRICA
AlexFlynnandJonasTinius(editors)
THEATREANDDEVELOPMENT
LanAnhHoangandBrendaS.A.Yeoh(editors)
TRANSNATIONALLABOURMIGRATION,REMITTANCESAND
THECHANGINGFAMILYINASIA
TanyaJakimow
DECENTRINGDEVELOPMENT
UnderstandingChangeinAgrarianSocieties
Anthropology,ChangeandDevelopment
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Decentring Development
Understanding Change in Agrarian Societies
Tanya Jakimow
ResearchFellow,UniversityofNewSouthWales,Australia
©TanyaJakimow2015
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Jakimow,Tanya,1976–
Decentringdevelopment:understandingchangeinagrariansocieties/
TanyaJakimow.
pages cm.—(Anthropology,changeanddevelopment)
Includesbibliographicalreferences.
1. Sociology,Rural. 2. Agriculture—Socialaspects. 3. Economic
development—Socialaspects. 4. Ruralpopulation. I. Title.
HT421.J352015
307.72—dc23 2015014428
Contents
ListofTables vi
Acknowledgements vii
SeriesEditors’Preface ix
Introduction 1
Part I RethinkingSocialChangethroughthe
DevelopmentActor
1 Centringthe‘Self-in-Process’ 17
2 TheInstitutionalLandscape 40
Part II UnderstandingAgrarianSocietiesinResearch
forDevelopment
IntroductiontoPartII
3 LivelihoodPathways 67
4 Self-in-Transit 96
Part III RecognisingtheUnintendedConsequencesof
Development
IntroductiontoPartIII
5 TheStateandtheSelf 123
6 MoralSpacesofDevelopment 145
Conclusion:DecentringDevelopmentinResearchfor
Development 166
Notes 174
References 180
Index 197
v
Tables
3.1 Stepsinunlockingtheblackboxofinstitutionsinlivelihood
analysis 71
3.2 Understandingtheself-in-processinrelationtoan
institutionalcontext 72
vi
Acknowledgements
The field research for this book was conducted while I was a postdoctoral
fellowattheCommonwealthScienceandIndustrialResearchOrganisation
(CSIRO) in Brisbane in 2010–12. I extend my gratitude to Christian Roth
and James Butler, who invited me to work on their projects and for their
guidance throughout. I was fortunate to work with project managers who
wereopentowaysofdoingresearchthatdidnotfittheconventionalCSIRO
model and who actively promoted social research within the organisation.
I have enjoyed the institutional support of the University of New South
Wales(UNSWAustralia)sincejoininginJune2012.Whilemostofthefield
researchtookplaceduringmytwoyearsatCSIRO,ithasbeenatUNSWthat
I have been able to repeatedly analyse my empirical material, develop my
frameworksandwritethismanuscript.
I have had the privilege to work with wonderful research associates in
IndiaandIndonesia.SurekhaThanda,MurthyTalaandSushmaReddycon-
ductedtheinterviewsinTelangana,helpedmeliaisewithlocalleadersand
undertook the often tedious task of transcription and translation. More
importantly,theycontributedtheirperspectivesandinsights,aswellastheir
alwaysexcellenthumourandcheer.YulfiaYanuartaniwasmyresearchpart-
ner in Central Lombok. She built the rapport with participants, took the
largerroleinco-constructingnarrativesandestablishedrelationswithlocal
leaders.IalsothankIbuRohani,whodidmuchtofacilitateourresearchin
Kerinsung.YumasdaleniandAidaHarahaphavebeenmyresearchpartners
inMedanandalongwithPakOjicompriseourteam.Allthreehavebeenan
inspiration, teaching me a lot and becoming integral parts of the research
process.
Liana Williams, the project officer on the project in India, was my wise
confidantatCSIRO,helpingmeresolveissues,enhancingmyinterpretations
ofempiricalmaterialandassistinginthereflectionsoftheresearchprocess.
IalsobenefitedfromconversationswithToniDarbas,KirstenMacLeanand
ZviHochman.TheLivelihoodsandNaturalResourceManagementInstitute
in Hyderabad, especially Chiranjeevi Tallapragada, assisted with logistical
aspects, but, more so, they were my most important sounding board as
I negotiated the research process the analysis of material and formulated
interpretations. The World Food Programme of NTB (Nusa Tenggara Barat
provinceinIndonesia)officeprovidedlogisticalsupportinCentralLombok,
aswellasfriendlyfaces,excellentadviceandinsights.
The refinement of my arguments and reanalysis of the empirical mate-
rial was enhanced through my conversations with colleagues from UNSW
Australia. Alan Bloomfield, Christian Downie, Duncan McDuie-Ra, Katrina
vii
viii Acknowledgements
Moore and Michael Pusey provided invaluable comments on earlier draft
chaptersof thismanuscript.Thankyoualso totheprofessionalstaffinthe
School of Social Science office, who provided excellent support during the
more stressful moments of completing this book, with special mention to
HoliBirman.
The editors of the Anthropology, Change and Development series, Laura
Camfield,CatherineLockeandLanAnhHoang,weregenerousintheirsup-
port.Theirreadingofchaptershelpedimprovethetextandsavedmefrom
innumerableerrors.Thanksalsototheanonymousreviewerforusefulsug-
gestions that significantly improved the manuscript. All remaining errors,
over-stretchesandfaultyargumentsaremyresponsibilityalone.
This research would not have been possible without the financial sup-
portfromseveralorganisations.IreceivedanAustralianEndeavourResearch
Award, funding from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural
Research (ACIAR), a CSIRO postdoctoral fellowship and participated in an
AusAID (now DFAT)–CSIRO partnership project. Since joining UNSW, my
research has been facilitated by an Australian Research Council Discovery
EarlyCareerResearchAward(no.DE13000468).Suchfundingisareminder
oftheprivilegedpositionfromwhichIconductresearch.
I have been fortunate to have lived this research with Ramaswami
Harindranath. From initial conception of the research project, through the
anxieties of fieldwork, making sense of my material and overcoming intel-
lectual blind spots, he offered guidance and support. More importantly,
without Hari’s love and kindness this research and manuscript would not
havebeenpossible.
Finally, and most importantly, I am grateful to all the people who gave
their time in Kerinsung, Rajampuram and Krishnanagar. I hope this book
doesyournarrativesjustice.
Series Editors’ Preface
This book series, Anthropology, Change and Development, fosters engagement
betweencriticalanthropologyanddevelopmentstudiesthroughthenotion
of thinking about development as change. Both applied anthropology and
the anthropology of development have made significant strides in build-
ing a more critical engagement between anthropology and development
and both are widely acknowledged as pertinent in various ways for stu-
dents, researchers and, to a lesser degree, practitioners of international
development.Thisrecognitioninadvertentlysustains,onthepartofdevel-
opment studies, a somewhat selective engagement with critical historical
ethnography,oftenlimitedtothatwhichiseasily‘legible’,aswellasaclear
disconnectwithawiderswatheofcriticalethnographyaboutmodernityin
developing countries (for example, Burawoy, 2009, Li, 2007, Roy and Ong,
2011). While both can contribute substantially to understanding and valu-
ing change, such ethnographies are mistakenly seen as being less relevant
to the concerns of contemporary development. Non-anthropologists and
those working from a more pragmatic development orientation may find
that they make ‘difficult’ and ‘uncomfortable’ reading. However, it is pre-
ciselythistheoreticalrigorandthedeterminationtounsettleconventional
perceptionsaboutdevelopmentthatliesatthecentreofthevalueofcritical
anthropologyfordevelopment.
This series goes beyond the remit of an ‘applied anthropology’ frame-
work to include phenomena that have been overlooked by development
studies.Itfocusespreciselyontheimportantaspectsofexperienceindevel-
opingcountriesthatfalloutsidetheconventionalpreserveofdevelopment
intervention. These neglected phenomena include uncertainty, mistrust,
jealousy, envy, witchcraft and ambivalent experiences such as love, emo-
tion, hope, consumption, modernity, aspiration, social mobility, religious
and spiritual belief, personhood and other experiences throughout the life
course. They might also include the sensory dimensions of life, for exam-
ple, the pleasures of consumption in festivals and malls, the experience
of love and other less-celebrated emotions. Other marginal phenomena
include the subjective and relationalaspects of life in developingcountries
that contribute to anthropological and sociological critiques of develop-
mentandmodernity.Richapplicationsoflifecourseanalysistodeveloping
country experiences, as well as deeper approaches to experiences of time,
and related emotions of hope and aspiration, are offering more meaning-
ful ways of understanding how different individuals experience, influence
and are shaped by complex, and often rapid, processes of wider societal
change.
ix