Cultivating Development

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.

Critiques the very essence of development policy, especially the complex relationship between policy and practice and role of participation.

AcknowledgementsGlossary and abbreviations1. Introduction: The Ethnography of Policy and Practice2. Framing a Participatory Development Project3. Tribal Livelihoods and the Development Frontier4. The Goddess and the PRA: Local Knowledge and Planning5. Implementation: Regime and Relationships6. Consultant Knowledge7. The Social Production of Development Success8. Aid Policy and Project Failure9. Aspirations for Development10. Conclusions and ImplicationsBibliographyIndex