GDS Seminar: Grassroots Rural
Development
Spring 2006
Lecture: T/TH:
2:15-4:05 Instructor: Monty
Roper
Carnegie 310 204
Goodnow Hall
Office phone: 269-3017
e-mail: roperjm@grinnell.edu
Office Hours: M,W 2:30-4:00;
T,W,F 9-11. During office hours, you are welcome to stop
by without an appointment. During
non-office hours, you are also welcome to stop by, but I will often be occupied
and unable to meet. I will be happy,
however, to schedule appointments during non-office hours. If you are having problems with course
materials for any reason, I strongly encourage you to come see me.
Course Description and Goals:
Over one-half of the population of developing countries live in rural areas, even
though urban areas have been growing at a faster rate for many decades. According to the World Bank, these rural
areas contain about 70% of the poor.
Despite this, the rural poor – often peasants and indigenous peoples –
have often been viewed as obstacles to national development rather than the
targets. Other approaches that have
viewed them as the targets have often treated them as passive recipients of
development aid and/or identified cultural beliefs and practices as the primary
impediment to advancement. In the past
two decades, however, local peoples’ culture and ideas have gained increasing value
in development approaches, and there has been increasing focus on grassroots
and participatory development, where local peoples are centrally involved in
their own development. While these approaches
have received much enthusiasm from some quarters, others view it as simply the
latest ‘fad’ of development theory and/or note that this approach certainly not
free of problems.
The goal of this course is to
take an interdisciplinary examination of theory and issues relating to grassroots rural development in developing countries. We will begin with an historical review of
development theories relating to rural development. What have governments and development
practitioners perceived as the place of rural areas in national development
strategies? How have these theories been
put into practice? And how and why have
these perceptions changed over time?
We will then explore the
emergence of the focus on grassroots development and participatory planning in
development. In this section of the
course we will consider theory, methods, and case studies. We will consider the methodologies of these
approaches and their strengths and weaknesses.
Finally, we will explore a range of issues within grassroots and
participatory development; including (but not limited to), the role of NGOs,
social movements, identity and cultural expression, and gendered and community
power relations.
This
class is a senior seminar. It is YOUR
senior seminar. I am here to help
provide you with a set of readings to stimulate discussion and to serve as a
kind of in-class moderator and resident devil’s advocate. I may briefly lecture on particular topics or
talk about my own experiences, but you should think of this class foremost as a
kind of structured reading group. Your
responsibility is to come to class prepared to discuss the readings, raise
questions, argue for or against certain positions, and stimulate one-another to
come up with fresh ideas. You should be
able to build on past readings in your consideration of topics as well as bring
in your own experiences. Many of you
have done internships, taken other relevant classes, and traveled to “third
world” countries, and you should bring these experiences to the
discussion. It is your responsibility
just as much as it is mine to make this class work. Everyone should feel free to participate
openly in class. There are no taboo
ideas or subjects, even if they may be labeled un-PC outside of the class. The classroom is a forum for open discussion
and debate. Everyone should help to
support an atmosphere where diverging and conflicting ideas from within the
class can be heard and considered. There
are few “right” answers or theories concerning the material that we are
discussing. As we will see, educated
academics disagree on many of the underlying assumptions of development, not to
mention more specific hot topics.
Reserved readings
will be available on the course blackboard page.
1.
Participation: (25% of grade)
(See discussion of participation in course description and goals above.)
2.
Topic brief
and leading of class discussion: (10%
and 5% of grade respectively). Each
student will select a topic related to the general themes of the course and
write a 3-5 page brief that reviews the issue. The student will select a set of readings in
coordination with the professor and lead a class discussion. The readings may be theoretical and/or focus
on a case study.
3.
2 Review
Essays (20% of grade): At several points during the semester, I will
provide an essay question (or perhaps more than one) intended to promote a
synthesis and analysis of the materials covered over the previous weeks. Each student will answer 2 of these in a
brief essay of 2-3 pages.
4.
Final Paper : (20% of grade)
Each of you will write a research paper that examines an issue related to the
course materials. The paper should
include theory and a detailed case study (or multiple case studies), and build
off of and/or incorporate materials from the course.
5.
Reading
Journal: (20% of grade) Each of you
will keep an electronic written journal of comments and questions on, and
responses to the readings that must include the following: Prior to each
class period, students must prepare at least 3 questions concerning the
readings (these may relate to disagreements that you have, arguments that you
feel are unclear or poorly made, contradictions in the materials, or any other
kind of question that occurs to you). In
addition, once per week you must
turn in a 1 page response to the readings for that day. This might include a summary of the readings,
a response to the argument of the various authors, and/or how the articles
relate or might be useful to your own experiences or primary interests. These must be turned into me by e-mail before
class, or presented to me in class with an e-mail to follow. Journal entries should be well constructed,
but will be assessed primarily on the basis of content.
6.
Self-assessment: The final journal entry will be a self assessment that
considers what has been learned over the course of the semester, and assesses participation
and personal development through the course.
Course
Outline
(Subject to Modification)
Tues,
Jan 24:
Overview of the Course. Discussion of Student
Experiences and Topics of Interest.
Part I: Classic Macro Approaches to
Rural Development and Poverty
Thurs,
Jan 26:
Review
of Classic Development Theory
·
W.W. Rostow,
"The stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto”
·
L.E. Harrison,
“Underdevelopment is a State of
·
A.G. Frank,
"The Development of Underdevelopment"
·
S. Kuznets,
“Economic Growth and Income Inequality”
Tues, Jan 31:
Agricultural and Rural Development (Classic theory
applied to rural areas)
·
J. Staatz and C. Eicher,
Agricultural Development Ideas in Historical Perspective. In, C. Eicher and
J. Staatz (eds.) Agricultural Development in the
·
W. Thiesenhusen 1987
Review Essays: Rural Development Questions in
Thurs, Feb 2:
Peasant Studies (Why peasants frustrate classic
economists)
·
F. Colburn 1982
Current Studies of Peasants and Rural Development: Applications of the
Political Economy Approach
·
James Scott 1976 The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion
and Subsistence in
·
Agricultural
involution (or Nils Gilman, Involution and
Modernization: The Case of Clifford Geertz, In Cohen
and Dannhaeuser)
·
Chayanov and other theories of agricultural and peasant
economies
Tues, Feb 7:
Integrated Rural Development Approach (Basic Needs in
action)
· D. Rondinelli 1979 Administration of Integrated Rural
Development Policy: The Politics of Agrarian Reform in Developing
Countries. World Politics 31(3):389-416.
· J. Sallinger-McBride,
L. Picard 1989
Rural Development Areas in
· J. Binns and D.C. Funnell 1983
Geography and Integrated Rural Development. Geografiska Annaler. Series B,
Human Geography 65(1):57-63.
Thurs,
Feb 9
Land
Reform
Assigned
·
De Janvry, Alain 1981
The Role of Land Reform in Economic Development: Policies and
Politics. American Journal of
Agricultural Economics 63(2):384-392.
·
Kay, Cristóbal 2002
Why East Asia overtook
Supplementary
·
Michael Lipton,
Responses to Rural Population Growth: Malthus and the
Moderns (In G. McNicoll and M. Cain, Rural
Development and Population: Institutions and Policy 1990)
·
R. Prosterman, M.
·
E. Gwako, Property Rights and Incentives for Agricultural
Growth: Women Farmers’ Crop Control and their Use of Agricultural Inputs, In J.
Ensminger (ed.) Theory in Economic Anthropology 2002.
Refocusing Development Rural and Grassroots
Tues, Feb 14:
Paying attention to Rural Areas, People, and Culture -
Perceiving Rural Poverty
·
R. Chambers 1989 Rural Development: Putting the Last
First. (Preface,
and Ch 1. Rural Poverty Unperceived)
·
Kottack, Conrad P. 1991 “When People
Don’t Come First: Some Sociological Lessons from Completed Projects.” In, M. Cernea (ed.)
Putting People First: Sociological Variables in Rural Development.
Thurs,
Feb 16
Critiques
of Globalization and a turn to the Local
Assigned
·
W. Loker 1999
Grit in the Prosperity Machine: Globalization and the Rural Poor in
· J. Mander 1996 Facing the Rising Tide. In, J. Mander and E.
Goldsmith (eds.), The
Case Against the Global Economy, and for a Turn Toward the Local. Pp: 5-19.
Supplementary
·
B. Orlove, Working in the Field: Perspectives on Globalization
in
·
Peggy Barlett, Introduction (In, W. Loker,
ed., Globaliation and the Rural Poor in Latin America
1999)
Tues,
Feb 21:
Anthropological
Challenges to Main Development Paradigms (the need for a local perspective…)
·
Arturo Escobar 1995 Encountering Development: The Making and
Unmaking of the
Grassroots and Participatory Development
Grassroots and Participatory Development Overview
Thurs,
Feb 23
Assigned
·
Kevin Healy, 2001
Chapter 15. Blazing a Trail of
Multicultural Grassroots Development for a New Millennium. (In Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate:
Multicultural Grassroots Development in the Andes and Amazon of
·
R. Chambers. 1995.
Paradigm shifts and practice of participatory research and
development. In, N. Nelson and S. Wright
(eds.), Power and Participatory Development: Theory and Practice.
(Supplemental)
·
A. Durning. 1989 People Power and
Development. Foreign Policy 76:66-82.
·
J. Clay 1987 Grassroots Development – More Sunshine and
Rain, Less Seed. Cultural Survival
Quarterly 11(1).
·
D. Stiles 1987 Classical versus Grassroots Development. Cultural Survival Quarterly 11(1).
·
R.C. Smith. 1987 Indigenous Autonomy for Grassroots
Development. Cultural Survival Quarterly
11(1)
·
M. Chernea (ed), Putting People First: Sociological Variables
in Rural Development 1991
Cultural Energy & Identity
Tues,
Feb 28
·
L. Stephen 1991 Culture as a Resource: Four Cases of
Self-Managed Indigenous Craft Production in
·
C. Kleymeyer 1994 Introduction.
In, C. Kleymeyer (ed.) Cultural Expression & Grassroots Development:
Cases from LA & the
·
C. Kleymeyer 1994 The Uses and Functions of Cultural Expression
in Grassroots Development. In, C.
Kleymeyer (ed.) Cultural Expression & Grassroots Development: Cases from LA
& the
·
P. Breslin 1994
Identity and Self-Respect. In, C.
Kleymeyer (ed.) Cultural Expression & Grassroots Development: Cases from LA
& the
Folk Media and Grassroots Development
Thurs, March 2
·
·
David Kerr 1995 Ch 8.
Theatre for Development. (In
African Popular Theatre: from pre-colonial times to the present day.)
·
Zakes Mda 2001 Marotholi Travelling Theatre: Towards an Alternative Perspective of
Development. In L. Gunner (ed.),
Politics and Performance: Theatre, Poetry and Song in
·
Stewart Crehan 2001
Patronage, the State and Ideology in Zambian Theatre. In L. Gunner (ed.), Politics and Performance:
Theatre, Poetry and Song in
Knowledge, Technology, Markets
Tues,
March 7
Part
I: Indigenous Knowledge and Grassroots Development Theoretical Issues.
· P. Sillitoe 2002 Participant Observation to Participatory
Development: Making Anthropology Work.
In, P. Sillitoe, A. Bicker, and J. Pottier (eds.), Participating in
Development: Approaches to indigenous knowledge. Routledge: NY. Pp: 1-23.
· P. Sillitoe 2002 Globalizing Indigenous Knowledge. In, P. Sillitoe, A.
Bicker, and J. Pottier (eds.), Participating
in Development: Approaches to indigenous knowledge. Routledge: NY. Pp:
Pp: 108-138.
· Roy Ellen 2002
‘Déja vu, all over again’, again. Reinvention and Progress in applying local
knowledge to development. In, P. Sillitoe, A. Bicker, and J. Pottier
(eds.), Participating in Development: Approaches to
indigenous knowledge. Routledge: NY. Pp:
235-258.
Thurs,
March 9
Part
II. Indigenous Knowledge and Technology
· J. Frechione 1999 Introduction. In, F. Pichón, J. Uquilas, and J. Frechione (eds.), Rural Poverty Alleviation and Improved Natural Resource Management Through Participatory Technology Development in Latin America’s Risk-Prone Areas.
· Billie R. DeWalt 1999 Combining Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge. In, F. Pichón, J. Uquilas, and J. Frechione (eds.), Rural Poverty Alleviation and Improved Natural Resource Management Through Participatory Technology Development in Latin America’s Risk-Prone Areas. Pp: 101-121.
· D. Posey et al. 1984 Ethnoecology as Applied Anthropology in Amazonian Development. Human Organization 43(2): 95-107.
Tues,
March 14
Part
III. Modernization vs. Local Knowledge
and Technology
·
A. Bebbington 1999
Organizing for Change – Organizing for Modernization? Campesino
Federations, Social
·
NItish Jha 2002 Barriers to the Diffusion of Agricultural
Knowledge. In, J. Cohen and N. Dannhaeuser (eds.), Economic Development: An
Anthropological Approach.
Thurs,
March 16
Part
IV. Indigenous Knowledge and
Intellectual Property Rights
·
Chapter 4. Traditional Knowledge and Geographical
Indications. From,
Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy: Report of the
Commission on Intellectual Property Rights.
· Sarah Laird 1994
Natural Products and the Commercialization of Traditional Knowledge. In T. Greaves (ed.), Intellectual Property
Rights for Indigenous Peoples.
· S. Brush 1993
Indigenous Knowledge of Biological Resources and Intellectual Property
Rights: The Role of Anthropology.
American Anthropologist 95(3):653-671.
Tues,
April 4
Markets
for Grassroots Rural Development
·
Tiflen, Pauline and S. Zadek 1998 Dealing with and in the Global Economy:
Fairer Trade in
·
P. Little and C. Dolan 2005 Nontraditional Commodities and Structural
Adjustment in
·
Jason Clay 1992 Buying in the Forests: A New Program to
Market Sustainably Collected
·
Clay, J.W. and A.
Anderson 2001 Greening the Amazon:
Communities and Corporations in Search of Sustianable
Practices.
Supplemental
·
Michael Chibnik, The Evolution of Market Niches among Oaxacan Wood-
Carvers, In Cohen and Dannhaeuser
Thurs,
April 6
Tourism
and Commodification of Culture
·
G. Schutte. 2003 Tourists and
Tribes in the “New”
·
H. Zeppel 1997
Chapter 7. Meeting “Wild People”:
Iban Culture and Longhouse Tourism in
Social
Organization and Stratification
Tues,
April 11
Leadership & Local Organization
·
N. Uphoff, M. Esman, A. Krishna 1998. Reasons for Success: Learning from
Instructive Experiences in Rural Development.
Kumarian Press. (Ch 3. Initiation and Leadership, and
Thurs,
April 13
Women
and Participation
·
I. Guijt and M.K. Shah.
Waking up to Power, Conflict and Process. In,
·
M. Bilgi. Entering
Women’s World through Men’s Eyes. In,
·
M.
Kaufman. Differential Participation:
Men, Women, and Popular Power. In, M.
Kaufman and H.D. Alfonso (eds.), “Community Power and Grassroots Democracy: The
Transformation of Social Life.”
Tues,
April 18
The
Tyranny of Participation
·
B. Cooke
and U. Kothari.
The Case for Participation as Tyranny.
·
B. Cooke. The Social Psychological Limits of
Participation?
·
U. Kothari. Power,
Knowledge and Social Control in Participatory Development.
·
G. Mohan. Beyond Participation: Strategies for Deeper
Empowerment.
(Articles from B. Cooke and U. Kothari 2001
Participation: The New Tyranny?
Thurs,
April 20
From Tyranny to Transformation
·
Sam Hickey and
Giles Mohan. Towards participation as
transformation: critical themes and challenges
·
Glyn Williams.
Towards a repoliticization of participatory
development: political capabilities and spaces of empowerment.
·
Ute Kelly. Confrontations with Power: moving beyond ‘the
tyranny of safety’ in participation.
(articles
from S. Hickey and G. Mohan 2004 Participation: from tyranny to
transformation?
Methods
for GRD and Participatory Development
Tues,
April 25 – Thursday, April 27
· Anyaegbunan, C., P. Mefalopulos,
and T. Moetsabi.
2004 Participatory
Rural Communication Appraisal: Starting
with the People. A Handbook.
1. Participatory Rural Appraisal
·
R. Chambers Whose
Reality Counts: Putting the First Last.
1997
2. Learning Process Approach (vs. strict or top-down
approach)
·
Learning Process
and Assisted Self-Reliance (Ch 2 in N. Uphoff, M. Esman, A. Krishna, Reasons for Success: Learning from
Instructive Experiences in Rural Development 1998)
·
Stan Burkey, People First: A Guide to Self-Reliant,
Participatory Development. 1993
Support Organizations for Grassroots Development
Tues, May 9-Thurs, May 11
The Role of NGOs
World Bank and Grassroots Development
· J. Fox and I.D. Brown (eds.), The
Struggle for Accountability: The World Bank, NGOs, and Grassroots
Movements. 1998 (Various articles look at problems of the
Bank, and efforts to reform it)
External Factors
Tues,
May 2-Thurs, May 4
(Possible final topics…)
Structural determinants (e.g. roads)
Credit Access (Multisectoral
Development)
· The Grameen Bank Story:
Rural Credit in
· SANSA: The Savings and Credit Cooperative Movement in
The Role of Policies and Law
·
My article on
Grassroots Social Movements
·
M. Kaufman and
H.D. Alfonso (eds.), Community Power & Grassroots Democracy: The Transformation
of Social Life. 1997