Centring development: Education centres supporting rural development

Abstract

Since the 1950s various paradigms of development have aimed to improve living conditions in the developing world (Africa, Asia and Latin America). Globalisation has increased the gap between information and technology haves and have-nots, and development practice (born out of the paradigms developed over the past fifty years) now seeks to address issues such as access to information communication technology (ICT) and the need for developing countries to participate in the global economy. This article examines the first year of the joint venture between the Media in Education Trust (MiET) and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education (KZNDE) to develop Education Centres Supporting Rural Development in KwaZulu-Natal, and how these centres address a crucial aspect of development – the question of access.     

Inter-disciplinarity,development studies,and development practice1

The article primarily seeks to show the interconnectedness of diverse academic disciplines and their crucial role in development practice. It sheds light on the meanings of development-related concepts and seeks to delineate between the four inter-related concepts of multi-, inter-, trans-, and cross-disciplinarity. It argues that while inter-disciplinarity is desirable for a broad-based discipline such as Development Studies, the appropriateness of the concept when juxtaposed with trans-disciplinarity seems somewhat inadequate. Buttressing the importance of the contributions of all disciplines and of course development initiatives to Development Studies, case studies of failed water and agricultural projects – which never incorporated vital and cognate expertise – in the South are, thus, provided in the discourse.     

From development by effects to development by contexts via communication

The vision shared by most development scholars and practitioners today is for beneficiary driven development, the impediment and the means to which both lie with communication. The debate concerns the communication approach that would best realise this vision. This paper examines and critically comments on two major approaches, Development Communication and Development Support Communication, though it argues for neither of these. Rather, it draws on the 'Another Development-Another Communication' paradigm and proposes a Participatory Communication approach, which both resonates in people's own moral values, conforms to the reality of many communities in Africa, and offers better prospects of achieving beneficiary-driven development.     

Drawing development: Analysing local understandings of development in three Andean communities

This article shows how local understandings of development can be researched empirically by reference to experiences presented from three drawing workshops performed with children in the Ayacucho region in the Peruvian Andes. The children were asked to draw pictures from their community, as they would like it to become in the future. Their drawings are analysed by using an adapted form of Grounded Theory, and further interpreted as expressions of local development discourses. Although the three villages are located within the same area and share a violent history of war and instability, the research shows how each community has its own interpretation of development.     

The day development dies

There is a certain kind of thinking prevailing among Western thinkers which sacrifices rich narratives for theory. Theory becomes a prison, limiting knowledge production to references to (largely Western) scholarship. However, theory is not inaccessible: theory is coherent, theory is liberating, theory is narrative, it is everyday. This post-colonist auto-ethnographic orality uses personal experiences as a theoretical tool for explaining that in development thinking the ‘experts’ are morally and ideologically distant from local people, knowledge, and places, and hence they are illegitimate representatives who should never be consulted in the first place.     

Environmental security and development

The development policy community has recently awakened to the importance of security as an important dimension of development policies and a basic pre-condition for their success. This paper seizes the opportunity to highlight the linkage between human security and development, and environmental security. It argues that the link is particularly strong in developing countries where human security is closely tied to peoples' access to natural resources. Drawing on a number of case studies where communities have increasingly endured hardships linked with environmental deterioration and resource scarcity, the author points to the fact that, any efforts to better the lives of peoples may be unsuccessful if they fail to conserve and enhance essential resources and life support systems.1 ?1. See, Khagram, Clark and Raad Khagram, Sanjeev, Clark, William C. and Raad, Dana Firas. 2003. From the Environment and Human Security to Sustainable Security and Development. Journal of Human Development, 4(2): 44–76.  [Google Scholar], ‘From the Environment and Human Security’. View all notes While the security literature often tones down environmental threats as soft, the author points out that they often emerge as major threats in certain contexts where, like wars, they may have detrimental and enduring impacts on peoples' security and development. This paper recommends a broader approach to security that recognises the significance of environmental threats to human security and legitimises its firm integration within the current development policy agenda. Given the crosscutting and trans-boundary nature of environmental threats, the author concludes that any development policy actions designated to mitigate environmental threats may maximise their impacts if they transcend institutional and regional boundaries, and are embedded in broader institutional collaboration.     

The uneven and combined development of class forces: migration as combined development

One of the more interesting and potentially powerful developments within Marxist approaches to the field of international relations has been the recent revival of Trotsky’s concept of uneven and combined development (UCD). However, it appears that there have been very few attempts within this literature to specify in concrete terms what is meant by mechanisms of ‘combination’. Failing this, UCD runs the risk of falling into triviality. To this end, this article suggests that migration has historically functioned as a crucial element of combined development, contributing to the uneven incorporation of non-capitalist societies into the remit of a developing world capitalist market. As illustration, I take settler-colonial development and the Great Atlantic Migrations as my focal point, drawing out a comparative study of Argentine and Canadian wheat production in the late nineteenth century. In positing these migrations as mechanisms of combined development I suggest that such were the means by which both European capitalism developed extensively and intensively and New World societies were subjected to the ‘pressures of backwardness’, compelled to transform their own social relations of production.     

Beyond development,what?

The authors begin to outline the epic now unfolding at the grassroots, arguing that pioneering social movements are groping for their liberation from the 'Global Project' being imposed upon them. Going beyond the premises and promises of modernity, people at the grassroots are re-inventing or creating afresh new intellectual and institutional frameworks. As is clear from the recent rebellion in southern Mexico, ordinary men and women are learning from each other how to challenge the very nature and foundations of modern power, both its intellectual underpinnings and its apparatus. Explicitly liberating themselves from the dominant ideologies, fully immersed in their local struggles, these movements and initiatives reveal the diverse content and scope of grassroots endeavours.     

Putting endogenous development into practice

The gap between theories and the actual practice of development is often great, but the gap between concepts of endogenous approaches and the practice of endogenous development may be hardest to bridge, particularly when the funding agency is a global actor. Nathalie Tinguery, Country Program Coordinator for US African Development Foundation (USADF) in Burkina Faso, reflects on her experience of incorporating values and goals into her development practice of working with communities and for an international funder. She describes how she remains focused on endogenous development, what this means in her development practice, and what it is about USADF policies and practice that make this brand of endogenous development possible. Views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official positions of USADF.     

顺利发展的中俄关系

进入21世纪以来,中俄关系的发展令世界瞩目.从2001年7月两国元首签署<中俄睦邻友好合作条约>到2006年3月俄罗斯总统普京访华,中俄关系几乎每年都要跨上一个新的台阶.在世界大国关系中,中俄关系是发展最为顺利也最为稳定的一对双边关系.两国关系完全建立在联合国宪章和国际关系基本准则的基础上,是冷战后大国关系的典范,也是不同文化、不同文明之间密切交流和友好相处的典范.     

Spirituality: A development taboo

Spirituality is central to many of the daily decisions people in the 'South' make about their own and their community's development, including that of whether or not to participate in risky but potentially beneficial social action. Despite its importance, development literature and development practices have systematically avoided the topic of spirituality. This avoidance results in inferior research and less effective programmes, and ultimately fails to provide participants with opportunities to reflect on how their development and their spirituality will and should shape each other. The author offers some possible explanations for this and suggests ways in which to address spirituality in development theory and practice.     

Enhancing learning in development partnerships

Through an analysis of practical examples and key literature, this article considers what will enhance learning in and between NGOs and other development partners. The authors explore how the types and qualities of relationship currently evolving in the development sector affect learning, drawing predominantly on experiences of relationships between Northern and Southern NGOs. The article identifies those aspects of relationships that foster learning and those that inhibit it, and offers recommendations to strengthen learning. The authors highlight the relevance of, the challenges posed by, and the potential of partnership work, as well as the impact of accountability demands, procedures, and processes on organisational relationships and on learning.