The pedagogy of listening

A great deal of participatory development literature emphasises the bottom-up production of citizen’s voices and their incorporation into policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. Rarely do we hear of emphases on the question of listening, much as there exists a body of knowledge on integrating what experts consider to be the views and opinions of local people in the creation of socio-economic policies. This viewpoint outlines the kind of listening that builds on three key issues that emanate from Paulo Freire’s idea of listening as both a virtue and practice of tolerance. The major contention is that as development practitioners, we need to build our abilities and capacities to practise all the three forms of listening if we are to work with others in designing and implementing policies that improve lives and communities.     

Developing Powers and the Challenge of Peacekeeping: The Example of Malawi

Abstract

Malawi’s contribution to UN peacekeeping is growing. The development of the Malawi Defence Force was stunted under Hastings Banda, but Malawi’s foreign and security policies were reoriented under multiparty democracy and the Defence Force and police personnel were engaged in peacekeeping missions. Peacekeeping has had a profound effect on Malawi. It has led to the procurement of military hardware, contributed substantial sums to the national economy, and raised the income and living standards of participants. It has encouraged the adoption of UN best practice and contributed to gender integration. However, there are issues around transparency and accountability, and more partnerships with developed countries are desirable. There is also a role for the Commonwealth.     

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.