Cultivating Development: An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice

Based on a detailed account of an actual development project, this book addresses an important question: Is development practice actually driven by policy? Development agencies and researchers are preoccupied with policy; with exerting influence over policy; linking research to policy, and with implementing policy around the world. In this book, David Mosse argues that rather than being driven by policy, development practice is actually shaped by the exigencies of organizations and the need to maintain relationships. At the same time, however, development actors work hard at maintaining the fiction of representing authorized policy in their actions. This book asks pertinent questions about international aid, in particular of British aid for rural development. It does so b y examining in depth the experience of a development project in western India over a period of more than ten years and as it falls under different policy regimes. Mosse analyses development processes in the light of the broad experience of the project workers, even if it means destabilizing policy representations. The book is a compelling re-examination of the politics and ethics of engaging with development and a rare self-critical reflection practice. It will be invaluable to policy makers, development workers, development researchers, social and cultural anthropologists, and anyone else interested in development studies and social policy.