6 research outputs found
Politics and professionalism in community development: Examining intervention in the highlands of northern Thailand
Get PDFIt has been suggested that the practice of international development assistance is
so deeply problematic that the only moral choice is to abandon the work altogether. The practice of community development in the Third World has been the subject of extensive critique for several decades. Scholars and development practitioners speak of the 'tyranny' of development and discuss the ways in which development is a means of control and domination rather than an altruistic enterprise whereby wealthier nations lend assistance to poorer nations. How are these debates relevant to highland development programs in northern Thailand?
And how are development practitioners responding to the suggestion that they are making things worse rather than better? This paper explores the history of development in the hills and suggests some ways that development practitioners can - and do - take on board recent critiques of development while continuing to work for the betterment of highland lives and livelihoods
Locating post-development subjects : discourses of intervention and identification in the highlands of northern Thailand
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An Orthodoxy of 'the local' : post-colonialism, participation and professionalism in northern Thailand
No full textPost-colonial critiques of development reveal the neo-colonial potential of the development project, embedded in the imbalances of power in relations between West and East, First World and Third World. One of the core responses to the challenge of such a critique has been to turn to new participatory approaches that privilege local knowledges, locally defined needs and priorities, above the vagaries of aid agencies or the ‘expertise’ of development professionals. In this paper I argue that such a shift in development discourse and method has had a significant impact on the discursive practices of professionalism and professional responsibility. Drawing on ethnographic research with development professionals in northern Thailand, I argue that participation has emerged as a new orthodoxy among development professionals who seek to identify themselves as ethical and moral agents of an emancipatory development project. The rise of such orthodoxy has had clear impacts in terms of fostering the emergence of local organization and advocacy groups. At the same time, however, this paper considers how a ‘pro-local’ orthodoxy may also be having dis-enabling effects for the very project of emancipation that professionals wish to carry out.13 page(s
