Andrea Cornwall
King's College London, International Development Institute, Faculty Member
- Sexuality, Gender, Democracy, Citizenship And Governance, Masculinities, Community Engagement & Participation, and 20 moreAccountability, Public Policy Analysis, Deliberative Democracy, Participatory Research, Participatory Action Research, Democracy and Citizenship Education, Global Citizenship, Participatory Democracy, New Models Of Participatory And Direct Democracy, Citizen participation, Global Social Justice and Education, Deliberative Democracy and Conflict, Transparency and Good Governance, Political and Economic Development, Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, Political Theory, Women's Studies, and Social Theoryedit
- I'm a political anthropologist and write on gender, sexualities, rights, accountability, citizenship and participation.edit
This book tells the story of Development Studies in practice over the last fifty years through the work of one remarkable individual, Robert Chambers. His work has taken him from being a colonial officer in Kenya through training and... more
This book tells the story of Development Studies in practice over the last fifty years through the work of one remarkable individual, Robert Chambers. His work has taken him from being a colonial officer in Kenya through training and managing large rural development projects to a fundamental critique of top-down development and the championing of participatory approaches. The contributors eloquently demonstrate how he has been at the centre of major shifts in development thinking and practice over this period, popularising terms that are now at the centre of the development lexicon such as vulnerability, multi-dimensional poverty, sustainable livelihoods and 'farmer first'.
Robert Chambers played a major role in the massive growth in participatory approaches to development, and particularly the application of participatory methods in development research and appraisal. This has led to fundamental challenges to development practice, ranging from approaches to monitoring and evaluation to institutional learning and professional training. There is probably no-one who has had more influence on approaches to development in the past decades. Revolutionizing Development offers a unique overview of these contributions in thirty-two concise chapters from authors who have been intimately involved as collaborators, critics and colleagues of Robert Chambers.
Robert Chambers played a major role in the massive growth in participatory approaches to development, and particularly the application of participatory methods in development research and appraisal. This has led to fundamental challenges to development practice, ranging from approaches to monitoring and evaluation to institutional learning and professional training. There is probably no-one who has had more influence on approaches to development in the past decades. Revolutionizing Development offers a unique overview of these contributions in thirty-two concise chapters from authors who have been intimately involved as collaborators, critics and colleagues of Robert Chambers.
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The world over, public institutions appear to be responding to the calls voiced by activists, development practitioners and progressive thinkers for greater public involvement in making the decisions that matter and holding governments to... more
The world over, public institutions appear to be responding to the calls voiced by activists, development practitioners and progressive thinkers for greater public involvement in making the decisions that matter and holding governments to account for following through on their commitments. Yet what exactly 'participation' means to these different actors can vary enormously. This article explores some of the meanings and practices associated with participation, in theory and in practice. It suggests that it is vital to pay closer attention to who is participating, in what and for whose benefit. Vagueness about what participation means may have helped the promise of public involvement gain purchase, but it may be time for more of what Cohen and Uphoff term 'clarity through specificity' if the call for more participation is to realize its democratizing promise.
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In this article, I explore the role of anthropology and anthropologists in unsettling orthodoxies and provoking disquiet with taken for granted ways of thinking and doing. Set against the backdrop of the debates about engaged... more
In this article, I explore the role of anthropology and anthropologists in unsettling orthodoxies and provoking disquiet with taken for granted ways of thinking and doing. Set against the backdrop of the debates about engaged anthropology, my interest is in exploring an approach to anthropology that takes anthropological practice seriously and with it the role of the anthropologist as activist and agent of change. I argue that the work of the anthropologist is not just to do fieldwork and produce texts, but that "engagement" has a more interactive dimension. By acting anthropologically, I suggest, anthropologists can be activists in ways and in settings that are distinct from the kinds of engagement envisaged in contemporary debates on "engaged", "activist" and "public" anthropology, as well as the modes of practice characteristic of "applied" anthropology. I draw on fragments of auto-ethnography to explore what the idea of acting anthropologically might offer within as well as outside the academy.
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Is it even possible to think about a decolonised development studies? Isn't the very idea unthinkable, the juxtaposition of those two words an oxymoron? This chapter examines the experience of trying to teach an introductory development... more
Is it even possible to think about a decolonised development studies? Isn't the very idea unthinkable, the juxtaposition of those two words an oxymoron? This chapter examines the experience of trying to teach an introductory development studies module from a decolonising perspective.
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An apparent paradox stalks the rise of women’s and girls’ empowerment. The instrumental case for “investing in women” has been persuasively and glossily made. Yet the “business case” is primarily underpinned by feminist research framed by... more
An apparent paradox stalks the rise of women’s and girls’ empowerment. The instrumental case for “investing in women” has been persuasively and glossily made. Yet the “business case” is primarily underpinned by feminist research framed by materialist concerns. For them, gender equality and women’s empowerment are framed by a concern with persistent inequality rather than “unleashing potential”, and with structural transformation rather than simply the incorporation of women into segmented labour markets that are deeply inflected by inequitable norms and practices. Paying close attention to the neoliberal appellation of women as the subject of empowerment, I situate some of the contradictions of the current conjuncture and explore the role the academy might play in destabilising the gender myths and conflations that characterise what I call empowerment lite.
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The language of ‘gender equality’ and ‘women’s empowerment’ was mobilised by feminists in the 1980s and 1990s as a way of getting women’s rights onto the international development agenda. Their efforts can be declared a resounding... more
The language of ‘gender equality’ and ‘women’s empowerment’ was mobilised by feminists in the 1980s and 1990s as a way of getting women’s rights onto the international development agenda. Their efforts can be declared a resounding success. The international development industry has fully embraced these terms. From international NGOs to donor governments to multilateral agencies the language of gender equality and women’s empowerment is a pervasive presence and takes pride of place among their major development priorities. And yet, this article argues, the fact that these terms have been eviscerated of conceptual and political bite compromises their use as the primary frame through which to demand rights and justice. Critically examining the trajectories of these terms in development, the article suggests that if the promise of the post-2015 agenda is to deliver on gender justice, new frames are needed, which can connect with and contribute to a broader movement for global justice.
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The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), celebrated by feminist activists as a triumph for women's rights, is 20 years old. The world that it once described has changed profoundly in some respects, and yet in others remains... more
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), celebrated by feminist activists as a triumph for women's rights, is 20 years old. The world that it once described has changed profoundly in some respects, and yet in others remains surprisingly similar. This IDS Bulletin reflects on those changes and continuities, tracing the trajectories of the Beijing conference in different policy arenas, national settings and domains of practice.
Articles chart the development of policies and practice worldwide, drawing out both obstacles to progress and gains for women's rights. They explore three major areas: creating more opportunities for women to earn a living and exercise economic autonomy; enhancing women's political representation and enabling women to have more of a say in the decisions that affect their lives; and affirming women's rights to have control over their own bodies and a sexuality of their own choosing. Many articles concern the long, slow process of turning the commitments of Beijing into real gains for women's rights and the implications for turning subsequent commitments into action. Contributors identify a number of pathways forward to reanimate some of the radical potential of gender equality and women's empowerment now.
As the SDGs shape future development policy and funding, women's rights organisations and transnational networks have an important role to play in monitoring implementation, holding states to account and mobilising consumer and political pressure on non-state actors. They can contribute directly to the realisation of women's rights and empowerment by challenging limiting gender stereotypes and social norms by raising consciousness and collective action.
Articles chart the development of policies and practice worldwide, drawing out both obstacles to progress and gains for women's rights. They explore three major areas: creating more opportunities for women to earn a living and exercise economic autonomy; enhancing women's political representation and enabling women to have more of a say in the decisions that affect their lives; and affirming women's rights to have control over their own bodies and a sexuality of their own choosing. Many articles concern the long, slow process of turning the commitments of Beijing into real gains for women's rights and the implications for turning subsequent commitments into action. Contributors identify a number of pathways forward to reanimate some of the radical potential of gender equality and women's empowerment now.
As the SDGs shape future development policy and funding, women's rights organisations and transnational networks have an important role to play in monitoring implementation, holding states to account and mobilising consumer and political pressure on non-state actors. They can contribute directly to the realisation of women's rights and empowerment by challenging limiting gender stereotypes and social norms by raising consciousness and collective action.
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Female autonomy and female solidarity occupy a special place in gender and development thinking. For some feminists, myself included, they represent closely held ideals; as such, they are very difficult to bring into question. This... more
Female autonomy and female solidarity occupy a special place in gender and development thinking. For some feminists, myself included, they represent closely held ideals; as such, they are very difficult to bring into question. This contribution reflects on these ideals in order to raise critical questions about the attachments that gender and development practitioners may have to particular ways of reading ‘gender relations’. It draws on ethnographic fieldwork in Nigeria to explore the lack of fit between received ‘Western’ ideas about gender and the complexity, contingency and multiplicity of relations and identifications among women in this cultural context. It argues that superimposing received notions of gendered power relations on those whom development intervention seeks to assist — in the form of gender myths that have a hold on hearts as well as minds — may offer these women neither succour, nor the means for them to empower themselves.
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Gender and development has grown enormously as a field over the last thirty years. In this introduction, we interrogate the ambivalence that underpins feminist engagement with development and examine what current dilemmas may suggest... more
Gender and development has grown enormously as a field over the last thirty years. In this introduction, we interrogate the ambivalence that underpins feminist engagement with development and examine what current dilemmas may suggest about the relationship between feminist knowledge and development practice. In recent years, there has been growing frustration with the simplistic slogans that have come to characterize much gender and development talk, and with the gap between professed intention and actual practice in policies and programmes. Questions are now being asked about what has become of ‘gender’ in development. This collection brings together critical reflections on some ideas about gender that have become especially resonant in development narratives, particularly those that entail popularization and the deployment of iconic images of women. This introduction explores more closely the issues raised by such myth-making, arguing that these myths stem from exigencies within the politics and practices of development bureaucracies, within the difficult politics of feminist engagement with development policy and practice and within feminist politics itself.
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Increasing numbers of women have gained entry into the arena of representative politics in recent times. Yet the extent to which shifts in the sex ratio within formal democratic spaces translates into political influence, and into gains... more
Increasing numbers of women have gained entry into the arena of representative politics in recent times. Yet the extent to which shifts in the sex ratio within formal democratic spaces translates into political influence, and into gains in policies that redress gendered inequities and inequalities remains uncertain. At the same time, a plethora of new democratic spaces have been created – whether through the promotion of ‘civil society organizations’ or the institutionalization of participatory governance mechanisms – which hold the prospect of democratizing other political spaces beyond those of formal politics. This study examines factors that constrain and enable women's political effectiveness in these different democratic arenas. We suggest that ‘engendering democracy’ by adding women or multiplying democratic spaces is necessary but not sufficient to address historically and culturally embedded forms of disadvantage that have been the focus for feminist politics. We suggest that an important, but neglected, determinant of political effectiveness is women's political apprenticeship –their experiences in political parties, civil society associations and the informal arenas in which political skills are learned and constituencies built. Enhancing the democratizing potential of women's political participation calls, we argue, for democratizing democracy itself: building new pathways into politics, fostering political learning and creating new forms of articulation across and beyond existing democratic spaces.
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This introductory article draws out some of the dimensions and dilemmas around women's empowerment that are highlighted in the articles in this IDS Bulletin: the choices, the negotiations, the narratives and above all, the context of... more
This introductory article draws out some of the dimensions and dilemmas around women's empowerment that are highlighted in the articles in this IDS Bulletin: the choices, the negotiations, the narratives and above all, the context of women's lived experience. In doing so, we show that empowerment is a complex process that requires more than the quick and easy solutions often offered by development agencies. Much of the significant change happening in women's lives takes place outside of the range of these conventional interventions. In conclusion, we suggest that for development agencies to really support women's empowerment requires greater engagement with changing structures rather than accommodating women within the inequitable existing order, and a much deeper understanding of what makes change happen in their lives.
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Framed by bell hooks' observation that patriarchy is a pernicious and life-threatening social disease that affects us all, the article offers some reflections on interventions aimed at changing the gender order. Development's gender... more
Framed by bell hooks' observation that patriarchy is a pernicious and life-threatening social disease that affects us all, the article offers some reflections on interventions aimed at changing the gender order. Development's gender equality effort has been targeted at people living economically precarious lives, rather than at changing those who inhabit positions of power and privilege, including many of us who work in and for development organisations. This article shifts the gaze and asks: what can we do to change our own mindsets and bring about change in our own workplaces? In it, I suggest that if we are to make development work more gender equitable, then we need to start with our own lives, and our own contributions to and investments in patriarchy. If we were to begin to acknowledge our own privilege and recognise our agency and responsibility, we would be in a better position to change the games of gendered power that take place all around us in our own institutions.
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Women's economic empowerment has come to play an increasingly prominent role in the policies of mainstream development agencies. This article draws on fieldwork amongst small-scale traders in southwestern Nigeria to suggest that the... more
Women's economic empowerment has come to play an increasingly prominent role in the policies of mainstream development agencies. This article draws on fieldwork amongst small-scale traders in southwestern Nigeria to suggest that the capacity of traders to exercise ‘choice’ is more complex than development narratives suggest. Deploying de Certeau's (1984) distinction between strategies and tactics, the article argues that making clear-cut, strategic choices is dependent on having the power to realise them: power that many women in this as in other settings, including those with considerable buying and spending power, are not in a position to fully exercise. Women's struggles for success and survival in this context, the article argues, are waged in domains where their positions as agents are relational, situational, and above all, provisional. As members of families, associations and hearth-holds, their abilities to make active, purposive, choices are constantly reconfigured in relation to these others. ‘Empowerment’ may be defined by mainstream development agencies as a destination, but looking more closely at the experiences of poor women in this setting reveals journeys along pathways that may be pitted with obstacles, in which chance and contingency may play as much of a part as deliberate choice, and for which tactics are needed for survival as well as success. A central argument in this article, then, is for the need to factor contingency into representations of women's working lives in development discourse, which in turn calls for an approach that can accommodate the mediation of agency and the tensions between autonomy and connectedness that course through women's lives.
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Narratives of civil society participation often paint an overly rosy picture of engaged citizens enlivening democratic deliberation and democratizing decision-making. In this chapter, I draw on ethnographic research in a “new democratic... more
Narratives of civil society participation often paint an overly rosy picture of engaged citizens enlivening democratic deliberation and democratizing decision-making. In this chapter, I draw on ethnographic research in a “new democratic space” in north-eastern Brazil to explore the politics of institutionalized civil society participation in health governance. Told in three instalments, this chapter traces the biography of a participatory health council through different periods of membership, leadership and local government administrations. In doing so, I juxtapose the normative assumptions of narratives of civil society with the politics and dynamics of participation in this particular political, cultural and social context.
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Research Interests: Accountability, Global Citizenship, Deliberative Democracy, Participatory Democracy, Public Policy Analysis, and 6 moreCitizen participation, Democracy and Citizenship Education, Political and Economic Development, Transparency and Good Governance, Deliberative Democracy and Conflict, and Global Social Justice and Education
Brazil's Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), a universal, publicly-funded, rights-based health system, designed and put in place in an era where neo-liberal reforms elsewhere in the world have driven the marketization of health services, offers... more
Brazil's Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), a universal, publicly-funded, rights-based health system, designed and put in place in an era where neo-liberal reforms elsewhere in the world have driven the marketization of health services, offers important lessons for future health systems. In this article, we focus on the innovative institutional mechanisms for popular involvement and accountability that are part of the architecture for governance of the SUS. We argue that these mechanisms of public involvement hold the potential to sustain a compact between state and citizens and ensure the political momentum required to broaden access to basic health services, while at the same time providing a framework for the emergence of “regulatory partnerships” capable of managing the complex reality of pluralistic provision and multiplying sources of health expertise in a way which ensures that the needs and rights of poor and marginalised citizens are not relegated to the periphery of a segmented health system.
Purpose Bridging the gap between professionals and communities and establishing new forms of partnership is essential if service provision is to be made more responsive and accountable. This article describes an innovative approach to... more
Purpose Bridging the gap between professionals and communities and establishing new forms of partnership is essential if service provision is to be made more responsive and accountable. This article describes an innovative approach to creating the basis for partnerships to address community wellbeing on an estate in south London.Methods Drawing on participatory appraisal and action planning methods, and drawing together residents and professionals within and beyond the health service, a participatory wellbeing assessment exercise was carried out on a housing estate with a population of around 6000 people, involving just under 10% of residents.Results The participatory wellbeing assessment exercise served as a means of seeking to bridge different perceptions, priorities and perspectives on wellbeing and forge new relationships, alliances and partnerships for change. Creating this vehicle for change also created opportunities for local people to participate in community wellbeing issues. This, in turn, strengthened connections between health policy, provision and grassroots community health development, broadening opportunities for service responsiveness and citizen involvement.Conclusion Broadening involvement in assessing and determining priorities for improving wellbeing can serve to do more than enable citizens to engage more directly in making and shaping the policies that affect their lives. It can also serve as a way of establishing new kinds of partnerships across and within the statutory and non-statutory services, opening up space for new, more ‘joined up’ forms of work that help to bridge the gap between citizens and services.
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The world over, public institutions appear to be responding to the calls voiced by activists, development practitioners and progressive thinkers for greater public involvement in making the decisions that matter and holding governments to... more
The world over, public institutions appear to be responding to the calls voiced by activists, development practitioners and progressive thinkers for greater public involvement in making the decisions that matter and holding governments to account for following through on their commitments. Yet what exactly 'participation' means to these different actors can vary enormously. This article explores some of the meanings and practices associated with participation, in theory and in practice. It suggests that it is vital to pay closer attention to who is participating, in what and for whose benefit. Vagueness about what participation means may have helped the promise of public involvement gain purchase, but it may be time for more of what Cohen and Uphoff term 'clarity through specificity' if the call for more participation is to realize its democratizing promise.
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Tells in photos the experiences of domestic workers in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
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This chapter is about using narrative biographical method with Maharashtrian sex workers and their clients-turned-lovers to hear their stories of life and love. It describes an accidental research project that emerged out of a... more
This chapter is about using narrative biographical method with Maharashtrian sex workers and their clients-turned-lovers to hear their stories of life and love. It describes an accidental research project that emerged out of a politically-driven desire to do what sex workers charged 'western feminists' like myself with failing to do: to listen to their accounts of themselves, and their own lives, not to judge, or prejudge, but to show up, shut up and listen, and pay attention to what they were saying. They were rightly tired of stories of abjection that represented them as objects of pity, as they were of tales that disregarded the realities of abuse at the hands of the police and those who take it upon themselves to rescue sex workers. I give an account here of the unfolding process of designing the research project with the sex workers and the organisations that represent and work with them, VAMP (Veysha Anyay Mukhti Parishad, which can be translated as 'sex workers freedom from injustice') and SANGRAM. I describe how Sutapa Majumdar and I worked together to conduct the narrative biographical interviews, and the approach I took to analysing and making sense of what we learnt. And I reflect on how the method of narrative biography offered me the opportunity as a researcher to listen and learn without being overly directive in making the enquiry all about answers to my questions rather than about their reflections, memories and experiences.
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This article considers the contribution participatory process evaluation can make to impact assessment, using a case study of a study carried out to evaluate how a Kenyan nutrition education program had brought about change in the... more
This article considers the contribution participatory process evaluation can make to impact assessment, using a case study of a study carried out to evaluate how a Kenyan nutrition education program had brought about change in the nutritional status of children and in their and their parents' understanding and practices. Using Bhola's three dimensions of impact—''impact by design " , ''impact by interaction " , and ''impact by emergence " —focuses not just on what changes as an intended result of an intervention, but on how change happens and how positive changes can be sustained. The principal focus of the article is methodological and as such it describes in some detail the development of a sequence of participatory visualization and discussion methods and their application with a range of stakeholders, from program staff in the headquarters of the implementing agency, to local government officials, front-line program workers, and beneficiaries. It suggests that the use of a participatory approach can enable researchers and evaluators to gain a fuller picture of incidental and unintended outcomes arising from interventions, making participatory process evaluation a valuable complement to other impact assessment methodologies.
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Participatory approaches offer a way of generating a collective process of learning and action, in which those involved engage in deliberative analysis to build workable solutions. Their use can democratise the research process, by... more
Participatory approaches offer a way of generating a collective process of learning and action, in which those involved engage in deliberative analysis to build workable solutions. Their use can democratise the research process, by enabling those whom research is purportedly about or for to become actively involved in establishing its focus, in guiding its directions and in drawing from analysis the possibilities for action. They can be used to tackle deep-rooted prejudices against poor/uneducated/minority/disabled or otherwise different people, both through cognitive processes (recognising their expertise) and through processes that work with relationships. And the use of these methods by professionals can be a way of creating the basis for developing a shared vision and engagement of citizens in priority setting for policy, and for monitoring and evaluating outcomes. This guide provides a very basic introduction to the methods of Participatory Rural Appraisal.
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On the outskirts of London, in an island of relative deprivation in the midst of suburban affluence, a participatory wellbeing needs assessment brought together residents and professionals to explore community health and wellbeing... more
On the outskirts of London, in an island of relative deprivation in the midst of suburban affluence, a participatory wellbeing needs assessment brought together residents and professionals to explore community health and wellbeing concerns. Departing from conventional health needs assessment, which privileges the perspectives of medical 'outsiders', this needs assessment sought to understand residents' own perspectives on health and wellbeing. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) formed the basis for a participatory research process that involved residents and professionals as partners. Rather than simply gathering information, the participatory research process emphasised the importance of involving residents in naming, and becoming involved in realising, solutions to the wellbeing challenges they identified. Through participatory analysis and action planning, partnerships were developed to address residents' priorities for action. These went beyond the narrow remit of 'health', stimulating a shift in perspective to encompass multi-sectoral measures to improve wellbeing on the estate.
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Much of the power of the use of digital and visual communications in activist research comes from their capacity to make the political personal, to connect personal stories to collective issues, and to make concrete abstract notions in a... more
Much of the power of the use of digital and visual communications in activist research comes from their capacity to make the political personal, to connect personal stories to collective issues, and to make concrete abstract notions in a way that is not always possible in academic writing. New communications technologies offer possibilities of challenging existing framings of other lives, turning prejudice and preconception upside down and creating the possibilities for new, more horizontal, modes of communicative engagement. They present possibilities for engagement that transcend the traditional limits of conventional media, and lend activist researchers tools that can create the basis for new forms of collectivity of action, organizing and identification. This chapter reflects on the creative communications work of the Pathways of Women's Empowerment programme, which brought together feminist researchers, activists and communicators in five continents with a shared goal of enquiring into how change happens in women's lives, and what can be done to provoke and support positive change. We reflect on a number of modes of digital and creative expression used in the programme to engage diverse audiences, create connections and provoke disagreement and debate.
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The images used to market development often feature women, as victims of terrible traditions and disempowering situations, or – more commonly these days – as enterprising agents of change, poised to ‘lift’ economies and their families and... more
The images used to market development often feature women, as victims of terrible traditions and disempowering situations, or – more commonly these days – as enterprising agents of change, poised to ‘lift’ economies and their families and communities. These images tell a story of victims and heroines, representing development as a project of uplift and rescue. This chapter explores the politics of these representations. It takes as its point of entry a film project that sought to disrupt these narratives, producing a short film called Save us from Saviours. Engaging with those often represented as tragic victims and left out of the story of enterprising entrepreneurs to tell a story about sex work, collective action and social change, the film speaks to a set of larger questions about development intervention. Juxtaposing Save us from Saviours with another film, made at the same time about some of the same people, which gave rise to a third film, made by the sex workers in response, the chapter reflects on the complexities of development communications in an age of global connectivity.
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Since the late 1990s, development institutions have increasingly used the language of rights in their policy and practice. This special issue on feminist perspectives on the politics of rights explores the strategies, tensions and... more
Since the late 1990s, development institutions have increasingly used the language of rights in their policy and practice. This special issue on feminist perspectives on the politics of rights explores the strategies, tensions and challenges associated with ‘rights advocacy’ in a variety of settings. Articles on the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, East and South Asia explore the dilemmas that arise for feminist praxis in these diverse locations, and address the question of what rights can contribute to struggles for gender justice. They examine the intersection of formal rights—whether international human rights conventions, constitutional rights or national legislation—with the everyday realities of women in settings characterised by entrenched gender inequalities and poverty, plural legal systems and diverse cultural norms that can constitute formidable obstacles to realising rights. They suggest that these sites of struggle can create new possibilities and meanings through a politics animated by demands for social and gender justice.
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In this article, I explore the role of anthropology and anthropologists in unsettling orthodoxies and provoking disquiet with taken for granted ways of thinking and doing. Set against the backdrop of the debates about engaged... more
In this article, I explore the role of anthropology and anthropologists in unsettling orthodoxies and provoking disquiet with taken for granted ways of thinking and doing. Set against the backdrop of the debates about engaged anthropology, my interest is in exploring an approach to anthropology that takes anthropological practice seriously and with it the role of the anthropologist as activist and agent of change. I argue that the work of the anthropologist is not just to do fieldwork and produce texts, but that “engagement” has a more interactive dimension. By acting anthropologically, I suggest, anthropologists can be activists in ways and in settings that are distinct from the kinds of engagement envisaged in contemporary debates on “engaged”, “activist” and “public” anthropology, as well as the modes of practice characteristic of “applied” anthropology. I draw on fragments of auto-ethnography to explore what the idea of acting anthropologically might offer within as well as outside the academy.
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Is it even possible to think about a decolonised development studies? Isn't the very idea unthinkable, the juxtaposition of those two words an oxymoron? Until very recently, I was convinced that the inherent coloniality of development... more
Is it even possible to think about a decolonised development studies? Isn't the very idea unthinkable, the juxtaposition of those two words an oxymoron? Until very recently, I was convinced that the inherent coloniality of development would make such a project impossible. All that was to be done, I thought, was to disrupt and discourage. I saw my small contribution to this in creating an educational experience for first year international development students that would bring the development enterprise so completely into question that they could not go into it with their eyes shut. In fact, my ambition was to derail them completely from that particular journey. I would count my success in the numbers of students who woke up and switched courses, went into activism or took up careers in domains like community and youth work in the UK. But I've changed my mind. In this chapter I share what made that happen.
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This chapter is about using narrative biographical method with Maharashtrian sex workers and their clients-turned-lovers to hear their stories of life and love. It describes an accidental research project that emerged out of a... more
This chapter is about using narrative biographical method with Maharashtrian sex workers and their clients-turned-lovers to hear their stories of life and love. It describes an accidental research project that emerged out of a politically-driven desire to do what sex workers charged 'western feminists' like myself with failing to do: to listen to their accounts of themselves, and their own lives, not to judge, or prejudge, but to show up, shut up and listen, and pay attention to what they were saying. They were rightly tired of stories of abjection that represented them as objects of pity, as they were of tales that disregarded the realities of abuse at the hands of the police and those who take it upon themselves to rescue sex workers. I give an account here of the unfolding process of designing the research project with the sex workers and the organisations that represent and work with them, VAMP (Veysha Anyay Mukhti Parishad, which can be translated as 'sex workers freedom from injustice') and SANGRAM. I describe how Sutapa Majumdar and I worked together to conduct the narrative biographical interviews, and the approach I took to analysing and making sense of what we learnt. And I reflect on how the method of narrative biography offered me the opportunity as a researcher to listen and learn without being overly directive in making the enquiry all about answers to my questions rather than about their reflections, memories and experiences.
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Os Conselhos de Saude do Brasil sao uma importante inovacao democratica que oferece oportunidades ineditas para que aqueles que usam os servicos tenham voz nas deliberacoes sobre politicas de planejamento em saude e para cobrar do governo... more
Os Conselhos de Saude do Brasil sao uma importante inovacao democratica que oferece oportunidades ineditas para que aqueles que usam os servicos tenham voz nas deliberacoes sobre politicas de planejamento em saude e para cobrar do governo a prestacao dos servicos. Como “escolas de cidadania”, essas instituicoes tem potencial para democratizar as tomadas de decisao e ampliar o envolvimento publico. Este texto trata das experiencias das pessoas que participam em uma dessas instituicoes, o Conselho Municipal de Saude do Cabo de Santo Agostinho, em Pernambuco. Ao descrever as perspectivas de representantes de gestores, profissionais e usuarios dos servicos de saude sobre sua propria atuacao no Conselho, assim como a de outros participantes, o artigo examina alguns dos desafios mais amplos para a democratizacao da governanca do setor de saude a partir desses Conselhos.
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By giving people permission to dream, space to debate, chance to learn, opportunities to contribute to righting deep-rooted wrongs, Brazil is creating a nation of informed, politically engaged citizens. The UK can learn from its example.... more
By giving people permission to dream, space to debate, chance to learn, opportunities to contribute to righting deep-rooted wrongs, Brazil is creating a nation of informed, politically engaged citizens. The UK can learn from its example. About the author Andrea Cornwall [8] is a fellow of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, southern England. She is the editor of Spaces For Change? [9] The Politics of Citizen Participation in New Democratic Arenas [9] (Zed Books, 2006) and co-editor (with Elizabeth Harrison and Ann Whitehead) of Gender Myths and Feminist Fables: The Struggle for Interpretive Power in Gender and Development [10](
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A critical look at “Poverty Reduction”, “Participation ” and
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Development organisations have learnt to talk the talk on ‘gender’. But in many if not most organisations male privilege and patriarchal attitudes and behaviour persist. This article explores techniques that can be used to make visible... more
Development organisations have learnt to talk the talk on ‘gender’. But in many if not most organisations male privilege and patriarchal attitudes and behaviour persist. This article explores techniques that can be used to make visible some of the dynamics of gendered power in organisations, as part of strategies for changing the scene in the everyday work settings in which these dynamics create obstacles for the enjoyment of greater equality and respect. It draws on anthropological and participatory methods borrowed, adapted and developed in a range of contexts, from action research on organisational culture to the delivery of ‘gender training’. Framed by bell hooks’ observation that patriarchy is a pernicious and life-threatening social disease that affects us all, the article offers some reflections on interventions aimed at changing the gender order.
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The challenge of building democratic polities where all can realize their rights and claim their citizenship is one of the greatest of our age. Reforms in governance have generated a profusion of new spaces for citizen engagement. In some... more
The challenge of building democratic polities where all can realize their rights and claim their citizenship is one of the greatest of our age. Reforms in governance have generated a profusion of new spaces for citizen engagement. In some settings, older institutions with legacies in colonial rule have been remodelled to suit contemporary governance agendas; in others, constitutional and governance reforms have given rise to entirely new structures. These hybrid 'new demo-cratic spaces' (Cornwall and Coelho ) are intermediate, situated as they are at the interface between the state and society; they are also, in many respects, intermediary spaces, conduits for negotiation, information and exchange. They may be provided and provided for by the state, backed in some settings by legal or constitutional guarantees and regarded by state actors as their space into which citizens and their space into which citizens and their their representatives are invited. Yet they may also ...
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... have exclusive rights over their children as their'owners', something that can bind women into ... But the agency of children themselves, and the possibili-ties open to women for ... Esther Goody (1982), writing... more
... have exclusive rights over their children as their'owners', something that can bind women into ... But the agency of children themselves, and the possibili-ties open to women for ... Esther Goody (1982), writing about northern Ghana, argues that the primacy of identities through birth ...
Owo, omo ati alafia (money, children and peace) play an Important part in the everyday struggles of women and men in Ado-Odo, a small town in southwestern Nigeria. Without money, alafia becomes all the more elusive, without children it is... more
Owo, omo ati alafia (money, children and peace) play an Important part in the everyday struggles of women and men in Ado-Odo, a small town in southwestern Nigeria. Without money, alafia becomes all the more elusive, without children it is hard to be happy; alafia is less a goal to be actively pursued, than a state defined by an absence of difficulties and trouble. Owo, omo ati alafia are the things that women and men pray for and struggle to maintain. In this thesis, I explore the relational contexts in which their quests for money, children and peace take place. Discourses on women's behaviour in Ado-Odo present a powerful normative critique in which women and men of all ages are lively participants. Conjuring up unruly women who fail to obey their husbands, fight with his other wives and run after men and money, these discourses make reference to another time, 'the olden days', when women endured their marriages without complaint and knew their place. Discourses on the...
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The images used to market development often feature women, as victims of terrible traditions and disempowering situations, or – more commonly these days – as enterprising agents of change, poised to ‘lift’ economies and their families and... more
The images used to market development often feature women, as victims of terrible traditions and disempowering situations, or – more commonly these days – as enterprising agents of change, poised to ‘lift’ economies and their families and communities. These images tell a story of victims and heroines, representing development as a project of uplift and rescue. This chapter explores the politics of these representations. It takes as its point of entry a film project that sought to disrupt these narratives, producing a short film called Save us from Saviours. Engaging with those often represented as tragic victims and left out of the story of enterprising entrepreneurs to tell a story about sex work, collective action and social change, the film speaks to a set of larger questions about development intervention. Juxtaposing Save us from Saviours with another film, made at the same time about some of the same people, which gave rise to a third film, made by the sex workers in response, the chapter reflects on the complexities of development communications in an age of global connectivity.
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This special issue of PLA Notes focuses on participatory approaches to sexual and reproductive health. It brings together accounts of exciting initiatives from around the world that hold the potential for transforming an arena that has... more
This special issue of PLA Notes focuses on participatory approaches to sexual and reproductive health. It brings together accounts of exciting initiatives from around the world that hold the potential for transforming an arena that has tended to provide information and services rather than seek to engage people more actively in processes of change. Ranging from innovative uses of participatory methods to enhance communication and understanding to strategies to amplify the voices of people who would otherwise remain unheard in policy and institutional processes, the articles in this issue offer food for thought and lessons from experience.
Narratives of civil society participation often paint an overly rosy picture of engaged citizens enlivening democratic deliberation and democratizing decision-making. In this chapter, I draw on ethnographic research in a “new democratic... more
Narratives of civil society participation often paint an overly rosy picture of engaged citizens enlivening democratic deliberation and democratizing decision-making. In this chapter, I draw on ethnographic research in a “new democratic space” in north-eastern Brazil to explore the politics of institutionalized civil society participation in health governance. Told in three instalments, this chapter traces the biography of a participatory health council through different periods of membership, leadership and local government administrations. In doing so, I juxtapose the normative assumptions of narratives of civil society with the politics and dynamics of participation in this particular political, cultural and social context.
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Conventional health needs assessment, in the UK as elsewhere, generally involves the collection and analysis of quantitative data by ‘expert’ researchers. Shifting the frame from analysis by health researchers to a process of co-learning... more
Conventional health needs assessment, in the UK as elsewhere, generally involves the collection and analysis of quantitative data by ‘expert’ researchers. Shifting the frame from analysis by health researchers to a process of co-learning with community members involves a number of challenges, which this article seeks to address. It draws on experience with Participatory Wellbeing Assessments in the London Boroughs of Sutton and Merton over the last few years.
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In the two decades since military rule ended in Brazil, there has been a remarkable flowering of new democratic practices and spaces for participation. Brazil’s 1988 ‘Citizens’ Constitution’ created the legal basis for some of the world’s... more
In the two decades since military rule ended in Brazil, there has been a remarkable flowering of new democratic practices and spaces for participation. Brazil’s 1988 ‘Citizens’ Constitution’ created the legal basis for some of the world’s most progressive democratic institutions. Democratic innovations such as participatory budgeting (orçamento participativo) have brought Brazil to the forefront of debates on tackling democratic deficits through participatory governance. Brazil’s social movements and left-wing political parties have played an active part in this process of democratisation, engaging citizens in making demands on the state and claiming their rights, and promoting new, expanded understandings of citizenship and democracy. What lessons do Brazil’s democratic experiments offer other countries? This briefing shares some of the insights that arose from a DFID-Brazil funded project called Olhar Crítico – ‘a critical look’ – that brought together activists, academics and pra...
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Resumo Um aparente paradoxo persegue o aumento do empoderamento de mulheres e meninas. O argumento instrumental para “investir nas mulheres” foi colocado de forma persuasiva e brilhante. No entanto, o “caso do empreendedorismo” é... more
Resumo Um aparente paradoxo persegue o aumento do empoderamento de mulheres e meninas. O argumento instrumental para “investir nas mulheres” foi colocado de forma persuasiva e brilhante. No entanto, o “caso do empreendedorismo” é sustentado principalmente por pesquisas feministas estruturadas por preocupações materialistas com desigualdade persistente ao invés do propósito de “liberar potencial”, e com transformação estrutural em vez de simplesmente incorporar mulheres em mercados de trabalho sustentados por normas e práticas injustas e discriminatórias. Situo algumas das contradições da atual conjuntura e exploro o papel da análise crítica na desestabilização dos mitos e conflações de gênero que caracterizam o que eu chamo de empoderamento light.
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Brazil’s ‘Citizens’ Constitution’ of 1988 established health as ‘the right of all and the duty of the state’. It also guaranteed the right of citizens to participate in the governance of the Sistema Unico de Saude (National Health System;... more
Brazil’s ‘Citizens’ Constitution’ of 1988 established health as ‘the right of all and the duty of the state’. It also guaranteed the right of citizens to participate in the governance of the Sistema Unico de Saude (National Health System; SUS for short) through institutions created at municipal, state and national level. Nowhere else in the world have such ambitious and far-reaching efforts been made to institutionalize citizen participation in the governance of health systems. Yet the dominant tone in the literature on participation in Brazil’s SUS is largely negative, with many observers questioning whether these institutional arrangements have had any significant impact on improving efficiency, shifting priorities towards the needs of the poorest or promoting genuinely accountable health system management.2
Six years ago we published the piece on sexuality and the development industry reproduced here, coming out of a workshop in 2008. We argued that the development industry makes sexuality invisible, and subjects it to implicit assumptions,... more
Six years ago we published the piece on sexuality and the development industry reproduced here, coming out of a workshop in 2008. We argued that the development industry makes sexuality invisible, and subjects it to implicit assumptions, even in such areas that obviously intersect with sexuality, such as population, gender and HIV and AIDS. We described the heteronormativity and gender stereotypes in development, with people being assumed to all fit into two categories — men and women — with women being portrayed as powerless victims and men as brutish predators. We spoke of how the narratives of empowerment and subordination assume a heterosexual subject, and privilege normative models of family founded on the heterosexual married couple.
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Much of the power of the use of digital and visual communications in activist research comes from their capacity to make the political personal, to connect personal stories to collective issues, and to make concrete abstract notions in a... more
Much of the power of the use of digital and visual communications in activist research comes from their capacity to make the political personal, to connect personal stories to collective issues, and to make concrete abstract notions in a way that is not always possible in academic writing. New communications technologies offer possibilities of challenging existing framings of other lives, turning prejudice and preconception upside down and creating the possibilities for new, more horizontal, modes of communicative engagement. They present possibilities for engagement that transcend the traditional limits of conventional media, and lend activist researchers tools that can create the basis for new forms of collectivity of action, organizing and identification. This chapter reflects on the creative communications work of the Pathways of Women's Empowerment programme, which brought together feminist researchers, activists and communicators in five continents with a shared goal of enquiring into how change happens in women's lives, and what can be done to provoke and support positive change. We reflect on a number of modes of digital and creative expression used in the programme to engage diverse audiences, create connections and provoke disagreement and debate.
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Brazil's health councils appear to offer inspiring examples of what Fung and Wright (2003) term “empowered participatory governance.” But what happens in practice? This article narrates an episode in the life of a municipal health... more
Brazil's health councils appear to offer inspiring examples of what Fung and Wright (2003) term “empowered participatory governance.” But what happens in practice? This article narrates an episode in the life of a municipal health council in northeast Brazil, in which democracy itself came under deliberation. It seeks to locate normative assumptions embedded in theories of deliberative democracy and participatory governance in everyday conduct in one of these institutions. It suggests that assessing the democratizing potential of the myriad new spaces that now populate governance landscapes the world over calls for far closer attention to be paid to power, political culture, and politics.
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This book draws upon anthropology, feminism and postmodernism to offer a penetrating and challenging study of how gender operates. The book offers a radical critique of much of the recent writing on and by men and raises important... more
This book draws upon anthropology, feminism and postmodernism to offer a penetrating and challenging study of how gender operates. The book offers a radical critique of much of the recent writing on and by men and raises important questions about emodiment, agency and the variety of masculine styles.
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This is a study of efforts to improve the responsiveness of public service providers to the needs of service users, particularly the poorest service users. This paper examines over sixty case studies of both public-sector reforms to... more
This is a study of efforts to improve the responsiveness of public service providers to the needs of service users, particularly the poorest service users. This paper examines over sixty case studies of both public-sector reforms to foster stronger client focus in service delivery; and civil-society initiatives to demand improved services. This work was concerned to identify means of amplifying citizen'voice'such that engagement with the state moves beyond consultative processes to more direct forms of influence over policy and spending ...