United Nations report 1951: rapid economic progress and painful adjustments
Truman: ‘fair deal' - the US and the world have to solve the problems of the underdeveloped areas (misery, food inadequate, poverty, disease…). He develops the idea that humanity has the knowledge to relieve the suffering of these people. Capital, science and technology are the key elements for this ambitious revolution -American dream of peace.
Report UN 1951: restructuration of underdeveloped areas was necessary to achieve this will. It appears to us as an ethnocentric and arrogant will. This dream turned into a nightmare: it produced ‘massive underdevelopment and impoverishment, untold exploitation and oppression' - loss of illusion. The Third Word has been produced by the discourses and the practices of development.
Until the late 1970s, it was the kind of development needed to solve social and economic problems in these countries which was the central question of theorists and politicians (Capitalist development vs ‘another development', ‘participatory development' or ‘socialist development') - discussion about the way of developing but no doubt it was necessary to develop these countries.
Recent studies about this ‘colonization of reality' and the way certain representations become dominant. Foucault explained how ‘a certain order of discourse produces permissible modes of being and thinking while disqualifying and even making others impossible'.
[...] New geographical terrain: the Third World. ‘War on poverty' in the Third World, especially led by the US (new dominant power). 2/3 of the world population living in poor conditions: famine, disease, poverty. ⇨ World as a whole becoming intolerable because the destinies of poor and rich parts of the world were closely linked (“Genuine World prosperity is indivisible”). Systemic pauperization became inevitable with the consolidation of capitalism in Europe, and then with the development discourse in the Third World. [...]
[...] Fairhead and M. Leach - ‘Webs of power and the construction of environmental policy problems: forest loss in Guinea' - Contrast between the formulation of problems in development policy and the perspectives of villagers whose views have been subjugated, and everyday activities, have been criminalized, within this formulation. - Narrative constructions in development institutions - for instance, in terms of environmental changes, false ideas have come to acquire validity in policy circles whereas what local people thought (generally more correct ideas) has been excluded from consideration. [...]
[...] They were irresponsible. Silencing women Emphasised role of women- but how to involve them? Minimal participation because they were “constrained practically by the structure of their work roles, which made it difficult for them to be present collectively, continuously and at central places (away from field and home), and socially but ideologies of gender (and practices of veiling) which did not acknowledge women's perspective or give legitimacy to expression in public – except where they affirmed conventional domestic roles (childcare, health, home-based activities)and kept their appearance of male control”. [...]
[...] Knowledge is produced through complex interactions between project development workers and Bhil villagers. ‘VILLAGE ENTRY': NEGOTIATING PROJECT VILLAGE RELATIONS Mutual tension between villagers and project team. Development workers worried about the unknown and insecure place they are going to stay (as well as their families) - otherness experience. The fieldworkers did not really know how to position themselves (confused about their identity and the purpose of the project). It is still difficult to understand the Bhils, even if you have read many books about them. [...]
[...] - The discourse processes condition knowledge produced about development problems. Forest loss perceived in Guinea For at least a century, environmental policy makers considered that forest patches were endangered (especially because of extensive farming) and they fought against that, whereas in reality, it is the result of human management. It is proved that forest islands have been created by local populations. But images of environmental changes were derived from ‘scientific' analyses. They have been included in Guinean environmental institutions and into the popular consciousness of state functionaries (e.g. [...]
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