Dissertation Research: Ethnography of a Development Project

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project involves the dissertation research of an anthropology student from CUNY. The student will conduct a case study of a development project in Cochabamba, Bolivia, instituted by a German development agency. Through intensive interviews, the student will examine the goals and objectives of the different actors in the project -- donors, administrators, experts, and the local people. The PROSANA development project will be studied to describe how the values of the German donors and Bolivian intermediaries and subjects intermesh, compare and contrast. By examining the development project as a process beginning in Germany and continuing in Bolivia, with interaction and back-and-forth negotiation instead of the simple picture of top-down development, the project will contribute a valuable case to the literature. This research is important because it will add to the nation's expertise about this important region of the world through advanced training, and will extend our understanding of how economic development works as a process of negotiation between different cultural systems. Increased understanding of the cultural component of development will help planners avoid mistakes based on fundamental misunderstandings and will be useful in designing programs that have greater chances of attaining their goals.