Dissertation Research: Ethnography of a Development Project

本项目涉及一位来自纽约市立大学的人类学学生的论文研究。该学生将对由一家德国发展机构在玻利维亚科恰班巴设立的一个发展项目进行个案研究。通过密集的访谈，学生将检查项目中不同参与者的目标和目的——捐助者、管理人员、专家和当地人民。将对protana发展项目进行研究，以描述德国捐助者和玻利维亚中介机构和主体的价值观如何相互作用、比较和对比。通过将发展项目作为一个从德国开始并继续在玻利维亚进行的过程，通过互动和来回谈判而不是简单的自上而下的发展图景，该项目将为文献贡献一个有价值的案例。这项研究很重要，因为它将通过高级培训增加美国对世界这一重要地区的专业知识，并将扩展我们对经济发展如何作为不同文化体系之间谈判过程的理解。增加对发展的文化组成部分的了解将有助于规划者避免基于基本误解的错误，并将有助于设计更有可能实现其目标的方案。

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.