International development and the ‘perpetual present’: Anthropological approaches to the re-historicization of policy

Abstract

Development agencies tend to focus more strongly on the promised delivery of change in the future than they do on analysing the historical contexts and origins of development ideas and practices. The histories of development ideas and agencies, as well as those of the people who work within them, are therefore important topics for anthropological attention. This paper sets out arguments for an anthropological approach that contributes a renewed sense of history to development policy and practice. There are two dimensions to this approach. The first is a need to place more stronger emphasis on the historical and political factors that help construct contexts in which development interventions occur. The second is to adopt a longer frame of historical reference in relation to development ideas, concepts and practices themselves, so that prevailing tendencies that focus attention predominantly on the present and the future can be challenged and counterbalanced. In order to illustrate these arguments, the paper explores issues in the history of ideas about non-governmental actors in development, and in the life histories of some of the individuals involved. Such an approach can be added to several other renewed forms of anthropological engagement that are helping move the anthropology of development away from an earlier impasse of ‘theoretical’ versus ‘applied’ tensions. A key role for a renewed and relevant anthropological engagement with development is one that brings a historical perspective on rapidly shifting fads and fashions that serve to over-simplify or erase the past to construct a ‘perpetual present’.Les agences de développement ont tendance à se concentrer sur le changement potentiel futur plutôt que d'analyser les contextes historiques et les origines des idées et des pratiques en matière de développement. L'historique des idées et des agences de développement, ainsi que celui des individus travaillant au sein de ces dernières, sont donc un objet important d'attention de la part des anthropologues. Cet article vise à établir les paramètres d'une approche anthropologique qui contribuerait à renouveler le sens de l'histoire des politiques et pratiques en matière de développement. Il y a deux dimensions à cette approche. La première correspond à un besoin de mieux mettre en valeur les facteurs historiques et politiques qui contribuent à l'émergence de contextes spécifiques donnant lieu à des interventions particulières. La deuxième consiste à adopter une vision historique plus longue par rapport aux idées, concepts, et pratique de développement, afin de contrer les tendances actuelles qui se concentrent principalement sur le présent et le futur. Afin d'illustrer ces arguments, cet article explore l'historique d'idées concernant les acteurs non gouvernementaux dans le développement, en se focalisant en particulier sur les histoires de vie d'individus spécifiques. Une telle approche fait partie d'une nouvelle panoplie d'outils conceptuels qui peuvent aider l'anthropologie du développement à transcender l'impa...

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