Inside the Everyday Lives of Development Workers : The Challenges and Futures of Aidland.
- 1st ed.
- 1 online resource (234 pages)
Cover -- Contents -- 1 Introduction -- 2 False Binaries: Altruism and Selfishness in NGO Work -- 3 Maintaining Independence: The Moral Ambiguities of Personal Relations Among Ghanaian Development Workers -- 4 Intercultural Encounters, Colonial Continuities and Contemporary Disconnects in Rural Aid: An Ethnography of Development Practitioners in Madagascar -- 5 Orienting Guesthood in the Mennonite Central Committee, Indonesia -- 6 Everywhere and Everthrough: Rethinking Aidland -- 7 Anybody at Home? The Inhabitants of Aidland -- 8 Dealing With Danger: Risk and Security in the Everyday Lives of Aid Workers -- 9 The Hollowing Out of Aidland: Subcontracting and the New Development Family in Nepal -- 10 Epilogue: Who Is International Aid? Some Personal Observations -- Contributors -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y.
Rarely is the lens of aid policy turned on the lives of aid workers themselves. Yet, the seemingly impersonal network of agencies and donors that formulate and implement policy are composed of real people with complex motivations and experiences that might provide important lessons about development's failures and successes. Inside the Everyday Lives of Development Workers breaks new ground by illuminating the social and cultural world of "aidland." The authors examine how aid workers' moral beliefs link and conflict with their initial motivations; how workers relate to aid beneficiaries, their local NGO counterparts, and other aid workers; their views on race and sexuality; the effect of transient lifestyles; and the security and family issues that come with their careers. The result is an enhanced picture of development processes that acknowledges the rich web of relationships at all levels of the system.