This book shows how we can look at the intersections among cultural settings, local choices, and development outcomes. A success story from Nepal serves as a prototype. Data, examples of success, and frameworks for analysis were developed locally and internationally and then shared in ways that elicited local creativity and respected cultural differences. This story serves as a springboard for reconsidering how to generate and apply cultural knowledge. The guiding metaphor might be “soil science” rather than “social science.” The culture and development manifesto calls for more science and more listening, for boldness and humility. It recommends a new paradigm for policy analysis and evaluation, as well as for the application of anthropological wisdom, where the goal is not to provide a set of answers that decision-makers or citizens should adopt and bureaucrats should implement, but to share data, examples, and frameworks in ways that helps locals enrich their creativity and expand their sovereignty.
Non-Equilibrium Social Science and Policy