Becoming traditional: Contemporary san art and the production of (non-) knowledge

The contribution of arts for development has recently received a great deal of attention from international donors ad organizations. The anthropology of art, however, has participated in a limited way in these debates. Borrowing theoretical tools from the socio-anthropology of development, this paper questions the politics of knowledge involved in the implementation of art projects in postcolonial context. Drawing on ethnographical research in Botswana on an art project opened by a NGO for the San people, it describes the ways areas of knowledge and non-knowledge have been attributed. It shows that the conceptions of knowledge at stake in the making of contemporary San art indirectly reproduce a Great Divide between modernity and tradition, which has direct impacts on the ways the practice is appropriated by local actors.

The Struggle Against the Ebola Epidemics in Guinea, and the Hardships Related With Professional and Community-Based Identities

International audience This article describes the interactions among different social actors involved in the fight against the Ebola epidemic in Guinea, focusing on their professional and community identities. It shows how the epidemic has contributed to create new identities, grouped into two different semantic fields: the “Ebola people” and the “communities”, but also new professional identities. In the theoretical framework of Olivier de Sardan’s socio-anthropology of development, the article tries to provide a better knowledge about the experts of the “Riposte,” belonging to different disciplinary fields and on their representations of local people. Cet article décrit les interactions entre les différents acteurs impliqués dans la lutte contre l’épidémie d’Ebola en Guinée, en se focalisant sur leurs identités communautaires et professionnelles. Il montre comment l’épidémie a contribué à forger de toute pièce des identités inédites, regroupées en deux camps opposés, « les gens d’Ebola » et les « communautés », ainsi que de nouvelles figures professionnelles. Dans une perspective de la socio-anthropologie du développement de Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, l’article cherche à contribuer à une meilleure connaissance des opérateurs de la « Riposte », des interactions entre les spécialistes de disciplines différentes et de leurs représentations sur les populations locales. L’articolo descrive le interazioni tra i vari attori impegnati nella lotta contro l’epidemia di Ebola in Guinea, concentrandosi sulle loro identità professionali e comunitarie. Mostra in che modo l’epidemia abbia contribuito a creare delle identità inedite, raggruppate in due campi opposti: la “gente di Ebola” e le comunità, ma anche a determinare la nascita di nuove figure professionali. Richiamandosi alla socio-antropologia dello sviluppo di Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, l’articolo cerca di fornire una migliore conoscenza degli esperti della “Riposte”, delle interazioni tra specialisti di diverse discipline et delle loro rappresentazioni sulle popolazioni locali.

Sparks and Fizzles: Divergent Performances and Patterns of Cambodian Development Projects

Starting from a development pilot project that aimed to introduce new water accounting procedures to Cambodia, this article examines interactions between technical experts from abroad and government officials. Drawing on STS, performativity theory, and the anthropology of development, the article shows that the dynamics at the project interface are characterized by parallel and incongruent performances. Visiting technical experts work on the assumption that they are operating at a science-policy interface. Meanwhile, officials align with the demands of technical rationality, aware of its discrepancy with the performance of politics outside the project frame. Two versions of project realities and their relation to broader Cambodian realities are thus performed simultaneously, but awareness of this is not evenly distributed, with significant consequences for the aspiration of development organizations to transfer knowledge. The case study feeds into a subsequent characterization of a more general pattern of sparks and fizzles, in which projects continuously start up, while efforts to bootstrap technology transfer peter out as they end. This pattern may be endemic to development projects that operate on the assumption of a science-policy interface that is not really there.

Conclusions

Chapter 8 summarizes the key findings and the theoretical framework of the book. The use of mobile telephony has influenced social life, economy, and politics in the village as a part of many ongoing changes: the decline of agriculture, increased contact between the rural and urban worlds, new aspirations, and changes in caste and gender relationships. The chapter summarizes the theoretical contribution of the book: the role of mobile telephony for social change can be best understood by relating mobile phone–mediated conversations with other speech contexts. Furthermore, this chapter assesses the role of mobile telephony in development by engaging with the anthropology of development. Detailed attention to information and communication technologies’ multiple uses and influences can help create development interventions and policies that account for the multiplicity of actors and ongoing social processes.