Overview

Full Product Details

9781565493230

Table of Contents

Reviews

Inside the Everyday Lives of Development Workers: The Challenges and Futures of Aidland , edited by Anne-Meike Fechter and Heather Hindman and published by Kumarian Press, is an ethnographic exploration of the people who make up Aidland. Any book that helps us aid workers and do-gooders cultivate the sophistication needed to find our way among the great responsibility, privilege and burden of Aidland is welcome.

Inside the Everyday Lives of Development Workers: The Challenges and Futures of Aidland , edited by Anne-Meike Fechter and Heather Hindman and published by Kumarian Press, is an ethnographic exploration of the people who make up Aidland. Any book that helps us aid workers and do-gooders cultivate the sophistication needed to find our way among the great responsibility, privilege and burden of Aidland is welcome. Rich with insight into the daily lives and entanglements, the dilemmas and reflections, of the people who work on the front lines of development in a period when roles such as altruistic hero, or technical expert, or even professional or employee are fragile, and the entire enterprise of development invites cynicism and critique. By opening the black box on development work, the authors offer glimpses of soul-searching and pragmatism in equal measure, as workers struggle to find meaning in their work, or simply to get their work done. It is an overdue topic, subjected here to searching analysis. The international aid industry is now a significant sector employing a vast array of specialized professionals, administrators, field workers and volunteers. Understanding the work that is undertaken by the people who live and work within this increasingly powerful yet diverse world has long been neglected in the study of international aid. Drawing on up-to-date ethnographic work by leading academic researchers, this timely book provides a fascinating set of insights into their public and private lives. This collection directs us to think about the labor of aid work and the study of aid work from a fresh perspective. The issues raised are crucial for courses that deal with development anthropology, intercultural dynamics of international conflict management, management of nonprofits, organization studies, political anthropology, anthropology of work, and even introductory cultural anthropology courses. I imagine that people in aidemia, like Peace Corps volunteers and NGO workers, as well as readers within academia, would find it useful, if not also eye opening. This is a superb book, and should be read by a wide range of people, not least those thinking of working in the field.

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available