Anthropology and Development

Western aid is in decline. Non-traditional development actors from the developing countries and elsewhere are in the ascendant. A new set of global economic and political processes, from government sovereign wealth funds and private corporations buying up agricultural land across Africa, to citizen movements driving political change in the Arab world, are shaping the twenty-first century. 'Anthropology and Development' is a completely rewritten new edition of the best-selling 'Anthropology, Development and the Post-Modern Challenge' (Pluto Press, 1996). While the world of international development has expanded and changed since the 1990s, it has become more rigidly technocratic. This has narrowed rather than widened the scope anthropological engagement. At the same time, a 'new anthropology of development' has continued to emerge, leading anthropologists to engage far more fully with the institutions and ideas of the aid industry than before. The authors argue that the new priority for anthropologists of development during the coming years is to return to basics, insisting on some core anthropological issues surrounding poverty and inequality.