ANT

394: The Anthropology of Development

ANT 394: The Anthropology of Development
Jason Cons: SAC 5.138; jasoncons@utexas.edu; 512.232.3832
Tuesdays 1:00-4:00pm, SAC 5.124
Office Hours: Thursdays, 12:00-3:00pm or by appointment

Course Description
Development—with its complicated relationship to modernity, progress, nature, and empire—remains
one of the central and most challenging concepts of the contemporary moment. This course explores the
complex and contested meanings of development and humanitarianism through rich ethnographies of
aid. Situating current debates against longer trajectories of development, we will explore issues such as
the use of technology in intervention; the role of development and aid in debates over security, climate,
and migration; the negotiation and meanings of ethics in humanitarian intervention; the contested
cultural politics of development; and more. Through reading ethnographies of NGOs, the development
state, rural development schemes, “informality” and microenterprise initiatives, cash transfer programs,
environmental protection plans, and refugee camps we will thus explore the contemporary state-of-play
of development. Along the way, we will question the meanings, roles, and possibilities of development
and humanitarian intervention.

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Course Framing: Why study the “anthropology” of development?

What is the purpose of a course on the “anthropology” of development? And how does it differentiate
itself from a course on development more generally? The discipline of anthropology has long had a
complicated relationship with the notion of development and modernization. Yet, it has also been a
central voice of critique and analysis in debates over what postwar and postcolonial development is and
what it might mean. While the genealogies of the anthropology of development run deep, arguably the
discipline emerged as a central and distinctive voice in the politics of development with the end of the
Cold War and the rise of what is (anachronistically) known as post-development in the 1990s. In this
course, we will explore the histories of development. But we will attend most carefully to the debates
that emerged at this moment, their critiques, and the sets of new questions and interventions they
inspired.

This course asks: what does the ethnographic study of development teach us about both the world at
large, and the specific political relations between states, international and subnational actors, and those
who are variously imagined as the objects and subjects of development and humanitarian aid. A number
of qualifications and clarifications necessarily follow.
1. This course attends to the history of development, but it is not a course that exhaustively walks
through that history. We selectively explore the ways that moments in that history resonate today.
2. This course looks at the ways that analyses of development have been generative of social theory and
anthropological theory more broadly. It is not a course on development theory at large or it’s various
iterations.
3. This course asks how the anthropological engagement with development differently informs our
understandings of concepts such as modernity, markets, economy, progress, and globalization. It is
not a course on development practice, policy, or alternatives, even though some of these topics will
be covered in our readings.
4. This course aims to introduce students to ethnographic studies of development, and, through them,
helps them to communicate and think critically about the development project and its futures. It is
not a course that offers “solutions” to the ongoing question of development (indeed, many of the
debates that we explore here will question the very possibilities of “solutions” and their implication in
broader fields of power).

Course Format, Expectations, and Procedures:
• This is a seminar course. The bulk of the class will be devoted to class discussion, not lectures. I
expect everyone to be an active, regular, and respectful participant of course discussion.
• This is a reading intensive course. I expect students to arrive in class having done the readings and
prepared to engage in active class discussion.
• I reserve the right to treat this syllabus as provisional. That is: if I or course participants identify other
readings that will be helpful, I reserve the right to swap them in for readings listed here as needed.
The amount of reading listed in this syllabus will remain approximately the same.
• I ask everyone to complete eight reading responses over the course of the semester. I will provide
more information about how to complete these in class, but I find that these are enormously helpful
at pushing class discussion forward. In order for everyone to have an opportunity to read these in
advance, I ask that the reading responses be posted by 8 pm on Tuesdays before class.
• Everyone will have an opportunity to lead class discussion twice. We will discuss the format for this
more in class.
• Your final project should be productive for you. While this project should draw on themes and
readings from the course, the format is open ended. It should be the equivalent of an approximately
20-page paper.

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• Each class has, in addition to required readings, suggested readings and/or framing pieces. The
suggested readings are just that: suggested materials that you are more than welcome to pursue for
further grounding in a given week’s materials. The framing pieces are meant similarly with the
exception that I strongly recommend that course leaders for those weeks take at least a brief look at
the materials, as they may be useful in leading course discussion.
Required Material
All course materials with the exception of books are available on the course’s Canvas site. This includes
framing pieces and suggested readings (again, with the exception of books). The following books are
required reading for the course and may be purchased at the campus store or from other venues.
• James Ferguson. 1991 (1994). The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and
Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. University of Minnesota Press.
• Gregory Mann. 2015. From Empires to NGOs in the West African Sahel: The Road to
Nongovernmentality. Cambridge University Press.
• Steven Collier. 2011. Post-Soviet Social: Neoliberalism, Social Modernity, Biopolitics. Princeton
University Press.
• Emily Yeh. 2013. Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development.
Cornell University Press.
• Antina von Schnitzler. 2016. Democracy’s Infrastructure: Techno-Politics and Protest after Apartheid.
Princeton University Press.
• Austin Zeiderman. 2016. Endangered City: The Politics of Security and Risk in Bogotá. Duke University
Press.
• James Ferguson. 2015. Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution. Duke
University Press.

Indispensable but Non-Required Resources:
If you are not familiar with the history of development or development theory and are looking for
broader grounding, I strongly recommend the following books as supplements to course material.
• Gilbert Rist. 2014. History of Development: From Western Origin to Global Faith. Zed Books.
• Richard Peet and Elizabeth Hartwick. 2015. Theories of Development: Contentions, Arguments,
Alternatives. Guilford Press.

Grading
• Course participation: 16% (based on regular and active participation in class)
• Reading Responses: 24% (based on completion of all 8 required responses)
• Course leadership: 25% (based on your two opportunities to lead a course)
• Final Paper: 35%

Classroom Policies
Policy on late work: Unexcused late papers will receive 1/3 of a letter grade deduction if less than 12
hours, a full letter grade deduction if between 12 and 24 hours late, two full letter grade deductions
between 24 and 48 hours late, and will not be accepted if more than 48 hours late. Reading responses
must be posted the night before class.

Policy on absences: I expect you to attend each class. I also recognize that things happen. Please contact
me in advance if you will be missing class. Missing more than 2 classes will be grounds for failing the
course.

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Introduction
Class 1: January 17—The “Stage” of Development
• In-class film: The Ugly American
SUGGESTED:
• Mosse, D. 2013. “The Anthropology of International Development.” Annual Review of Anthropology.
42.

Development Histories
Class 2: January 24—Past and Present Futures: Decolonization, Development, and the Current
State of Play
• Mitchell, T. 2000. “The Stage of Modernity.” In Questions of Modernity. Univ. of Minnesota Press.
• Mani, L. 1987. “Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India.” Cultural Critique.
• Cooper, F. 1997. “Modernizing Bureaucrats, Backwards Africans, and the Development Concept.”
International Development and the Social Sciences: Essays on the History and Politics of Knowledge.
University of California Press.
• Gordillo, G. 2002. “The Breath of the Devils: Memories and Places of an Experience of Terror.”
American Ethnologist.
• Fanon, F. 1965. “Algeria Unveiled.” A Dying Colonialism. Grove.
SUGGESTED:
• Prashad, V. 2008. “Bandung, the 1955 Afro-Asian Conference.” In The Darker Nations: A People’s
History of the Third World. The New Press.

Class 3: January 31—Modernization and Green Revolutions
• Scott, J. 1988. “Authoritarian High Modernism.” In Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to
Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. Yale University Press.
• Mitchell, T. 2002. “The Character of Calculability.” In Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics,
Modernity. University of California Press.
• Gupta, A. “Agrarian Populism in the Development of a Modern Nation (India).” International
Development and the Social Sciences: Essays on the History and Politics of Knowledge. University of
California Press.
• Cullather, N. 2007. “The Foreign Policy of the Calorie.” American Historical Review. 112(2).
• Cullather, N. 2004. “Miracles of Modernization: The Green Revolution and the Apotheosis of
Technology.” In Diplomatic History. 28(2).
SUGGESTED:
• Rostow, W. 1960. “The Five Stages of Growth.” In The Stages of Economic Growth. Cambridge
University Press.
• Patel, R. 2013. “The Long Green Revolution.” The Journal of Peasant Studies. 40(1).

Class 4: February 7—Structural Adjustment and Beyond
• Finnegan, W. 2003. “The Economics of Empire: Notes on the Washington Consensus.” Harpers.
• McMichael, P. “Instituting the Globalization Project.” In Development and Social Change: Global
Perspectives. Sage
• Hart, G. 2009. “D/development after the Meltdown.” Antipode. 41.
• Watts, M. 1993. “Development 1: Power, Knowledge, and Discursive Practice.” Progress in Human
Geography. 17.
SUGGESTED:
• Harvey, D. 2007. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.

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• Goldman, M. 2001. “Birth of a Discipline: Producing Authoritative Green Knowledge, World-Bank

Style.” Ethnography. 2

Class 5: February 13—Human Securities and Insecurities
• Sen, A. 1999. “Introduction” and “The Perspective of Freedom.” In Development as Freedom.
• Haq, M. 1995. ”New Imperatives of Human Security." In Reflections on Human Development. Oxford.
• Duffield, M. 2007. “Human Security and Global Danger.” in Development, Security and Unending War:
Governing the World of Peoples.
• Dunn, E. 2012. “The Chaos of Humanitarian Aid: Adhocracy in the Republic of Georgia.” Humanity.
SUGGESTED:
• Duffield, M. 2014. Global Governance and the New Wars: The Merging of Development and Security.
Zed Books.
• Kaldor, M. 2007. Human Security. Polity Press.

Inside the Machine
Class 6: February 21: Development, Institutions, and Anti-Politics
• Ferguson, J. 1994. The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power
in Lesotho. University of Minnesota Press.
SUGESTED:
• Escobar, A. 1995. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World.
Princeton University Press.
• Mosse, D. 2005. Cultivating Development: An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice. Pluto Press.
• Mitchell, T. 2002. “The Object of Development.” In Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity.
University of California Press.

Class 7: February 28: Historicizing the Rise of Development/Aid
• Mann, G. 2015. From Empires to NGOs in the West African Sahel: The Road to Nongovermentality.
Oxford

Class 8: March 7: Ordered, Empowered, and Disordered Markets (Women as an Object of
Development)
• Elyachar, J. 2002. “Empowerment Money: The World Bank, Non-Governmental Organizations, and
the Value of Culture in Egypt.” Public Culture. 14(3).
• Sharma, A. 2008. “Empowerment Assemblages: A Layered Picture of the Term.” Logics of
Empowerment: Development, Gender, and Governance in Neoliberal India. Univ. of Minnesota Press.
• Kabeer, N. 2011. “Between Affiliation and Autonomy: Navigating Pathways of Women’s
Empowerment and Gender Justice in Rural Bangladesh.” Development and Change. 42(2).
• Roy, A. 2012. “Subjects of Risk: Technologies of Gender in the Making of Millennial Modernity.” Public
Culture. 24(1).
SUGGESTED:
• Cons, J. and K. Paprocki. 2010. “Contested Credit Landscapes: Microcredit, Self-Help, and Self-
Determination in Rural Bangladesh.” Third-World Quarterly. 31(4).
• Elyachar, J. 2005. Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, Economic Development, and the State in Cairo.
Duke University Press.
• Chatterjee, P. 2004. “Politics of the Governed.” In The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular
Governance in Most of the World. Columbia University Press.

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• Roy, A. “Why India Cannot Plan Its Cities: Informality, Insurgence and the Idiom of Urbanization.”
Planning Theory. 8(1).

Rethinking Neoliberal and Illiberal Development
Class 9: March 21: Biopolitics of the Future
• Collier, S. Post-Soviet Social: Neoliberalism, Social Modernity, Biopolitics. Princeton University Press.

Class 10: March 28: “Gifts” of Development
• Yeh, E. 2013. Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development. Cornell
University Press.

Class 11: April 4: Infrastructures of D/development
• Von Schnitzler, A. 2016. Democracy’s Infrastructure: Techno-Politics and Protest After Apartheid.
Princeton University Press.

Reconstituting the Present: Managing Crisis
April 11: Preparedness, Adaptation, Resilience
• Li, T. 2009. “To Make Live or Let Die? Rural Dispossession and the Protection of Surplus Populations.”
Antipode. 41.
• Mark Duffield. 2010.” The Liberal Way of Development and the Development-Security Impasse:
Exploring the Global Life-Chance Divide.” Security Dialogue. 41(1).
• Walker, J. and M. Cooper. 2011. “Genealogies of Resilience: From Systems Ecology to the Political
Crisis of Adaptation.” Security Dialogue. 42(2).
• Paprocki, K. forthcoming. “Threatening Dystopias: Development and Adaptation Regimes.” Antipode.
• Cons, J. forthcoming. “Staging Climate Security: Resilience, Experiment, and Spectacle in the
Bangladesh Borderlands.” Cultural Anthropology.
SUGGESTED:
• Watts, M. 2014. “Resilience as a Way of Life: Biopolitical Security, Catastrophism, and the Food-
Climate Change Question.” In Bioinsecurities and Vulnerability. SAR Press.
• Evans, B. and J. Reid. 2014. Resilient Life: The Art of Living Dangerously. Polity Press.

Class 13: April 18 Humanitarian Technologies
• De Laet, M and A. Mol. 2000. “The Zimbabwe Bush Pump: Mechanics of a Fluid Technology.” Social
Studies of Science. 30(2)
• Redfield, P. 2012. “BioExpectations: Life Technologies as Humanitarian Goods.” Public Culture. 24
• Cross, J. 2013. “The 100th Object: Solar Lighting Technology and Humanitarian Goods.” Journal of
Material Culture.
• Redfield, P. 2016. “Fluid Technologies: The Bush Pump, the LifeStraw®, and Microworlds of
Humanitarian Design.” Social Studies of Science. 46(2).
• Mathur, N. 2012. “Transparent-Making Documents and the Crisis of Implementation: Rural
Employment Law and Development Bureaucracy in India.” PoLAR. 35(2).

Class 14: April 25: Managing Risk and Security
• Zeiderman, A. 2016. Endangered City: The Politics of Security and Risk in Bogotá. Duke Univ. Press.
SUGGESTED:
• Collier, S. and A. Lakoff. 2015. “Vital Systems Security: Reflexive Biopolitics and the Government of
Emergency.” Theory, Culture & Society. 32(2).

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Class 15: May 2— Beyond Development?

• Ferguson, J. 2015. Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution. Duke Univ. Press.

POLICIES & RESOURCES
University Policies
Religious Holy Days
By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date
of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a
project in order to observe a religious holy day, I will give you an opportunity to complete the missed
work within a reasonable time after the absence.

Q Drop Policy
If you want to drop a class after the 12th class day, you’ll need to execute a Q drop before the Q-drop
deadline, which typically occurs near the middle of the semester. Under Texas law, you are only allowed
six Q drops while you are in college at any public Texas institution. For more information, see:
http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/csacc/academic/adddrop/qdrop

Student Accommodations
Students with a documented disability may request appropriate academic accommodations from the
Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities, 512-471-
6259 (voice) or 1-866-329-3986 (video phone). http://ddce.utexas.edu/disability/about/
• Please request a meeting as soon as possible to discuss any accommodations
• Please notify me as soon as possible if the material being presented in class is not accessible
• Please notify me if any of the physical space is difficult for you

Academic Integrity
Each student in the course is expected to abide by the University of Texas Honor Code:
“As a student of The University of Texas at Austin, I shall abide by the core values of the
University and uphold academic integrity.”
This means that work you produce on assignments, tests and exams is all your own work, unless it is
assigned as group work. I will make it clear for each test, exam or assignment whether collaboration is
encouraged or not.
Always cite your sources. If you use words or ideas that are not your own (or that you have used in
previous class), you must make that clear otherwise you will be guilty of plagiarism and subject to
academic disciplinary action, including failure of the course.
You are responsible for understanding UT’s Academic Honesty Policy which can be found at the
following web address: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/acint_student.php

University Resources for Students

The university has numerous resources for students to provide assistance and support for your learning,
use these to help you succeed in your classes

The Sanger Learning Center
Did you know that more than one-third of UT undergraduate students use the Sanger Learning
Center each year to improve their academic performance? All students are welcome to take advantage
of Sanger Center’s classes and workshops, private learning specialist appointments, peer academic

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coaching, and tutoring for more than 70 courses in 15 different subject areas. For more information,
please visit http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/slc or call 512-471-3614 (JES A332).

The University Writing Center
The University Writing Center offers free, individualized, expert help with writing for any UT student, by
appointment or on a drop-in basis. Consultants help students develop strategies to improve their writing.
The assistance we provide is intended to foster students’ resourcefulness and self-reliance.
http://uwc.utexas.edu/

Counseling and Mental Health Center
The Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC) provides counseling, psychiatric, consultation, and
prevention services that facilitate students' academic and life goals and enhance their personal growth
and well-being. http://cmhc.utexas.edu/

Student Emergency Services
http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/emergency/

ITS
Need help with technology? http://www.utexas.edu/its/

Libraries
Need help searching for information? http://www.lib.utexas.edu/

Canvas
Canvas help is available 24/7 at https://utexas.instructure.com/courses/633028/pages/student-tutorials

Important Safety Information

BCAL
If you have concerns about the safety or behavior of fellow students, TAs or Professors, call BCAL (the
Behavior Concerns Advice Line): 512-232-5050. Your call can be anonymous. If something doesn’t
feel right – it probably isn’t. Trust your instincts and share your concerns.

Evacuation Information
The following recommendations regarding emergency evacuation from the Office of Campus Safety
and Security, 512-471-5767, http://www.utexas.edu/safety/

Occupants of buildings on The University of Texas at Austin campus are required to evacuate buildings
when an alarm or alert is activated. Alarm activation or announcement requires exiting and assembling
outside, unless told otherwise by an official representative.
• Familiarize yourself with all exit doors of each classroom and building you may occupy. Remember
that the nearest exit door may not be the one you used when entering the building.
• Students requiring assistance in evacuation shall inform their instructor in writing during the first week
of class.
• In the event of an evacuation, follow the instruction of faculty or class instructors. Do not re-enter a
building unless given instructions by the following: Austin Fire Department, The University of Texas
at Austin Police Department, or Fire Prevention Services office.
• Link to information regarding emergency evacuation routes and emergency procedures
can be found at: www.utexas.edu/emergency