Description

This book offers a critical look at the compelling issue of global aid. 

 

Glynne Cochrane draws on his many years as a development anthropologist to show how the “Festival Elephants” of development aid are wasting time and money instead of helping to solve poverty.  The author takes issue with the idea that there is only one kind of global poverty (and one single solution).  Instead, through his travels to places like the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, the Cook Islands, and Tanzania, the author shows that poverty is locally experienced and contextually variable.

Features

• The author boasts five decades of field experience, thereby ensuring authenticity of material and rich first person narratives
• Maps in each chapter help students get closer to local examples and context
• Lively writing style throughout the entire text keeps students engaged
• Through the author's dedication to and experience with fieldwork- based development work, students can see the benefits of participant observation and other field methods

New to this Edition

N/A

Table of Contents

Preface

 

1.   The Myth of Global Poverty

2.  Lessons from Elephants and Fieldwork

3.  Worker Elephant Apprenticeship in the Solomon Islands

4.  Festival  Elephant Culture Shock in Papua New Guinea and Polynesia

5. Festival Elephant Grandstanding in East Africa

6. Worker Elephants in the Mining Industry

7.  Reinventing Festival Elephants

 

Bibliography

Back Cover

Anthropology / International Development / Current Affairs

 

Where do all the millions of dollars of aid money go?

 

Drawing on his many years as a development anthropologist, Glynn Cochrane shows how the flashy “Festival Elephants” of development aid are wasting time and money instead of helping to solve poverty. He demolishes the myth of one kind of global poverty and one single solution to it.  

 

His work experience in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, the Cook Islands, and Tanzania, illustrates how poverty is locally experienced and contextually variable. In addition, Cochrane's ten years as Social Advisor to Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest mining companies, demonstrates that fieldwork-based community relations, following a “Worker Elephant” or anthropological model, are a better way to alleviate poverty.  

 

He challenges global aid agencies, civil society organizations, and corporations to retire “Festival Elephants” and reinvent “Worker Elephants.” If his plan succeeds, you might someday hear a different story about where all the millions of dollars aid go-they just might go to the poor.

 

Glynn Cochrane is a development anthropologist with forty years of experience in academia and in the public and private sectors. Trained at Oxford University, he then taught at Syracuse University and other institutions worldwide. He has worked for development agencies in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, the Cook Islands, and Tanzania. His books include Big Men and Cargo Cults, What We Can Do for Each Other, Development Anthropology, and The Cultural Appraisal of Development Projects.

 

 

Author

Glynn Cochrane, a renowned development anthropologist, was trained at Oxford University. He taught at Syracuse University and other institutions worldwide. He has worked for development agencies in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, the Cook Islands, and Tanzania. As Senior Social Advisor for Rio Tinto, he developed the company's community relations approach. His books include Big Men and Cargo Cults, What We Can Do for Each Other, Development Anthropology, and The Cultural Appraisal of Development Projects.   He is currently Senior Advisor to Rio Tinto on Community Relations.