scholarly journals Speaking Back, Striking Back

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Eugenie Reidy
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Applied Anthropology ◽  
Sufficient Time ◽  
Local Agency ◽  
International Ngos ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Local Perspectives ◽  
Development Anthropology ◽  
Moral Questions

AbstractThis article explores local agency in development anthropology, a prominent form of applied anthropology that has encouraged reflection on the practice of anthropology itself (Mosse 2013). Drawing on specific fieldwork experiences from time the author spent working for the United Nations and international NGOs in East Africa, it discusses several complexities and moral questions that arose. In particular, it focuses on the challenges for local perspectives to be represented, given the subjective interests in which development encounters are embedded. It also looks at instances where ‘speaking back’ does occur, and where it arguably becomes ‘striking back’. In light of this, the article discusses what can be mutually exchanged between development and anthropology, with a particular focus on the accommodation of local agency and participation, and the need for fieldwork approaches based on sufficient time, trust and positionality.

DISPOSABLE PEOPLE THROUGH THE GREEN DOOR: A Day in the MISR Flat in Kampala

2000 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-186
Author(s):  
Barbara Harrell-Bond
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Keynote Address ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
The People ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
World Mission

AbstractIn this article, originally delivered as a keynote address at the 1999 Chicago World Mission Institute which addressed the theme "Disposable People? Refugees, Migrants, and the Church's Mission Today," Dr. Barbara Harrell-Bond tells about some of the people that she has encountered in her work as a researcher into refugee rights in East Africa. Using this narrative approach, Dr. Harrell-Bond paints poignant portraits of people who, in the eyes of so many, are simply "disposable." What is to be done? First, we must expose the myth of "us" and "them" (see Judy Mayotte's story of the Bosnian refugee in the following article). Second, we must work for better training of refugee workers. Third, we must oppose and expose policies that prevent agency workers from acting in truly humane ways. Fourth, we must acknowledge and move beyond the intimidation that NGOs suffer under the shadow of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees.

Prologue

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orentlicher Diane
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Legal Obligation ◽  
Local Agency ◽  
Strategic Framework ◽  
Local Discretion ◽  
Practical Guidance ◽  
The United Nations

In this prologue, the author reflects on the process of updating in 2005 the United Nations Set of Principles for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights Through Action to Combat Impunity (‘The Principles’). The author, who drafted the report that accompanied the Updated Principles, discusses the challenges involved in her work as well as the factors that were taken into consideration in the preparation of the report. The Principles, first conceived in 1997, serve two fundamentally different functions: first, as a classic soft law instrument and second, as ‘standards drawn from experience’ that could serve ‘as a broad strategic framework for action against impunity’. As a source of practical guidance derived from ‘best practices’, the Principles seek to honor local agency, reflecting in particular the perspectives of victims. They also recognize the elemental importance of clarifying where local discretion ends and legal obligation begins.

Frank Dixey, 7 April 1892 - 1 November 1982

1983 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 158-176
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Arid Lands ◽  
Geological Surveys ◽  
West Central ◽  
British Science ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Government ◽  
Colonial Office

Sir Frank Dixey, geological explorer, often unaided, of tracts of uncharted country in west, central and east Africa, pure and applied geomorphologist, a leading expert on hydrogeology, occupied a unique place in British science. In the last days of empire, when the Colonial Office began to take geology and mineral resources seriously, he became geological adviser to the Minister. In 1948 he was given the task of forming a Directorate of Colonial Geological Surveys and for twelve years he served as its first director. For twelve further years he was active as hydrologist for the United Nations Organization, and finally for the Government of Cyprus, achieving socially valuable results. He was deeply interested in the problems of the arid lands.

Heritage Foodways as Matrix for Cultural Resurgence: Evidence from Rural Peru

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raúl Matta
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Cultural Organization ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Symbiotic Relation ◽  
Peasant Farmers ◽  
Local Perspectives ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract:This article explores critical directions in the study of cultural heritage and, in particular, food heritage research. Its goal is to deliver insight into local perspectives produced outside mainstream heritage organizations. Strategies implemented jointly by peasant farmers of rural Peru and non-governmental organizations committed to promoting cultural resurgence show how food discloses the symbiotic relation between nature and culture in these indigenous worlds, and allows for claims grounded in social, political, and economic imaginaries. The initiatives described in this article develop within transnational networks of partners and interlocutors but outside of universalist pretensions. They constitute food heritage that differs from that of global cultural actors such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the United Nations by addressing only the needs of local communities and not complying with mechanisms that bring prestige and revenues to states and powerful cultural entrepreneurs. Globally nurtured, but locally implemented, these locally based initiatives seek out and take advantage of opportunities in strategic, proactive fashions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document