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Contributions from
the Column
Media
Fantu Cheru, Colin Bradford Jr. (eds.): Financing the Millennium Goals
Andreas Mehler, Henning Melber et al. (eds.): Africa Yearbook 2004
Franz Kolland, August Gächter (eds.): Introduction to development sociology
OECD (ed.): Climate change and development
8-9/2006 |
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Development sociology:
more mixed bag than introduction
Franz Kolland and August Gächter (eds.):
Einführung in die Entwicklungssoziologie. Strukturen, Prozesse, Methoden.
(Introduction to development sociology. Structures, processes, methods.)
Vienna, Mandelbaum Verlag 2005,
200 p., ¤14.00, ISBN 3-85476-138-4
The editors promise an introduction to development sociology, including its main themes, methods and analyses. Disenchantment soon follows. This book is an anthology of eleven miscellaneous articles ranging from world population to health, from education to social capital, from “sex – gender – development” to diversity in family and household arrangements. It is impossible to discern any common thread running consistently through the book, an there is no explanation of why these topics in particular were selected to “give readers with no special prior knowledge . . . a basic insight into development sociology research.”
In the foreword of barely two pages, the editors make no attempt to give an outline of the core theses, common issues or the link between the individual texts. This is irritating, but found increasingly in anthologies, frequently indicating that essays were pretty much assembled by coincidence.
Those who refuse to be discouraged, however, will find some well-informed articles in this book. Franz Kolland, for instance, traces the origins of the controversial notion of “development” and introduces the reader to the mainstream of sociological thought on social change. Saskia Sassen's contribution on “Global Cities and Survival Circuits” (the only one in English) is also recommendable. It gives an insight into the work of one of the highest-profiled authors on the topic of the sociology of urban development.
Margarita Langthaler traces the post-colonial education debate in a precise overview. She criticises models which reduce education to gaining qualifications and ascribe poverty purely to a lack of education. The passages about Paulo Freire's education movement make it clear than many of its core elements deserve a renaissance after 40 years - for example, the approach that students' life world should be the point of departure of any learning process.
In the final article, Andreas J. Obrecht sings the praises of “participative dvelopment research between humanitarian aid and development cooperation.” Based on a two-month assignment in Sri Lanka following the tsunami, he smartly states that the world of development is made up of a “unilateral expertocracy” on the one hand and “much more fascinating” development research on the other. His comments on the work of the “concrete-construction contingent” and the “idealist contingent” in Sri Lanka illustrate some of the predicaments of humanitarian aid. But his criticism of the aid workers is nonetheless quite presumptuous. All the same, the final sentence of his article – and thus of the book – will let readers breathe a sigh of relief: “All the academic interest and spirit of adventure apart, it is not only personally enriching, but actually meaningful, when joint action leads to the reduction of suffering, poverty and structural exploitation.”
Hinrich Mercker
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