(Assignment 3) Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan: Anthropology and Development Stereotypes, Ideologies and Conceptions - Krupa Maria Varghese

Sardan’s chapter ‘Stereotypes, ideologies and conceptions’ from his work Anthropology and Development looks at the discrepancy between the attitudes that development agents expect from the ‘target population’ and their ‘real’ attitudes. He says, “The problem resides
less in the discrepancy itself (which is unavoidable, as we shall see) than in the
way in which interveners react to it: how they adapt (or fail to adapt), how they
integrate (or fail to integrate) it, how they explain (or fail to explain) it.”

“This chapter concentrates on the first point, which takes into account the conceptions of the actors involved in development, namely how they perceive development in general, how they perceive  development projects in particular, and, finally, how they perceive the other actors involved.”

Sardan identifies two paradigms under the category of meta-ideology—altruist paradigm and modernist paradigm. “Everyone whether World Bank expert or humble NGO activist) is convinced that his or her efforts serve the welfare of the populations, and everyone is convinced that the competence he or she employs in this noble task (be it in specialized tropical agro-forestry or in a somewhat vaguer and more nebulous domain like ‘community development’) is beyond the current capacity of these populations.” “The point to note is that what the altruist paradigm and the modernist paradigm – under various latent forms, of course – have in common is that both constitute an almost unavoidable reservoir of justifications.” “‘Infra-ideologies’ of development, as observed in development actors, entail conceptions that shape real or projected world visions. Two series of complementary conceptions exist side by side: first, conceptions of societies as they are; second, conceptions of societies as they ought to be.”

Sardan identifies five models that are not only present in the development configuration but also occupy pride of place in various anthropological works. “These five stereotypes are, the consensual village community, the peasant as an individual petty entrepreneur, the peasantry and its traditionalism, the submissive and passive peasantry and, the uncaptured, restive, rebellious peasantry.” These stereotypes are fuelled by the notion of culture. The author stresses the need to remember that “the use of the word culture should not lead us to forget that it entails permanent dynamics of transformation of norms and concepts (that is, of everything that gives a concrete meaning to the word (culture).”

The paper therefore in many ways brings out the challenges that a social scientist encounters in the field during the “development project”. From the identification of needs to the implementation of policy mechanisms, the behaviour of those who are at the receiving end of developmental measures is of great importance to the successful implementation of these measures, it is in light that understanding the dynamics of the relationship between the agents of development and the target population becomes important.