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The road to nowhere?

journal contribution
posted on 2009-03-01, 00:00 authored by Holly HighHolly High
Anthropological understandings of development have often discussed development projects in terms of an extension of the state. Using the example of a participatory poverty reduction project in Laos, this article outlines how development schemes also have the potential to define areas of exception from state services. This project was understood by project officers as an example of a successful “participatory” project. Lao recipients, however, interpreted it in terms of the non-provision of state services, and thus as further evidence of governmental corruption and deceit. These residents—far from resisting the notion of development, or the extension of the state—emphasized largesse and provisioning as the hallmarks of a successful project and a legitimate state. Their forms of “everyday resistance” to the project focused on narratives demanding more incorporation with the state.

History

Journal

Focaal

Volume

2009

Issue

53

Pagination

75 - 88

Publisher

Berghahn Books

ISSN

0920-1297

eISSN

1558-5263

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

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