A forum to foster dialogue across disciplines on issues related to culture and development.and their implications for public action. Based on the book:

Culture and Public Action, Vijayendra Rao and Michael Walton (editors), Stanford University Press, 2004. The South Asia Edition has been published by Permanent Black.

 

Contributors (In Order of Chapters in the Book):

Amartya Sen, Arjun Appadurai, Mary Douglas, Marco Verweij, Timur Kuran, Arjo Klamer, Lourdes Arizpe, Sabina Alkire, Anita Abraham, Jean-Phiippe Platteau, Monica Das Gupta, Carol Jenkins, Fernando Calderon, Alicia Szmuckler, Simon Harragin, Shelton Davis,Vijayendra Rao, Michael Walton

 
| Conference Videos and Proceedings |
| The Book |

| Commentaries and

Further Reading |

| Web Resources |

     



 

Reviews, Commentaries And Further Reading

 

Reviews

 

David Brooks in the New York Times

 

Economic and Political Weekly

 

Economic Development and Cultural Change

 

Development and Change

 

Journal of Regional Science

 

American Anthropologist

 

Seminar

 

Canadian Journal of Sociology

 

 

 

Commentaries

 

Essays on Culture and Public Action

 

Christopher A Bayly

Professor of History, Cambridge University

Indegenous and Colonial Origins of Comparative Economic Development: The Case of India and Africa

 

Michael Cernea

Professor of Anthropology, George Washington Univ., ex-Senior Advisor, The World Bank,

"Culture? At the World Bank? A Letter to a Friend" (Michael Cernea reminisces on the early days of socio-cultural awareness at the World Bank - commissioned for this web site)

 

Scott Guggenheim, Lead Social Scientist, World Bank

Crises and Contradicions: Understanding the Origins of a Community Development Project in Indonesia

 

 

Steve Gudeman

Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota

"Anthropology, economics, and development: Cross disciplines" (Commissioned for this web site)

 

Keith Hart

Senior Research Fellow at The Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research

"The anthropology of development: bureaucracy vs the people" (Commissioned for this web site)

 

Glenn Loury

Professor of Economics at Boston University

"Some Thoughts on Managing difference"

 

Ghazala Mansuri and Vijayendra Rao

Development Research Group, The World Bank

"Community Based (and Driven) Development: A Critical Review (Discusses the evidence on how well participatory development has worked)

 

David Mosse

Dept. of Anthropology, School of Orient and African Studies (SOAS), London

"Good Policy is Unimplementable? Reflections on the Ethnography of Aid and Practice,"

 

 

Debraj Ray

Professor of Economics, New York University

Aspirations, Poverty and Economic Change (An economist's take on the Chapter by Appadurai)

 

Video of a discussion with Professor Amartya Sen on his life and work.

 

Presentations from the Conference

Karla Hoff

Senior Research Economist in the World Bank’s Development Research Group

"Coordination failures"

Michael Woolcock

Social Scientist with the Development Research Group at the World Bank

"Culture and development: Rethinking implications for policy research"

Peter Lanjouw

Senior Economist in the World Bank's Development Research Group

"Implications for policy research"

Isabel Guerrero

Country Director for Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru at the World Bank

"Listening to beneficiaries to improve development effectiveness"

 

Deepa Narayan

Senior Adviser in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network of the World Bank

"Commentary"

 

 

Discussants Comments on Book Chapters

Debraj Ray

Professor of Economics at New York University

"Comments on chapter by Arjun Appadurai"

Steve Gudeman

Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota

"Comments on chapters by Amartya Sen and Arjun Appadurai"

Keith Hart

Senior Research Fellow at The Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research

"Comments on chapters by Anita Abraham/Jean-Phillipe Platteau and Simon Harragin"

Kamala Chandrakirana

Secretary General of the Indonesian National Commission on Violence Against Women

"Comments on chapters by Monica Das Gupta and Carol Jenkins"

 

 

Further Reading:

Culture Concepts in Anthropology, Sociology and Economics

Culture Concept
A review of the various approaches to culture in anthropology

Culture and Economics
A review of the various approaches to culture in economics

Anthropology and Development
An overview of anthropology's engagement with development

Development Anthropology

Economic Anthropology

Anthropological Critiques of Development

Sociology of Development
An overview of sociology's engagement with development

 

 

 
 

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