Management By Seclusion
From the publisher:
50 years ago, World Bank President Robert McNamara promised to end poverty. Alleviation was to rely on economic growth, resulting in higher
incomes stimulated by Bank loans processed by deskbound Washington staff, trickling down to the poorest. Instead, child poverty and homelessness are on the increase everywhere. In this book, anthropologist and former World Bank Advisor Glynn Cochrane argues that instead of Washington’s “management by seclusion,” poverty alleviation requires personal engagement with the poorest by helpers with hands-on local and cultural skills. Here, the author argues, the insights provided by anthropological fieldwork have a crucial role to play.
Glynn Cochrane was World Bank Advisor on Public Administration in Papua New Guinea, and Chief World Bank/UNDP Advisor for Civil Service Reform in Tanzania. In 1971 he proposed the establishment of an interdisciplinary Development Anthropology for practitioners. Based on the recommendations in his 1973 report the World Bank hired its first anthropologists, and in 1974 he wrote Social Soundness Analysis, an appraisal system that has been used in USAID projects for over 40 years.
Berghahn Books. Publication date: March-April 2019
Anthropology in the Mining Industry
From the publisher:
This book outlines how Rio Tinto―one of the world’s largest miners―redesigned and rebuilt relationships with communities after the rejection of the company during Bougainville’s Civil War. Glynn Cochrane recalls how he and colleagues utilized their training as social anthropologists to help the company to earn an industry leadership reputation and competitive business advantage by establishing the case for long-term, on the ground, smoke-in-the-eyes interaction with people in local communities around the world, despite the appeal of maximal efficiency techniques and quicker, easier answers. Instead of using ready-made, formulaic toolkits, Rio Tinto relied on community practitioners to try to accommodate local preferences and cultural differences. This volume provides a step-by-step account of how mining companies can use social anthropological and ethnographic insights to design ways of working with local communities, especially in times of upheaval.
Glynn Cochrane, before his work with Rio Tinto, was Professor at the Maxwell Graduate School at Syracuse University, USA, and a World Bank staff member. He is now an adjunct faculty member at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Palgrave-Macmillan. Published 2017.
Challenging the Prevailing Paradigm of Displacement and Resettlement
From the Publisher:
Development-caused forced displacement and resettlement (DFDR) is a critical problem on the international development agenda. The frequency of forced displacements is rapidly increasing, the sheer numbers of uprooted and impoverished people reveal fast accelerating trends, whilst government reporting remains poor and misleading. Challenging the Prevailing Paradigm of Displacement and Resettlement analyzes widespread impoverishment outcomes, risks to human rights, and other adverse impacts of displacement; it documents under-compensation of expropriated people, critiques cost externalization on resettlers, and points a laser light on the absence of protective, robust, and binding legal frameworks in the overwhelming majority of developing countries.
In response, this book proposes constructive solutions to improve quality and measure the outcomes of forced resettlement, prevent the mass-manufacturing of new poverty, promote social justice, and respect human rights. It also advocates for the reparation of bad legacies left behind by failed resettlement. It brings together prominent scholars and practitioners from several countries who argue that states, development agencies, and private sector corporations which trigger displacements must adopt a “resettlement with development” paradigm. Towards this end, the book’s co-authors translate cutting edge research into legal, economic, financial, policy, and pragmatic operational recommendations. An inspiring and compelling guide to the field, Challenging the Prevailing Paradigm of Displacement and Resettlement will be of interest to university faculty, government officials, private corporations, researchers, and students in anthropology, economics, sociology, law, political science, human geography, and international development.
Seeking Justice in an Energy Sacrifice Zone
From the Publisher:
Seeking Justice in an Energy Sacrifice Zone is an ethnographic examination of the lived experience of rapid environmental change in coastal Louisiana, USA. Writing from a political ecology perspective, Maldonado explores the effects of changes to localized climate and ecology on the Isle de Jean Charles, Grand Caillou/Dulac, and Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribes. Focusing in particular on wide ranging displacement effects, she argues that changes to climate and ecology should not be viewed in isolation as just physical processes but as part of wider socio-political contexts. Seeking Justice in an Energy Sacrifice Zone is useful reading for students of environmental anthropology, as well as those taking other environmental and socio-political courses.
Extractive Relations
From the Publisher:
Extractive Relations explores the nature of industrial power and its role in shaping what we understand to be the global mining sector. The authors examine issues at the forefront of contemporary debates: corporate obligations in safeguarding the rights of people displaced by mining, the recognition of community rights and interests in supporting or opposing mining developments, the handling of non-judicial grievances and workability of corporate remedy systems, and the logic of community relations departments in navigating these issues inside and outside of the typical modern mining establishment.
The authors develop a unique theoretical approach that highlights the different types and uses of power in these settings. This perspective is supported by the authors’ own sustained engagement with the mining sector over many years, drawing on cases from over twenty countries. The analysis of these issues from both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the sector is a key point of differentiation. For readers seeking to understand how mining companies interpret and interact with the communities and interests around their operations, this book provides invaluable insight and analysis.
Large Dams
From the publisher:
This book highlights the first comparative long-term analysis of the negative impacts of large dams on riverine communities and on free-flowing rivers in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Following the Foreword by Professor Asit K. Biswas, the first section covers the 1956–1973 period, when the author
believed that large dams provided an exceptional opportunity for integrated river basin development. In turn, the second section (1976–1997) reflects the author’s increasing concerns about the magnitude of the socio-economic and environmental costs of large dams, while the third (1998–2018) discusses why large dams are in fact not cost-effective in the long term. The E-book can be found here.
Routledge Handbook of Environmental Displacement and Migration
From the Publisher:
The last twenty years have seen a rapid increase in scholarly activity and publications dedicated to environmental migration and displacement, and the field has now reached a point in terms of profile, complexity, and sheer volume of reporting that a general review and assessment of existing knowledge and future research priorities is warranted. So far, such a product does not exist.
The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Displacement and Migration provides a state-of-the-science review of research on how environmental variability and change influence current and future global migration patterns and, in some instances, trigger large-scale population displacements. Drawing together contributions from leading researchers in the field, this compendium will become a go-to guide for established and newly interested scholars, for government and policymaking entities, and for students and their instructors. It explains theoretical, conceptual, and empirical developments that have been made in recent years; describes their origins and connections to broader topics including migration research, development studies, and international public policy and law; and highlights emerging areas where new and/or additional research and reflection are warranted.
The structure and the nature of the book allow the reader to quickly find a concise review relevant to conducting research or developing policy on particular topics, and to obtain a broad, reliable survey of what is presently known about the subject.
Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement in Bangladesh
From the Publisher:
A very first for Bangladesh, this edited book examines the complex issues of development-induced displacement and resettlement using case studies with “good practice” examples from a wide range of ongoing projects. The authors, who are largely “practitioners” in the field of resettlement studies, are well-known in the country and internationally for their expert knowledge. The book establishes a baseline for further research on resettlement and development in Bangladesh. It is rich in well-presented case studies replete with evidence-based strategies to help prevent impoverishment amongst those displaced by development projects. The chapters in this collection address emerging issues and approaches to resettlement and thus have enriched the literature in an era of rapid economic development and change. Thus, the book will remain as a valuable resource and reference or teaching aid in academic and development circles.
