Development Harnessing 'Tradition' - Uneasy Partnerships
This area of research developed out of engagement with the Marena Research Project at Sussex University, and from the longer-term interest in the role of indigenous ritual and political leaders in and political leaders in natural resource management (NRM) in Africa (see Landscape, Culture and Development research). More specifically, work has been done to study the way in which NGOs (but also government development organizations) have recently turned to 'indigenous' or 'traditional' leaders, such as chiefs or councils of elders, because they see them as providing a convenient vehicle for successful and sustainable NRM.
This research was carried out in Mozambique and Ethiopia, although literature suggests that the revival of interest in harnessing customary institutions is much more widespread across the African continent. The interest in customary institutions has been generated partly by the disillusionment with top-down, modernizing development, the decline in state institutions that has accompanied neo-liberalism, the rise in participatory development approaches, and the search for culturally appropriate and functioning alternatives.
Publications
- Black, R. and Watson, E.E. 2006. 'Local community, legitimacy, and cultural authenticity in postconflict natural resource management: Ethiopia and Mozambique' Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 24 (2): 263 - 282.
Watson, E.E. 2006. 'Culture and Conservation in Post-Conflict Africa' in S. A. Radcliffe ed. Culture and Development in a Globalizing World: Geographies, Actors and Paradigms. London: Routledge.- Watson, E. E. 2003. 'Examining the Potential of Indigenous Institutions for Development: A Perspective from Borana, Ethiopia'. Development and Change 35, 287-309.