ANTH 320/DEVS 321 PEOPLE AND DEVELOPMENT Fall 2017

Remember: Essays due Nov. 27
re clear and rigorous essay structure, see Chibnik 2015: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aman.12290/epdf
Also consult http://stfx.libguides.com/c.php?g=101558&p=658461, especially the Anthropology Department Style Guide at http://stfx.libguides.com/ld.php?content_id=3538355


Nov. 20, 22 Capitalism and development
    READ: Errington, Frederick, Tatsuro Fujikura and Deborah Gewertz (2010) “Instant noodles as an antifriction device: Making the BOP with PPP in PNG.” American Anthropologist 114(1): 19-31.

    Karim, Lamia (2008) “Demystifying Micro-Credit : The Grameen Bank, NGOs, and Neoliberalism in Bangladesh.” Cultural Dynamics 20(1): 5-29.


Errington, Fujikura and Gewertz
Argument:
    - what do the authors argue about instant noodles in PNG?
Theoretical concept:
    - what is an “anti-friction device”?
Context:
    - what is the premise of the “Bottom of the Pyramid” approach?
    - how and where were instant noodles invented?
Evidence:
    - how has the introduction, manufacturing and sales of instant noodles in PNG reflected the BOP approach?
    - how do PNG citizens represent the BOP?
    - how has the PNG political economy fostered the BOP approach?
    how does the popularity of instant noodles facilitate the creation of consumers out of PNG BOP, thus making them an “anti-friction device”?
Conclusion: sum up and suggest a possible outcome if people become suspicious that they are merely pawns in capitalist profit-making scheme

Is targeting the Bottom of the Pyramid for sales of products a viable development approach? Will it enrich BOP consumers and give them choice?


Nov. 22: Read Karim
- Guest speaker, Dr. Susie Walsh

- what is micro-credit? (What is "macro" credit?)
- where did this current development interest in it begin?
    - the case of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh [Yunus and Grameen got Nobel in 2006]
- how does micro-credit work?

- ideological and substantive ethnographic critiques of micro-credit:
    - note Karim’s insistence on the value of ethnographic research – why? (Endnote 7)

- What are Karim’s arguments?
    - the context: why is Bangladesh so significant?
        - Grameen
        - NGOs as “shadow state”
    - the theoretical framework: (Harvey, Ong); political economy of shame
     - the data and analysis: what actually happens in micro-credit in Bangladesh?
        - what does it offer, to whom, and on what terms?
        - how is the money used and by whom?
        - does it empower women?  If so, which women?
        - how does it use kin, social relations and pre-existing forms of coercion?
    - note the investment of NGOs, politicians, academics, police, etc. in NGOs and micro-credit, in ways that preempt criticism

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