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Helping people help themselves : from the World Bank to an alternative philosophy of development assistance / David Ellerman.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Ellerman, David P.
- Series:
- Evolving values for a capitalist world
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- World Bank.
- Economic assistance--Developing countries.
- Economic assistance.
- Economic development--Social aspects.
- Developing countries.
- Economic development--Social aspects--Developing countries.
- Economic development.
- World Bank--Developing countries.
- Genre:
- Electronic books.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (xx, 334 pages).
- Place of Publication:
- Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2005.
- System Details:
- text file
- Summary:
- David Ellerman presents a deep theoretical groundwork for a philosophy of development, while offering a descriptive, practical suggestion of how goals of development can be better set and met. The theory implies that conventional development assistance agencies such as the World Bank are inherently structured to provide help that is ultimately unhelpful by overriding or undercutting the capacity of people to help themselves. To move forward, Ellerman argues that the best strategy for development is a drastic reduction in conventional development assistance so that the locus of initiative can then shift from the would-be helpers to the doers of development. Ellerman presents various methods for shifting initiative that are indirect, enabling, and autonomy-respecting. Eight representative figures in the fields of education, community organization, economic development, psychotherapy, management theory, and social philosophy including: Albert Hirschman, Paulo Freire, John Dewey, and Soren Kierkegaard demonstrate how the major themes of autonomy-respecting assistance are essentially the same across the different fields.
- Contents:
- Introduction and overview
- Internal and external motivation: beyond homo economicus
- The indirect approach
- Indirect approaches: intellectual history
- Autonomy-respecting development assistance
- Knowledge-based development assistance
- Can development agencies learn and help clients learn?
- Case study: assistance to the transition countries
- Hirschmanian themes of social learning and change
- Conclusions.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-325) and index.
- Description based on information from the publisher.
- ISBN:
- 0472114654
- 9780472021765
- Publisher Number:
- 10.3998/mpub.93546
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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