| Development in the Commonwealth of Dominica is full of contradictions. Seemingly diametrically opposed beliefs and attitudes can be found in the manner in which local development workers approach development and in the way planners and their clients view one another. More contradictions appear in the way the local development workers and rural women think about women's economic options. These differences in perspective obstruct local development efforts.; This dissertation explores these contradictions and the differences between the perspectives of the local development workers and their female, rural clients. This work seeks to illuminate the oft-forgotten context in which development takes place, and in the process demonstrates the recursive aspects of development discourse and practice. Dominica is a small island and most development workers grew up in the same villages now targeted by their development efforts. Therefore, this dissertation is also about the production of social distance.; In 1994, I conducted fieldwork in Dominica. Using participant-observation, interviews, and surveys, I compared the women's world view to local policy makers' beliefs and expectations regarding the women's economic options, their decision-making behavior, and their attitudes towards various development programs. Unlike the rural women, most of the development planners in my study were educated abroad and had significant contact with international development agencies. I propose the origins of the difference in perspective are located in the planners' positions as mediators between the ideologies of international development agencies, the subculture of a regional development network, and the rural women who are their clients.; My research adds to discussions in economic anthropology regarding types of decision-making and initiates a new questioning of the nature of strategies. It has a strong connection to current dialogue about structure and agency. However, it also contributes to new anthropological research on development and development agencies--and to theories of knowledge and power. |
