Development beyond Politics: Aid, Activism and NGOs in Ghana [Hardcover]

Is 'development' the answer for positive social change or a cynical western strategy for perpetuating inequality? Moving beyond an increasingly entrenched debate about the role of NGOs, this book reveals the practices and social relations through which ideas of development are concretely enacted.Introduction: Development, Public Culture and Africa PART I: IDEOLOGY The Politics of Charity Taking Development Personally Personal Relations, Public Debates PART II: KNOWLEDGE Local and Global Indigenous and Western Policy and Practice Conclusion: What is to be done? References

'Never before, in studies of African NGO's and development, has cosmopolitan activism been taken so seriously, as it is in this deeply insightful ethnography of Ghanaian elites. Yarrow rethinks for activists' practice and rhetoric what Afro-pessimists dismiss as 'corruption'. The break-through in this important contribution to wider debate about ideology and action comes free of the old snap-shot methodologies which have produced so many Afro-pessimist shibboleths. With greater time depth, this book's wealth of original life histories reveals the actual long-term commitments to the public good which activists deliberately cultivate, over decades, in inter-ethnic friendships, in national alliances, and in the lasting networks arising from ideologically motivated movements of students and other youth. What Yarrow's analysis shows at the heart of the new cosmopolitanism is, in a word, daring ..A remarkable study.' -Richard Werbner, Emeritas Professor of Anthropology, University of Manchester, UK

'Do you ever hesitate between trying to change things for the better and giving up hope? If so, read this book. It will not help you to decide, but holds wise lessons about how to live with the tension.' - Annemarie Mol, Professor of Anthropology of the Body, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

'Yarrow's book is a fresh and exciting contribution. The booming liteló(