Reflections on "Are Academics Irrelevant?"

Readindg Stoeker's article provided me with some insight into my own research on IIRD and Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

One of the main reasons that my undergraduate professor, Dr. Larry Hufford, sent me to Bangladesh was because he wanted me to learn IIRD's approach to development. The organization was decentralized and had 'sub-centres' in every village where they were aiding the poor. At the sub-centres, social workers resided and would visit the development partners (beneficiaries) on a daily basis. The social workers would meet with current and potential development partners to discuss their situation and possible solutions to their problems. It was difficult not to act as being able to point out what the development partners needed. The development partners were good at informing the social workers what worked and what did not work. For example, as a social worker I recommended for a family to participate in cow rearing. I believed this would be the best way for the family to own an asset and generate some income with the cow's milk. However, the development partner informed me that they had no prior training on how to rear a cow. It would be 'stupid' of me to give them a cow. Instead, they told me that harvesting rice would be best, in the initial stages, and cow training should occur during the harvesting. Eventually, after earning some income and acquiring training, then they would be able to participate in cow rearing.

Stoeker's reading reminded me of this experience. As Stoeker mentions, "recommendations for academics who want to help: be quick, listen, participate, use your priestly power for good, be creative, use people, help us get ahead of the curve, look to all of your work for opportunities to help, and sin bravely!" (Stoeker, 1999).

What's funny is that William Christensen of IIRD, told me that my first order of business in Bangladesh was to spend at least six months living in a sub-center with social workers. Regardless if I was doing any practical work, he wanted me to observe and listen to the development partners in order to fully understand IIRD's work and more importantly, the development partners.

The Case of the Missing Citizens.

Reading Randy Stoeker's The CDC Model of Urban Redevelopment: A Critique and an Alternative, reminded me of the Plaza Fortuna Reinvestment Zone in the Westside of San Antonio. In fact, the reinvestment zone is only a 15 minute walk from my house.

The reinvestment zone was intended to attract investment by outside developers to the vacant land and provide affordable house. Ideally, by developing the empty lot (that was used as a place to dump old tires) the area would have a new and healthy community. However, a neighborhood association was never created.

I attended an annual meeting last January as a representative of a state legislature's office. The annual meeting had police officers, members of the San Antonio Economic Development Office, the developer, and a member from city hall. However, no resident was present.

The only person to show frustration was the police officer because he said the area was known for crime and vandalism. He asked if a member of the neighborhood association was present, but a Representative of the Economic Development said one was never created. No one said anything, except for the developer. All he said was, "hey, I just built the homes."

I walked away disappointed that this had occurred, but as Stoeker mentions, "market processes are unpredictable, unstable, unaccountable, and disorganizing" (Stoeker, 1997). Whoever the leaders that were involved in the creation of Plaza Fortuna, never consulted with local residents. Nor have they attempted mobilize residents since then. But as Stoeker mentioned, it is not a CDC's job to mobilize persons. Then who does? My belief is that elected officials or residents now must take the initiative to organize and create a neighborhood association. Ideally, if the neighborhood association is created, it could address issues such as crime and vandalism. But, before that could happen, much work must be done in order to help residents meet each other, discuss problems, and initiate whatever they believe is necessary. Hopefully, they could identify people who could represent them on the annual board meeting?

Participatory Action Research

Reading some material over Participatory Action Research (PAR) provided some insight into my (our)work in community development. At first glance, I must admit, I believed that PAR was used during studies of a community for a research paper or proposal. However, I realize now that PAR should be used during all types of community development work. I believe this is true because it returns to our initial readings of Neil Thin which emphasized the need to find effective ways of measuring social progress. By using PAR, then an organization is enabled to know first hand what a community needs because it is consulting (or working together) with the community its attempting to help. By allowing the community to participate in identifying a problem, creating solutions, and implementing a project, then social progress might be achieved.

The 'third party' facilitator.

I reread the first three pages of Grammer of Institutions. There is a section that says that people work together to create a equilibrium and not a third party enforcer. However, after reading the introduction of the Mondragon Cooperacion Cooperativa and the history, it is discovered that Fr. Jose Maria was the reason why the cooperative was able to first start. The history says, "Father Jose Maria worked tirelessly with the young people of the parish, organising a multitude of sporting, cultural and educational activities" (Madragon, 2007). Out of these social capital creating activities, leaders emmerged and these leaders helped refine the ideas (or hypothesis) of what projects should be created in the area. It was done through "listening, debating, and doing" (Madragon 2008).

As I review both IIRD's and Grameen Bank's work, I find that both organizations helped facilitate the creation of social capital (or networks) between people of the community. As the social capital was strengthened, the institutional norms and values that are now present in these communities were formed. This is what Madragon Cooperative was able to achieve and this is what Ostrom also speaks about with regard to institutions. Finally, this process returns to one of our initial readings, The Moral Sense, which also discusses the acceptance of certain morals by a group of people through the strengthening of relationships.

So, I do agree that groups of individuals are who agree upon certain norms and values. However, a 'third party facilitator' must be present, not an enforcer. Only the members of the community could be the 'enforcers.'

The term 'institutions'

I have been reading the Grammer of Institutions and I believe that I have finally come to realize that I should stop referring to organizations as the only way to define institutions. As I continue to research for my paper, I see that there are formal and non-formal institutions. I am assuming that formal institutions are organizations, government, etc.

What I do like about my current research is that institutions are defined as a network of poeple that helps them determine values and norms. Not only do they determine values and norms, they share them. Resulting from shared values and norms, the members involved begin to become more responsible and aim at not only helping themselves, but the other members of the community.

How does this fit into my research paper? Although I don't consider my paper a complete work, I am starting to see how the NGO and Grameen Bank serve as the organizations that help facilitate the institutions (both formal and non-formal) that are aiding the community to develop. Am I down the right path?

Institutions as independent variables.

Can institutions be the Independent Variable in a theory?



I am 'toying' with the idea that:

(IV)Development Institutions (based on Democractic principles (CV)) → (Int. V)expand social capital (Along with diversification of assets (CV)) → (DV) sustainable communities

I'm attempting to simplify my theory and organize my variables.


So, what I'm trying to say is:













Development institutions that use democratic principles will lead to sustainable communities; only if social capital is expanding along with the diversification of assets.

"Yunus Process"

I have been reading Participation as Process-Process as Growth: What we can learn from Grameen Bank Bangladesh by Andreas Fuglesang and Dale Chandler. In their book, Fuglesang and Chandler note that Dr. Muhammad Yunus (founder of the Grameen Bank) takes a different approach to change from Alinsky and Freire. They state that while Alinsky and Freire advocated "to some extent, conflict and confratation as a means of synthesizing action for liberation and development, the Yunus approach is analytical, process oriented and non-confrontational....to counteract and supercede oppressive structures, it builds alternative, more effective and enabling socio-economic frameworks through which people can participate in action towards their liberation...and it attempts to do so on a large scale" (Fuglesang and Chandler 1995). They continue to describe the Yunus approach as "organizational learning and development...the issue is to develop an organization which is responsive to the needs of the participants and capable of sustaining this responsiveness" (Fuglesang and Chandler 1995). My questions are:

Should we always aim at establishing new frameworks or sometimes attempt to transform existing frameworks?

How does the Grameen Bank ensure that it remains responsive to the needs of the participants? As Green and Haines (2008) question in Asset Building and Community Development, "a big question that NGOs face is, who are they accountable to? If they work for and with the poor in developing countries, or at least specific constituencies in specific developing countries, are they accountable to them or are they accountable to the agency that has provided funding for their operations and projects." Is this where we refer back to the democratic morality that should be institutionalized?

Resilience and ecology

Social and ecological resilience: are they related?
By: W. Neil Adger
Firstly, Adger uses ecological systems as examples of a community being able to maintain itself (resilience) in the face of disturbances. Adger states, “this definition high lights social resilience in relation to the concept of ecological resilience which is a characteristic of ecosystems to maintain themselves in the face of disturbance” (Adger 2000). Adger furthers his definition to include communities by stating, “Social resilience is defined as the ability of communities to withstand external shocks to their social infrastructure” (Adger 2000). It is especially important to communities that are resource dependent to be resilient, if not; the communities will not be sustainable. What I liked about Adger’s article is that he emphasizes the need for a resource dependent community to diversify because if the resource that a community is dependent on disappears, then the “the impact on the household livelihood security can be significant” (Adger 2000). Adger also mentions that “traditional management systems for common pool resources are often undermined by privatization and government policies, driven by the idea that private resources give increasing returns compared to open access” (Adger 2000). Adger emphasizes that institutions which help govern the communities must be resilient in order to absorb the external shocks that occur.
Adger provides me some insight into what my topic of interest will be focused on. My research topic will be the livelihood diversification strategy for the rural landless poor (defined as poorest of the poor by the NGO) by the Institute of Integrated Rural Development (IIRD) in Bangladesh. The landless poor, however, do not have an established management system because they have no access to resources. In addition to having to access to resources, they have been largely excluded from mainstream development schemes because of their vulnerability and lack of assets. As Adger mentions in his article, these households will not be able to be resilient to external shocks. My question is how can these vulnerable communities be enhanced to in order to become resilient?
I plan to use Rie Makita’s doctoral thesis on IIRD’s diversification strategy for the landless poor to better understand Adger’s theory that communities could be resilient if a communities diversify their assets. Makita recommends that a small scale NGO, such as IIRD, should serve as a sponsor for the landless poor to support ‘non-farm’ activities in order to create opportunities for livelihood diversification. The non-farm activities are fishery cooperatives, poultry rearing, and silk-rearing. These three activities are not agricultural activities, but are integrated with the overall market system in rural Bangladesh.

Reflections on Emmette S. Redford

I will start off my blog with one of my favorite poems by Bengali poet, Rabindranath Tagore (Amartya Sen attended his school):



"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way in the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is lead forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action-

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,

let my country awake." (Rabindranath Tagore)



I chose this poem because this past week's reading described what a democracy should be comprised of: (1) participation for citizens and (2) institutions that are filled with specializations and adaptable. Ideally, if all things are in place, it will lead to the self-realization of a person.



Democratic morality:

1. (Wo)man is, for (wo)man the ultimate measure for all human values.

2. All persons have worth deserving social recognition.

3. Personal worth is most fully protected and enlarged by the action of those whose worth is assumed. Universal participation.



"Liberty only exists through the participation either in decision making or in control of leaders who make the decisions" (Redford 1969).



" Democratic morality has an egoistic center, but within conditional framework of universality. That is, each man's development is important and is conditioned by the moral right of every other man. The two ideas together produce the notion of a humane society" (Redford 1969).



I view the previous quote as emphasizing the obvious need that every individual in society should be empowered to make a decision. It seems that this is a basic practice that will allow an individual to have trust in themselves by taking on responsibility and also trust in the political system. Most importantly, though the individual is acting in self-interest, they are indirectly learning how their decision will affect the rest of society, thus making them aware of being socially responsible.



Redford continues to explain:

1. Access to information, based on education, and open discussion.


2. Access, direct and indirect, to forums and decisions.


3. Ability to open any issue to public discussion.


4. Ability to assert one's claims without fear of coercive retaliation.


5. Consideration of all claims asserted (Redford 1969).

"Democratic morality will be meaningful only if it becomes part of the "received ideals" and the dominant spirit of a society. There must be acceptance of the conditions for a humane and open society: acceptance of the right of each to self-realization and to participation as means of self-realization. The first requires empathy, the second tolerance. These are virtues inherent in the democratic morality. Moreover, morality will be meaningful only if it processes exist through which each person, with tolerance of the same opportunity for others, has opportunity for meaningful participation" (Redford 1969).



If I were to summarize the previous quotes, it would be that the basic foundation to allow a society to prevail is by creating opportunities for an individual to participate and be taught through education to allow those individuals to develop into the persons who they are meant to be in life.



Moreover, in the later parts of the literature, Redford explains that the democracy should provide the basic needs (i.e. education, food, shelter, etc.) to allow for the individual to development. This statement reflects what Amartya Sen has stated about the importance for the state to remove barriers to development by providing the basic facilities: political, social, and economic opportunities. These will allow the individual to develop. This will allow for a society to have all citizens participate in the decision making rather than just having the elites making the decisions for all of society.



Redford continues to state in "Reflections on the Administrative State" that the institutions in society should be made of of specialized roles within each institution to allow for it to better respond to society's needs. Though an institution can be come very complicated, specialized roles can create an environment conducive to the development of a community and its members. However, I believe that this goes back to emphasizing the importance of creating institutions that will be adaptable to the changes and challenges that occur in society.



But my question is: How big should institutions be allowed to grow? When an organization grows beyond it capacity, it begins to fall short in providing help to society. It then turns to try to sustain itself through internal profit to cover administrative costs.

Notes on Capra, Shields, and Ferree.

Notes on Capra and Shields
Capra’s model of community based on an ecological model presented a new manner in which community should be viewed. Instead of viewing a community as a being made up of separate parts, Capra provided an insight into viewing a community as being made up of integrated parts. One part needs the other in order to complete its task. Most importantly, Capra made the point that communities are networks rather than linear. Some examples that came to mind as I read Capra were:
· Mapping a rural community in Bangladesh and taking into consideration the number of: educational institutions, medical facilities, temples and mosques, roads linking the village to markets, bodies of water, tube wells, and type of live stock present, vegetation, small businesses and other income generating activities, and non profit/non-governmental organizations in the region. Most importantly, who lives in the village and what are their occupations, their educational levels, health status, what do they own? Each of these elements serves their purpose for the community as a whole and will need the other in order to continue with its task.
The ability for a planner to view a community in this manner will have a better insight into the strategy he/she will take in address a particular problem.
Shield’s community of inquiry concept helped me take Capra’s model a step forward in terms of placing it in a practical sense. Though viewing a community and its many elements might seem like an ideal situation at first glass, when it is observed closely, it will be discovered that the relationships within the model might be weak. Or, many of the elements could be weak due to an imbalance of the network. For example:
· The roads linking the village to a market could be eroding.
· Educational/Medical facilities could be of poor quality or not opened.
· Villagers have access to the market, but do not have bargaining power with the buyers when they try to sell their produce.
· Vegetation has been damaged by natural disasters or crops are owned by only the elite.
· Tube-wells could be damaged, etc.
I can continue with a long list of problems, but what I am trying to say is that Shield model brings the idea of having an institution which allows individuals or public administrators (PA) to facilitate the addressing of community problems. The PAs facilitate by creating an opportunity for the villagers to identify what they know such as the examples mentioned above, but also other aspects such as who holds power/influence in the region, what problems they face, etc. As the PA helps with this process, he/she will be begin to identify the root causes of the problems and ideally will be able to create a strategy based on the evidence provided by the villagers. Hopefully, if the PA is viewing village as being an integrated network, then their plan could be made of a holistic development model that will address important aspects of development: economic, political, and social.

Institutions and Social Justice
The models put forth by Capra and Shields brings into question what characteristics an institution should possess in order to bring about the social progress that Thin was suggesting. By referring to Rev. William J. Ferree’s pamphlet on the Introduction to Social Justice, I found that the principles that should guide an institution are those which emphasize duty to the other and the community. Most importantly individuals should not resort to destroying existing institutions, but attempt to transform the institutions so that it is strongly influenced by social justice.
Going back to the PA’s duties of facilitating change with the villagers, it would be ideal that by using their suggestions, a PA can help transform the institutions that are contributing to the underdevelopment of the region.

Link to my friend's blogg regarding his dissertation on food security.

http://heuristicthinking.blogspot.com/

Notes on Thin's book: Chapters 4-7

Chapters 4-7 continued to pose challenges for me in attempting to understand Thin’s perspective on social progress and sustainable development. The challenge was not in understanding the topic, but because I had to reexamine my own experiences with development in both the U.S. and South Asia. My ‘ah ha!’ moment came when Thin emphasized issues such as:
· Institutions which are guided by a foundation of ideals and principles are what help ensure social progress and development. More importantly, these institutions must be able to adapt to the changes that occur in their environments. The example I could think with regard to this is NGOs in South Asia being able to change policy direction when a natural disaster occurs or during political and economic turmoil. These institutions must continue to evaluate their work and ensure that their implementation is really helping their beneficiaries.
· Policy making should be participatory. However, participatory means that all members of a community are included. For example, Thin argues that women’s empowerment does not occur by just having policy focus on the woman, but it must include the man as well. This could help with gender equity. Also, by making policy making participatory, it allows for the policy makers to mold the policy in such a way that it will better benefit the beneficiaries. One issue that Thin pointed out was that we should not assume that beneficiaries knowledge is perfect either, it could be wrong if the facilitator does not properly conduct the participatory policy making. The facilitator must find a way for the beneficiary to enlighten her/himself in order to become a more responsible citizen of the community. I search for an example and found an article about The Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) in India. In 1984 SPARC conducted a census with the residents of a slum in Bombay in order to stop the demolition of a slum community. The authors concluded that the best way to help empower the slum dwellers by helping them learn about their community, neighbors and occupations, government process to receive ration cards, and by including the slum dwellers in the census. They considered the census as participatory action research.
· I referred back to Amartya Sen’s holistic model of development. Sen emphasized that all the political, social, and economic aspects of a society should be developed in order to develop the individual. I remembered that at the end of his book, Sen points out that by using this model, and then one could help create responsible citizens. Thin also notes that freedom shouldn’t be the only goal, but also creating responsible citizens.
My only question is: How do organizations create positive social progress and sustainable development without having to sacrifice the self-evaluation? Does this mean that only small organizations are capable of this or could larger organizations be effective as well? One challenge I saw with the Institute of Integrated Rural Development (IIRD) in Bangladesh was that being engaged with too many projects funded by different donors placed a strain on the organization.

Definition of Community

My definition of community is a group or society of persons with shared values and beliefs, but each member is unique due to their ethnic and religious background, gender, occupation, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, and occupation. The group or society of persons live together within the same region and attempt to adapt to their environmental surroundings. The group or society distributes resources that allow for their progress through democratic institutions and practices.
My interest is development both at the domestic and global level. When I say the term ‘development’ I am referring to political, economic, and social development of a community which will allow each member to develop toward their fullest potential. My interest originated from my upbringing in the inner city section of the Westside of San Antonio, Texas. There I witnessed the challenges that many low-income Mexican-American families experience. The challenges faced were limited access to: high quality public school education and health care, job-training, employment, proper infrastructure, or housing. Despite the challenges faced by the residents of the Westside progress has been made through community organizations, business investments, and educational programs. I say this because I benefitted from an educational program called the San Antonio Education Partnership (SAEP) that provided pre-college support and a scholarship for my undergraduate education. In addition, during my time as an undergraduate, I co-founded a tutoring program that would have university students tutor high school students in the Westside. Both the SAEP and the tutoring program provided me with a glimpse on how communities could be developed if the proper coordination occurs between various institutions which have mission statements and values.
I continued to pursue my interest by studying development in India and volunteering for two years at a non-governmental organization (NGO) named the Institute of Integrated Rural Development (IIRD) in Bangladesh. At IIRD I witnessed how a NGO attempted to aid the poor residents of rural Bangladesh by using a holistic development model that provided economic and social programs that allowed development partners (beneficiaries) to lift them-selves out of poverty. IIRD used a poverty rating model to categorize each family and measure their progress. I was able to work with social workers in the field to aid with project monitoring and implementation, conduct meetings with development partners, and distribute educational grants. Fortunately, I was also able to help establish a small Child Development Centre (CDC) that provides education for grades 1 and 2. The planning for the CDC was done through meeting with the local villagers to determine the location and the how long the CDC should remain in the village. My experiences with IIRD were not entirely easy. I was confronted by many challenges involving low capacity by staff workers and high turn-over rates of staff. My time in Bangladesh also allowed me to witness how a developing country struggles due to underdeveloped institutions in the public, private, and non-profit sector.
Based on my experiences I would like to research what methods should be used in order for organizations to continuously measure their progress and ensure that proper monitoring of the progress of populations they are attempting to help is occurring.

Notes on Chapters 1-3

Notes from “Social Progress and Sustainable Development”
After reading chapters 1-3 slowly and carefully I have arrived at the temporary conclusion that sustainable development does need to be defined by myself first. As Thin mentions that international agencies have always used the term ‘sustainable development’ without clearing defining it, I too have been guilty of this act. However, Thin’s first three chapters did help me understand some very basic, but important principles about sustainable development and the importance to include ‘social progress’ when discussing sustainable development.
· Responsibility is important and this must be instilled in development practitioners and the persons who they are attempting to help.
· Assessment of performance is needed and the means and ends should be distinguished more carefully.
· Concern should be both on the current and future generations.
· Society should also be concerned about how their choices will affect persons of other parts of the globe.
· Institutions should also include the family. My question would be how does society then ensure that families are being nourished?
· Organizations should be built to be adaptable. How do we go about creating adaptable organizations?
· Social policy definitions should stop focusing on only the state and be expanded to the private sector and civil society.
I was confused, however, on Thin’s disagreement with civil society organizations and their focus on removing harm. Thin recommends that organizations should focus on ‘building societies’ in order to measure progress. I do agree with him on his statement because he helped me view measuring development work with a different perspective. But why not also focusing on the problems that still arise, should they be completely ignored? Or, is it that by measuring progress that we are able to identify how problems have been overcome?