Refusing the Development NGO? Departure, Dismissal, and Misrecognition in Angolan Development Interventions.
1Department of Public Administration and International Affairs, Syracuse University.
Anthropological Quarterly
|October 12, 2019
Summary
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in international development increasingly use managerialist models. This study shows how local staff resist these models, highlighting unrecognized power imbalances in development work.
Area of Science:
- Social Sciences
- Development Studies
- Organizational Behavior
Background:
- International development NGOs increasingly adopt neoliberal management strategies.
- This managerialist approach views staff as transactional assets, prioritizing institutional needs over individual moralities.
- Such models can perpetuate power inequalities within the development sector.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze how local staff in international development resist managerialist employment practices.
- To examine the conflict between institutional management and staff's independent moral frameworks.
- To investigate the misrecognition of resistance and its impact on power dynamics in development.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative analysis using the case of local staff resignations and terminations.
- Focus on an international democratization intervention in postwar Angola.
- Examination of subject positions and moral assertions within the development context.
Main Results:
- Some development professionals reject management-defined roles, asserting personal moral stances.
- International development institutions often misinterpret or ignore these acts of resistance.
- Unequal power relations persist within the development industry despite its stated goals.
Conclusions:
- Managerialist approaches in NGOs can obscure and reinforce existing power imbalances.
- Resistance from local staff highlights a disconnect between institutional goals and lived realities.
- Addressing these power dynamics is crucial for more equitable international development.
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