Participatory Arts in International Development

Paul Cooke, Inés Soria-Donlan, Paul Cooke, Inés Soria-Donlan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780429678370
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

This book explores the practical delivery of participatory arts projects in international development. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of academics, international development professionals and arts practitioners, the book engages honestly with the competing challenges faced by the different groups of people involved.

Participatory arts are becoming increasingly popular in international development circles, fuelled in part by the increased accessibility of audio-visual media in the digital age, and also by the move towards participatory discourses in the wake of the UN's Agenda 2030. The book asks:

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• What do participatory arts projects look like in practice, and why are they used as an international development tool?

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• How can we develop practical and sustainable development projects on the ground, localising best practice according to cultural, economic and linguistic contexts?

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• What are the enablers of, and barriers to, successful participatory initiatives, and how can we evaluate past projects to learn and feed into future projects?

Written to appeal to both academics and practitioners, this book would also be suitable for teaching on courses related to participatory development, community arts, and culture and development.

PART I

Organisational perspectives

1

IMAGINING POWER

Development, participation and creativity

Martin Keat

Participation and creativity are essential to contemporary international development. The global development sector tends to be dominated by established economic mechanisms, structures and ideologies. Human and social development are often considered as inevitable outcomes of these economic processes. Despite development progress over recent years, there remain significant challenges to be addressed in relation to those targets that the sector sets itself. In this chapter, I consider the history of development as well as its contemporary structure and challenges, this focus arising from my experience over the last three decades of working in the sector. I will also locate participation within contemporary practice and provide my own perspective on why creativity is so vital and how the sector can improve outcomes with increased engagement and participation.

What is development?

While development must always be understood in response to specific sets of circumstances and contexts, in general terms it is helpful to consider two broad definitions. On the one hand, people tend to define development as a process of inevitable historical change. On the other, it is frequently viewed as the consequence of deliberate efforts to achieve progress. The former implies that development progresses within society as a natural consequence of existing democratic, economic and power structures. The latter suggests that, for transformative progress to be achieved, the challenges need to be concretely defined and specific actions taken to achieve change.

This, in turn, leads us to consider how such change might be managed and achieved. Here two competing definitions arising from management theory are helpful: 1) ‘To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to control’ (Fayol 1949, pp.5–6); 2) ‘To manage is simply to create the conditions under which the work will be done, and done well. Management is therefore about enabling (or empowering) effective action’ (Paton 1991, p.101). These two approaches at least partially map to the definitions of development given previously: the first being a managed process to achieve defined objectives, the second being a process of enablement which defers to existing power structures. Thus, in practice, this leaves us with two broad approaches to development: either to provide enabling support in the context of historical change processes or to design and manage deliberate efforts to promote change. As I shall discuss further, in practice these are not necessarily mutually incompatible.

In my experience, the best development projects engage productively with both these trends by seeking to work on two levels. Good projects adopt specific actions which mitigate the impact of poverty and marginalisation, whilst simultaneously seeking to inform changes to those socio-economic institutions that create the situation to which they are responding to in the first place. Deliberate efforts to mitigate the impact of poverty and marginalisation tend to be more straightforward in design. Such projects might include inoculation campaigns, educational infrastructure development, livelihood skills training, etc. The more significant challenge, however, is genuinely to drive processes of historic change. This largely depends upon the motivation within existing power structures to actually support such change. Consequently, the specific local context of development is crucial. For example, less democratic societies are unlikely to be keen to challenge the status quo, unless it is in their interest. This is where human development efforts differ from standard management approaches, which are more appropriate to production processes. Societal, as well as fundamental human, needs must be taken into account, and as such participation and representation of the disempowered in development projects are essential if lasting change is to be achieved. The motivating force for a given development project is always the key question to be answered. At the same time, however, it is one that goes far beyond any individual project: Why is development important on the global stage? What is its purpose and its ideal(ised) end goal? What factions are involved? Who are the stakeholders? Who defines the intended outcomes and the actions to achieve them?

A brief history of development

Drawing on the two definitions of development set out previously, for me, development has always been about the sharing and exploration of ideologies and practices that are intended to promote economic and social improvements in the lives of people and their environment. In order to contextualise my approach to development and how I see the role of the contemporary development sector, it is useful to give a brief overview of the history of development, a history which is, of course, inextricably intertwined with the history of colonialism. Here I focus predominantly (but not exclusively) on the nature of development in sub-Saharan Africa, where I have worked during most of my professional life.

The Berlin Conference 1884

Prior to the Berlin Conference in November 1884, sub-Saharan Africa had been the subject of an informal kind of imperialism by European powers for several centuries, focussed on trade and economic exploitation. Principal within this was the slave trade — the first slave fort having been established by Portuguese traders in 1482 in Elmina on the coast of the nation that is now Ghana. Trade was generally established through treaties with local leaders, creating preference and conflict within indigenous power structures to gain economic advantage. This meant that trade was largely focussed on the coastal zones of the continent. In the early Nineteenth Century, exploration of the interior of the continent advanced, pushed on by the pursuit of more diverse products for trade and raw materials to fuel the industrial revolution in Europe and North America, as well as new markets for surplus manufactured products. Yet even in the 1870s, it is estimated that still only 10 per cent of the continent was under the direct control of European powers.

By the late Nineteenth Century, imperial powers saw the lack of regulation of colonialism across the continent as a risk to the balance of power in Europe. An economic depression across Europe in the early 1870s meant that European economies were seeking new markets to aid their continued recovery. A united and strengthened Germany had begun to develop interests in Africa, creating concern that this might provoke renewed conflict. King Leopold II of Belgium was keen to secure his own interests in the Congo Basin and convinced France and Germany that a free trade agreement in Africa would help avoid wars. This helped create a consensus that the negotiation of a shared policy for control and trade in Africa was essential. The conference itself was convened by Portugal and hosted by the German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, in November 1884. Thirteen European powers attended, along with representation from the USA. The result was the General Act of the Conference of Berlin in 1885. This defined the agreed principles of colonisation, banned the slave trade and divided the continent between European powers, creating 50 territories based on lines of latitude and longitude. No Africans were invited to the conference or contributed to the Act, despite common agreement amongst the nations present that it would benefit the continent (Chamberlain 1974, pp.44–60).

Colonialism was defined through the agreement of the principle of ‘effective occupation’ (Chamberlain 1974, p.109). This confirmed that colonial powers would only have rights and recognised possession over a territory on the basis of four qualifying principles:

• A colonial administration was in place;
• A colonial police force was in place to maintain order;
• Treaties were in place with indigenous leaders;
• The colonial power flew their flag there.

What followed the Berlin Conference is what was described in 1884 by the British newspaper The Times as ‘the scramble for Africa’ (Pella 2015, p.173). European powers sought to consolidate existing interests whilst taking advantage of areas which had been disputed by others. There was a shift from informal imperialism, via economic influence, to a direct colonial imperialism against the agreed principles. The necessary treaties were often achieved through force and coercion. A series of imperial wars against indigenous powers followed, including the French in West Africa, the British in Egypt and Sudan and the Boer Wars in South Africa. Such was the pace and escalation of colonialism that by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, 90 per cent of the continent was under direct colonial rule (Chamberlain 1974, p.129).

Post-war consensus and the United Nations

During the first half of the Twentieth Century, the power structures of the colonial world continued to be shaped by the decisions taken at the Berlin Conference. During the Second World War, however, things began to change. The first step was the creation of the Atlantic Charter by the USA and the United Kingdom on 14 August 1941. The eight principles within the charter sought to ensure that, once fascism was defeated, nations would not seek to expand their territories; they would respect the democratic choice of their citizens; improve social security; assure equal access to materials for economic development; commit to the abandonment of force; and adopt a shared approach to security (Roosevelt and Churchill 1941). This eventually led on 24 October 1945 to the creation of the United Nations (UN 1945).

The purpose of the United Nations Organisation is defined in its founding charter according to four central principles. The first of these is to maintain international peace and security. Second, the UN aims to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace. Third, it strives to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion. Finally, it sees itself as a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends. That said, for all the inclusive rhetoric of its founding principles in terms of peace and security, the main influence in the United Nations continues to rest with the permanent members of the Security Council: the UK, USA, China, Russia and France.

The Bretton Woods Conference

As this new global mechanism for pursuing peace and security was being developed during the War, there was an accompanying debate amongst the Allied nations regarding the development of a new international financial system which would support the reconstruction of nations when peace came. There was also a desire to ensure that within this financial system there would be mechanisms which avoided creating the conditions which followed the First World War and which ultimately precipitated the Second World War, just as the UN Charter sought to avoid the mistakes of its predecessor, the League of Nations.

The Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 was the culmination of this debate. It was attended by representatives from the 44 Allied nations at the time, with the UK, the USA, France, China and the Soviet Union dominating the proceedings and outcomes. The result of the conference was the creation of two key international mechanisms: the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the aim of which was to oversee an — at the time — largely unregulated market-led foreign exchange rate system, in order to promote the international flow of funds in a stable manner, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). This was initially established to facilitate loans for reconstruction and the economic development of those nations decimated by the Second World War. The creation of these international mechanisms marked the end of the economic nationalism that had been central to the colonial era, removing barriers to the flow of capital across borders and establishing free trade as central to the global financial system. Each nation present was given membership of the IMF, with membership of the IBRD dependent on them taking this up. However, voting rights within each institution were dependent upon the capital contributions made by members. As the USA possessed half of all global wealth at the establishment of these institutions, it was able to exert the greatest influence over the decisions taken at the conference. This, in turn, led to the country’s eventual dominance of the global economy in the post-War era.

US foreign policy at this time also had a formative effect on the development of international institutions beyond those already mentioned here. In 1947 the Truman Doctrine was announced. This was focussed on the containment of Soviet influence and ideology as a means of protecting US interests, whilst avoiding military intervention. Conditional financial aid was central to this policy. The European Recovery Programme, or Marshall Plan, for the reconstruction of Western Europe provided finance on condition of the pursuit of European integration, free-market economics and the guarantee that a large proportion of the $13bn committed by the plan would be spent on suppliers within the USA (The Foreign Assistance Act 1948). In order to administer this scheme, European beneficiary nations established the Committee of European Economic Coordination, which later became the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1949, and which itself informed the eventual establishment of the European Economic Community in 1957.

The harmony that existed between the objectives of the Marshall Plan and those of the IBRD at this time is significant to note. US foreign policy in other parts of the world also reflected its central wish to stem the spread of Soviet ideology. This informed economic interventions in South America and South East Asia. However, US foreign policy saw sub-Saharan Africa as essentially being available for European powers to exploit economically for their own reconstruction, which in turn aided the USA’s central foreign policy objective. Following the completion of the reconstruction of Europe, the IBRD created a new arm in 1960 — the International Development Association (IDA). The aim of this branch was to provide low-interest loans and grants to the world’s poorest countries to aid their development, funded by member state subscriptions to the IBRD (World Bank 2017). These loans, which continue today, are conditional on nations implementing pro-growth and poverty-reducing domestic policies aligned with those defined by the IDA. The IBRD and the IDA are together known as the World Bank (World Bank 2017).

Neo-colonialism

The establishment of global systems of peacekeeping, human rights and economic management framed the principles of international economic and social development in the second half of the Twentieth Century. However, the power of the USA and the European nations in defining what this comprised cannot be underestimated. It is important to consider the form and impact of this in sub-Saharan Africa alongside the Conference of Berlin. In both instances, the ambitions of the peoples of Africa were considered inferior to the ambitions of the wealthier and more powerful nations who set the terms of trade and political control. African voices were absent in both cases. Social development was essentially seen as a natural consequence of economic development. At the Conference of Berlin, the needs of people in Africa were assumed, the continent often defined as ‘dark’ and requiring civilisation — a perspective informed by anthropological and evolutionary theories of the time, which were little more than a form of racism that promoted the inferiority of African peoples:

No rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes that the average negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the white man. And if this be true, it is simply incredible that, when all his disabilities are removed, and our prognathous relative has a fair field and no favour, as well as no oppressor, he will be able to compete successfully with his bigger-brained and smaller-jawed rival, in a contest which is to be carried out by thoughts and not by b...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction: ‘Post-participatory’ arts for the ‘post-development’ era
• PART I: Organisational perspectives
• PART II: The role of the researcher in development
• PART III: Exploring the art produced in development
• Index