Project funded by the French National Agency for Research (ANR) under the programme « Les Suds aujourd’hui »; coordinated by Myriam Catusse and Géraldine Chatelard at the French Institute for the Near East (Ifpo).

Description

This programme, launched in April 2008 for 3 years, combines two research questions seldom explored in connection in the Arab world: the analysis of the transformations of public action, and development as a disputed framework of reference. In the context of Arab countries, and in a comparative perspective, the programme conceptualises development projects, programmes or policies as sites where to observe and analyse how public action is changing, how the redeployment of the State is being performed and contested, and how various actors involved in development interact within and between the different scales where development is constructed as a field, and which are in turn constructed by development. Focus is on the last two decades during which neo-liberal economic reforms have been introduced and development has been redefined and applied in new contexts, particularly within post-conflict (re)construction phases.

The programme is coordinated at Ifpo (Beirut/Amman), in association with the Institut de Recherches sur le Maghreb Contemporain (IRMC) in Tunis, the Lebanese Center for Political Studies (LCPS) in Beirut and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (GIIDS) in Geneva. It brings together scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds: political science, anthropology, sociology, social geography, history, and development studies.

Our programme combines three objectives:

At the empirical level and based on in-depth field research carried out among institutions and actors, to produce monographs about how development is conceptualised, manufactured and used as a political resource.
At the methodological and conceptual levels, to develop tools that allow to describe these processes, and to elaborate non-normative categories of analysis that allow for understanding what actually happens, and not what is expected to happen, in the field.
To introduce a comparative dimension by examining how development paradigms are transferred between sites where they are produced and sites where they are implemented, and to contribute to a theoretical reflection that goes beyond national and regional contexts. The objective is to incorporate examples from the Arab world within broader theoretical and multidisciplinary debates that have often taken place in the North or in other regions of the South and have disregarded essential variables.

To this end, we promote a field-based approach that combines insights from the anthropology of development, social geography and political sociology. In Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, we have selected sectors of development intervention to study in order to establish a comparison between and within countries. These sectors are social housing, the protection against social risks (such as poverty and health), the management of water, electricity and waste, and the preservation of heritage and the environment. We combine a sector-based approach with one that looks at scales (international, regional, national, various local levels) and at interactions between scales.

This programme is original in that it focuses on objects and fields that have largely been disregarded by the social sciences. On the one hand, the literature on development produced in the region rarely if ever questions historical and ideological premises and the models and modalities of development. On the other hand, whereas the reform of the State remains at the heart of scholarly debates about political transformations in the Arab world, the fact that Arab States are generally conceived as omnipotent “Big Brothers” - monopolising and blocking decision-making processes – has resulted in a paucity of research being devoted to the creation of public goods.

We anticipate two types of results. At the empirical level, we aim at providing qualitative data on topics that are largely discussed in public arenas but that are little documented in-depth. At the methodological and conceptual levels, we will undertake an analysis of the indicators and instruments for measuring development: how can the social sciences describe, measure and compare development situations without falling into historicism, ethnocentrism and a teleological view of social and economic change?

Our theoretical objectives are threefold:

Contribute, through field studies, to the renewal of the debate on public action. Particularly, we want to discuss the thesis of the retreat of the State, and to question the return of the State. We hypothesise that development initiatives support or accompany a transformation of the State in which institutions are reshaped and where public action is redeployed (in particular through partnering with non-State actors) and does not necessarily recedes. This implies to reconceptualise the State and its models from a social sciences perspective.
Analyse complex fields of action and intervention and to observe their variations: from sector to sector, from the international to the local and/or regional and national, and conversely. We will examine the emergence of archetypal models of development and of interventions (such as 'the local', or 'participation') but also the weight of different 'cultures' or patterns of development (professional, regional etc) and of their combination at the level of project implementation.
Decipher the nexus between politics and policies: how does the implementation of projects which are often deemed non-political reveal significant political stakes? We aim at renewing the debate on three long-stranding scholarly controversies about the (re)articulation between political mobilisation and public action: the ambivalence of decentralisation, the privatisation of development aid, and the dynamics of politicisation and/or de-politicisation.

Expected time-frame

12-14 April 2008, Amman (Ifpo): Launching of programme. Issues and Methodology. Closed seminar.
27-29 September 2008, Beirut (Ifpo/LCPS): About our Common Means: Describing and Comparing. Closed seminar.
7-8 May 2009, Tunis (IRMC): Decentralization, Privatization, De-politicization. Closed seminar.
8 May 2009, Tunis (IRMC): Round Table open to the public «Thinking about and governing development: debate on the state of the art», with the following presentations: Giorgio Blundo, SHADIC/EHESS (Marseille), «An anthropology of daily governance in Africa. State of the art and research persepectives», and Mauro Van Aken, University of Milan-Bicocca, « Anglo-saxon athropology of knowledge on/about development »/ « Ethnography of contemporaneity ».
28 Novembre 2009, Aleppo (Ifpo): “Developing in Syria: Which new paradigms?”. Close seminar.
29 Novembre 2009, Aleppo (Ifpo): Round-table with the members of the programme « Agrarian restructuration and production systems in the Euphrates basin » (University of Aleppo, Lebanese University and University Paris 1)
Winter 2009: After the last two meetings, we will submit proposals for special issues to social science journals.
19-21 March 2010: Geneva (GIIDS): Comparison from an international perspective. An open seminar with invited scholars and practitioners.
Spring 2010 : Preparation of publication of an edited volume in French and Arabic.
Autumn 2010, Beirut (Ifpo/LCPS). Open symposium. Presentation of research outcomes and book project with invited scholars.
Winter 2010-Spring 2011: Publication of the book in French and preparation of Arabic version

Participants to the programme

Myriam Ababsa, Geography, Research Fellow at Ifpo, Amman
Urban development policies and informal housing (Jordan)
Privatization of State farms in the region of Raqqa (Syria)
Caroline Abu Sada, Political Science, Researcher, Médecins du Monde, Geneva.
Food and health security in Palestine and Iraq
Jalal al-Husseini, Political Science, Associate Researcher, Ifpo Amman
Measuring development and poverty among Palestinians in Jordan
Amin Allal, Political Science, Doctoral Candidate, IRMC Tunis
Local Development Projects in Tunisia and Morocco
Christelle Alles, Geography, Doctoral Candidate, University of Lyon II
Water policies in the Hasbani region, southern Lebanon
Directing with J. Puig the short-film «Development in action and in words»
Riccardo Bocco, Anthropology and Political Science, Professor GIIDS (Geneva)
History of the pioneering work of UNRWA in distinguishing and conceptualising the continuum between development and humanitarian action. Palestine/Jordan/Lebanon/ Geneva
Irene Bono, Political Science, Doctoral Candidate at IEP Paris
The INDH (Morocco): Participation and the transformation of governance
Philippe Bourmaud, History, Lecturer and Researcher, University of Lyon
History of a health project in Palestine under Ottoman rule. Diachronic comparison
Myriam Catusse, Political Science, Researcher at CNRS/Ifpo Beirut
Development policies in the town of Jbeil (Lebanon). Cultural heritage and urban development project
Géraldine Chatelard, Anthropology, Research Fellow at Ifpo Amman
Sustainable development and environmental protection: the case of the hema system in a regional perspective
Valérie Clerc, Geography, Researcher and Director of the Urban Observatory Ifpo Damascus
Conceiving and conceptualising urban development in Lebanon
Khadija Darmame, Geography, Post-Doc, University of Reading and Council for British Research in the Levant (Amman)
Twenty years of reform of water policies in Jordan
Lise Debout, Geography, Doctoral Candidate, University of Lyon
The reform of domestic waste collection in Cairo
Blandine Destremau, Sociology, Researcher CNRS (LISE)
Objects and subjects of participation: evaluation of a development project in Yemen
Bruno Dewailly, Geography, Doctoral Candidate, University of Tours
Urban projects and water policy in Tripoli (Lebanon)
Oroub el-Abed, Development Studies, Doctoral Candidate GIIDS (Geneva), and Associate Researcher Ifpo Amman.
Palestinian refugees in Jordan: negotiating social development projects
Karam Karam, Political Science, Researcher and Project Director at LCPS (Beirut)
The issue of sustainable development in the institutionalization of the Lebanese ecology sector
Elisabeth Longuenesse, Sociology, Researcher, CNRS and Director for Contemporary Studies Dept (Ifpo)
Development professionals, history of the concept
Maud Moussi, Geography, Doctoral Candidate and Lecturer, University of Tours
Heritage and development. Cross-cutting referentials in the Lebanese field, from conservation to development
Lucas Oesch, Development Studies, Doctoral Candidate GIIDS (Geneva)
« Developing » in Palestinian refugee camps in Amman (Jordan)
Joëlle Puig, Sociology, Associate Researcher Ifpo Beirut
The implementation of the water sector reform in north Lebanon (Akkar)
Directing with Ch. Alles the short-film «Development in action and in words »
Ali Rebhi, Geography, Doctoral Candidate, Tunis
Urban development projects in Kairouan (Tunisia)
Vincent Romani, Political Science, Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Quebec in Montreal
Academic modernisation by the market and by the State: paradigms and paradoxes of development in the Gulf region
Cyril Roussel, Geography, Post-Doc at Ifpo in the framework of TANMIA programme
Development Projects in the Syrian Druze Mountains
Laura Ruiz de Elvira, Doctoral Candidate Ifpo Damacus
The charitable NGO sector and local development projects in Syria
Myriam Saadé, Environmental Sciences, Doctoral Candidate, University of Lausanne
Analysis of water resource exploitation in the arid Syrian region (Salamiyeh): the construction of indicators
Sbeih Sbeih, Sociology, Doctoral Candidate, University of St Quentin en Yvelines
The professionnalisation of civil society in Palestine
Aude Signoles, Political Science, Researcher and Lecturer, University of Galatasaray (Istanbul)
Problematising water management in the West Bank
Victoria Veguilla, Political Science, Doctoral Candidate, University of Aix en Provence, and Assistant Professor, University of Granada
« Local Development » and « Sustainable Development » in the conflicts over fishing policies in Dakhla (southern Morocco)
Mauro Van Aken, Anthropology, Researcher and Lecturer, University of Milano-Biccoca
Anthropology of water resources management and local knowledge systems in rural areas (Jordan Valley, Jordan)
Éric Verdeil, Geography, Researcher, CNRS (Lyon)
Electricity sector reforms in Jordan and Lebanon
Lamia Zaki, Political Science, Researcher, IRMC, Tunis
Comparing urban development projects: the al-Omrane and CDG projects in Morocco

Scientific Committee

Karam Karam (LCPS Beirut) and Lamia Zaki (IRMC Tunis)
Political mobilization
Géraldine Chatelard (Ifpo Amman) and Riccardo Bocco (GIIDS)
Anthropology of development
Myriam Catusse (Ifpo Beyrouth) and Aude Signoles (Galatasaray University, Istanbul)
Public action

Five poles

As regards disciplinary, geographic issues, in particular difficulties to have access to the field, we have chosen to structure our network around five poles/partner teams:

Beirut Ifpo team, a relay for the Lebanese and Syrian fields;
Amman Ifpo team, a relay for the Jordanian and Palestinian fields;
IRMC team, relay for Maghreb fields;
LCPS team, for an Arabic entrenchment and an openness to action research;
GIIDS team, for a European entrenchment, openness to non Arab world comparison and discussions of our works with United Nations experts through the RUIG Network.

Updated : 2010/01/04