Traveling Models and Practical Norms - The Misadventures of Social Engineering in Africa and Beyond

Public policies, development projects, and NGO interventions often have large gaps between the planning and execution. Standardized public policies, especially development ones, ignore the multiple contexts in which they are implemented. Local actors (those targeted by public policies or responsible for implementing them) play a major role in the implementation of planning and execution. Their many strategies for circumventing official directives and protocols follow implicit "practical norms" that are ignored by international experts. This book examines how different modes of governance that deliver services of general interest experience significant gaps between explicit rules and implicit practices, between planned actions and daily routines, in Africa and beyond.

About the author

Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan is among the founders of LASDEL, Laboratory for Study and Research on Social Dynamics and Local Development, in Niamey. He is also Professor of Anthropology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. His latest publications include "Cash Transfers in Context. An anthropological perspective", (ed. with E.Piccoli), Berghahn 2018.

Product details

• Authors: Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan
• Publisher: BERGHAHN BOOKS, INC
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.02.2025
• EAN: 9781805398523
• ISBN: 978-1-80539-852-3
• No. of pages: 336
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Social and cultural anthropology, Development Studies, Regional Government Policies, Regional, state and other local government policies, Political and Economic Anthropology; Development Studies