Power/knowledge and identity : development interventions in a Maya village

Abstract

This thesis aims to provide a greater understanding of the development process through the examination of the interaction between a development project and a local community. It seeks to deliver clarity to the complex issue of how people negotiate social relationships and outcomes at the development interface. The research applies a constructionist approach to the examination of the development process. This approach analyses development by focusing on the ways in which different actors construct and define their worlds and how they negotiate differentiated meanings. This thesis argues that actors do not passively adopt development initiatives, rather, they internalise them in order that they make sense in the context of their own lived worlds. It argues that in any given situation there will be multiple constructions of reality, which will be based upon different historical, socio-cultural contexts which produce particular ideologies and social norms that are manifest in expressions of identity. During the development process in which different identities interact, areas of conflicts over meaning and practice are negotiated. Inherent in this process is the issue of power as social actors vie for the legitimisation of knowledge and associated realities. This thesis demonstrates the importance of acknowledging individuals’ perceptions of the self, attitudes, beliefs and ideologies as being influencing factors in the way people conduct and respond to development interventions. It is concluded that the development process is affected and determined by conflicts and negotiations over meaning and practice attached to place and the environment, which are founded on multifarious ideologies and identities. Inherent in these negotiations are aspects of knowledge and power which are of particular significance in the relationship between the developers and those ‘to be developed’. Acknowledging these dynamics will enable us to understand more fully the unintended outcomes of development initiatives.