Invisible colour. Landscapes of whiteness and racial identity in international development

Authors

  • Kristín Loftsdóttir Universidad de Islandia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35305/rea.viXXXI.216

Keywords:

International Development, Racialization, Anthropology

Abstract

Racialized identity in relation to international development is a surprisingly unanalyzed theme within anthropology, even though extensively explored in connection with contemporary western multi-cultural societies and historical relations between different parts of the world. In the paper I explore race and whiteness in relation to international development, emphasizing the importance of analyzing how the historical construction of racial identity continues to inform actual lived relationships of people belonging to different geographical spaces. In order to capture the importance of development in visual and everyday lives of people in different parts of the world, I use the term “developscape”, adapting Arjun Appadurai's (1996) idea of globalization consisting of different “scapes”, furhtermore, as asking how this “developscape” is racialized.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Kristín Loftsdóttir, Universidad de Islandia

Profesora Adjunta en Antropología en la Universidad de Islandia. Realizó trabajo de campo entre los pastores WoDaaBe en Nigeria, África Occidental. Investiga sobre identidad racial y desarrollo internacional en Islandia. El libro The bush is sweet: Identity, power and development among WoDaaBe Fulani in Niger fue publicado en 2008 por el Instituto Nórdico de África.

Biografía de la traductora

Natalia Castelnuovo Biraben, Universidad de Buenos Aires – Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Doctora en Antropología Social por la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). Magíster por la UNSAM y Licenciada en Ciencias Antropológicas por la UBA. Es investigadora Adjunta del CONICET. Se desempeñó como directora e integrante de varios proyectos científicos a nivel nacional (FONCyT, Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva, UBACyT y FILOCyT) y en el exterior (Brasil). Publicó artículos en revistas nacionales e internacionales. Su último libro, de 2014, se titula Mujeres guaraníes y procesos de participación política en el noroeste Argentino. Realizó estancias de investigación en el CIESAS, DF, México y en el Instituto Ibero-Americano de Berlín.

References

Abu-Lughod, L. (1990). The romance of resistance: Tracing transformations of power through Bedouin women. American Ethnologist 17(1): 41-55.

Althusser, L. (1971). Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (notes towards an investigation). In: Lenin and philosophy, pp. 127-186. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Berg, J.T. (2008). ‘“We are on development”: Discourses and lived experiences of the ICEIDA-supported programme in Malawi’. (Unpublished MA thesis) University of Iceland.

Bonnett, A. (2000). White identities: Historical and international perspectives. Essex: Prentice Hall.

Brack, D. (2007). Introduction: Trade, aid and security: An agenda for peace and development. In: Oli Brown, M.H., Peña Moreno, S. and Winkler, S. (eds), Trade, aid and security: An agenda for peace and development, pp. 1-17. London: Earthscan.

Brodkin, K. (2007). Desire for development: Whiteness, gender and the helping imperative. Ontario Wilfrid Laurier UP.

Brodkin, K. (2000). Global capitalism: What’s race got to do with it? American Ethnologist 27(2): 237-256.

Bruner, E.M. (2005). Culture on tour: Ethnographies of travel. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Crapanzano, V. (2003). Reflections on hope as a category of social and psychological analysis. Cultural Anthropology 18(1)3-32.

Cooper, F. (2005). Colonialism in question: Theory, knowledge, history. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Duffield, M. (2006 [2002]). Global governance and the new wars: The merging of development and security. London: Zed Books.

Edelman, M. and Haugerud, A. (eds) (2005). The anthropology of development and globalization: From classical political economy to contemporary neoliberalism. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.

Escobar, A. (1995). Encountering development: The making and unmaking of the Third World. Princeton: Princeton UP.

Ferguson, J. (1994). The antipolitics machine. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Gullestad, M. (2002). Invisible fences: Egalitarianism, nationalism and racism. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 8(1): 45-63.

Harrison, F.V. (2002). Unraveling ‘race’ for the twenty-first century. In: MacClancy, J. (ed.), Exotic no more: Anthropology on the front lines, pp. 145-166. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Harrison, F.V. (1995). The persistent power of ‘race’ in the cultural and political economy of racism. Annual Review of Anthropology 24:47-74.

Hartigan, J.J. (1997). Establishing the fact of whiteness. American Anthropologist 99(3):495-505.

Heron, B. (2007). Desire for development: Whiteness, gender and the helping imperative. Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Jacobson, M. (1998). Whiteness of a different color: European immigration and the alchemy of race. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kiely, R. (1999). The last refuge of the noble savage? A critical assessment of post-development theory. The European Journal of Development. Research 11(1):30-55.

Loftsdóttir, K. (2002). Never forgetting? Gender and racial-ethnic identity during fieldwork. Social Anthropology 10(3):303-317.

Loftsdóttir, K. (2004). ‘This time it’s different’: Globalization, power and mobility. In: Ingimundarson, V., Loftsdóttir, K. and Erlingsdóttir, I. (eds), Topographies of globalization: Politics, culture and language, pp. 149-162. Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan.

Loftsdóttir, K. (2008). The bush is sweet: Identity, power and development among WoDaaBe Fulani in Niger. Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute.

Loftsdóttir,K. and Björnsdóttir, Helga (2009). The ‘jeep-gangsters’ from Iceland: The merging of militaristic operations and international development. Critique of Anthropology 29(4).

Mascia-Lees, F.E., Sharpe, P., and Cohen, C.B. (1989). The postmodernist turn in anthropology: Cautions from a feminist perspective. Signs 15(1):7-33.

Nustad, K.G. 2001. Development: The devil we know? Third World Quarterly 22(4): 479489.

Moore, H.L. (1996). Passion for difference: Essays in anthropology and gender. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Mosse, D. (2005). Cultivating development: An ethnography of aid policy and practice. London and Ann Arbor: Pluto Press.

Mudimbe, V.Y. (1994). The idea of Africa (African systems of thought). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Puwar, N. (2004). Space invaders: Race, gender and bodies out of place. Oxford: Berg.

Rigby, P. (1996). African images: Racism and the end of anthropology. Oxford: Berg.

Smedley, A. (1998). ‘Race’ and the construction of human identity. American Anthropologist 100(3): 690-702.

Staunæs, D. (2003). Where have all the subjects gone? Bringing together the concepts of intersectionality and subjectification. Nora 11(2): 101-110.

Tsing, A. (2000). The global situation. Cultural Anthropology 15(3): 327-360.

United Nations Development Project (UNDP) (2005). ‘International cooperation at a crossroads: Aid, trade and security in an unequal world.’ http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/ (accessed March 2007).

Vitalis, R. (2000). The graceful and generous liberal gesture: Making racism invisible in American international relations. Millennium: Journal of International Studies 29: 331-356.

Published

2022-12-30 — Updated on 2022-12-30

Versions

How to Cite

Loftsdóttir, K. . (2022). Invisible colour. Landscapes of whiteness and racial identity in international development. Revista De La Escuela De Antropología, (XXXI). https://doi.org/10.35305/rea.viXXXI.216

Issue

Section

Traducción

Similar Articles

<< < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.