Development, Interculturality and Power

Preface

In Peru, groups with stronger indigenous traits have been subjected to unequal treatment for centuries. Their lack of inclusion in the decision-making process has hindered their rights to decide what they could find worthwhile pursuing and how to achieve it. The Peruvian state has proclaimed interculturality as a transversal pillar to deal with the country’s cultural diversity. However, there is a contradiction between official discourses and practices. Some authors have suggested that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their connections with international cooperation contribute to the promotion and practice of interculturality. The way in which NGO-led development interventions practice interculturality has received little attention from researchers focused on Peru. Hence this research expands the conversation about how interculturality is practised within an NGO-led development project. To that end, it mobilises the analytical framework of translation proposed by Latour and Callon (1981).

The research explores intercultural practices following the interactions between development workers and residents of Andean communities, and also with non-human actors¹, in the process of conducting a baseline study about farmer innovation systems. The baseline is part of an action research development project led by a local NGO and an international research ←ix | x→centre. The main argument of this research is that current understandings of interculturality require re-connection of the ideal behind the concept with its practice in order to avoid purely technocratic solutions to a process which is essentially political. Through the exploration of acts of composition and displacement of realities² this research applies an uncommon methodology to development interventions in Peru and provides fresh empirical findings, thereby expanding the understanding of the socio-material context provided by a development intervention in which interculturality is practised in the Peruvian Andes.

This research aims to contribute to the enhancement of the reflection of how to better promote interculturality in Peru. It targets three different groups: First, for academics focused on exploring the encounter between the Andean communities and the industry of development, and more broadly for researchers focused on how divergent ways of acquiring knowledge interact in the context of a development intervention, I would like to highlight the usefulness of the translation process as a methodological tool to explore the overlapping realities converged in such types of interventions. By focusing on the acts of composition and displacement holding up a development intervention, the translation process provides an opportunity to explore the socio-material contexts in which interculturality is practised.

Second, for development practitioners promoting better ways to facilitate the political process of intercultural practice, this research opens up a reflexive exploration of the barriers to unlock the potential of intercultural practices. Specifically, I want to draw attention to built-in limits of a structure of development which may be unfit to facilitate processes with a capacity to attend to the complicated ways target populations see their future. To that end, this research is a contribution to the fostering of a discussion on how open the development industry is to explore, understand and facilitate processes that may fit outside pre-set agendas.

Third, for policymakers aiming to promote intercultural practices, this research provides insights around the hurdles of such an enterprise. It provides fresh empirical findings to look into how power structures shape intercultural practice. It shows how development experts who depict indigenous ways of knowing as a product of an “organic” interaction of local people with their environment, disregard their voices. Such findings could serve to reflect on the ways in which the development industry contributes to such practice, and potential measurements to ensure a representative voice of target communities is present throughout the life of a development intervention.