
Doing Development in West Africa
A Reader by and for Undergraduates
Charles Piot(Editor)
Duke University Press
Published on 6. September 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
232 pages
978-0-8223-6192-3 (ISBN)
Description
In recent years the popularity of service learning and study abroad programs that bring students to the global South has soared, thanks to this generation of college students' desire to make a positive difference in the world. This collection contains essays by undergraduates who recount their experiences in Togo working on projects that established health insurance at a local clinic, built a cyber cafE, created a microlending program for teens, and started a local writers' group. The essays show students putting their optimism to work while learning that paying attention to local knowledge can make all the difference in a project's success. Students also conducted research on global health topics by examining the complex relationships between traditional healing practices and biomedicine. Charles Piot's introduction contextualizes student-initiated development within the history of development work in West Africa since 1960, while his epilogue provides an update on the projects, compiles an inventory of best practices, and describes the type of projects that are likely to succeed. Doing Development in West Africa provides a relatable and intimate look into the range of challenges, successes, and failures that come with studying abroad in the global South.
Contributors. Cheyenne Allenby, Kelly Andrejko, Connor Cotton, Allie Middleton, Caitlin Moyles, Charles Piot, Benjamin Ramsey, Maria Cecilia Romano, Stephanie Rotolo, Emma Smith, Sarah Zimmerman
Contributors. Cheyenne Allenby, Kelly Andrejko, Connor Cotton, Allie Middleton, Caitlin Moyles, Charles Piot, Benjamin Ramsey, Maria Cecilia Romano, Stephanie Rotolo, Emma Smith, Sarah Zimmerman
Reviews / Votes
"Students are refreshingly candid about the nature and multitude of problems they faced and the need to scale back their expectations. As Piot notes, development is hard work. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty."- S. Paul (Choice) "Doing Development in West Africa constitutes an impressive practical and scholarly accomplishment. . . . Contributions and challenges, strengths and limitations, joys and frustrations find articulate and compelling voices in this forthright treatment of selected small-scale student projects undertaken over the past eight years." - Peter H. Koehn (Journal of Modern African Studies) "Doing Development in West Africa will be a valuable book for courses in international development, African studies, and development anthropology, and provides good 'hands-on' guidance for students preparing for summer projects in Africa, Asia, or Latin America. While written for undergraduates, the book also provides important lessons for development practitioners who often fail to appreciate the importance of local context, history, and knowledge systems, and then wonder why their development efforts go awry." - Peter D. Little (African Studies Review) "This is an unusual and unusually useful volume. . . . Clearly, this little volume can be used to advantage not only in courses on development but also in applied anthropology and qualitative methods courses." - Constance deRoche (General Anthropology)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
North Carolina
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
33 photographs
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
337 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8223-6192-3 (9780822361923)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
08/2016
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€198.99
Available for download
Person
Charles Piot is Professor of Cultural Anthropology and African and African American Studies at Duke University, and the author of Nostalgia for the Future: West Africa after the Cold War.
Content
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction / Charles Piot 1
Part I. Personal Reflections
1. Students Reflect / Stephanie Rotolo, Allie Middleton, Kelly Andrejko, Benjamin Ramsey, Maria Cecilia Romano 19
Part II. Research Articles
2. The Social Life of Medicine / Allie Middleton 43
3. Biomedicine and Traditional Healing / Stephanie Rotolo 67
4. Rural Medicines in an Urban Setting / Kelly Andrejko 83
5. Village Health Insurance / Cheyenne Allenby 99
6. Youth Migration / Maria Cecilia Romano 113
7. Cyber Village / Connor Cotton 137
8. Computer Classes / Sarah Zimmerman 153
9. Microfinancing Teens / Emma Smith 165
10. The FarendE Writers' Society / Caitlin Moyles 187
Epilogue / Charles Piot 205
Index 213
Introduction / Charles Piot 1
Part I. Personal Reflections
1. Students Reflect / Stephanie Rotolo, Allie Middleton, Kelly Andrejko, Benjamin Ramsey, Maria Cecilia Romano 19
Part II. Research Articles
2. The Social Life of Medicine / Allie Middleton 43
3. Biomedicine and Traditional Healing / Stephanie Rotolo 67
4. Rural Medicines in an Urban Setting / Kelly Andrejko 83
5. Village Health Insurance / Cheyenne Allenby 99
6. Youth Migration / Maria Cecilia Romano 113
7. Cyber Village / Connor Cotton 137
8. Computer Classes / Sarah Zimmerman 153
9. Microfinancing Teens / Emma Smith 165
10. The FarendE Writers' Society / Caitlin Moyles 187
Epilogue / Charles Piot 205
Index 213