Desire for Development

Whiteness, Gender, and the Helping Imperative

By: Barbara Heron

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Paperback | 4 December 2007

At a Glance

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204 Pages

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22.9 x 15.4 x 1.5

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In Desire for Development: Whiteness, Gender, and the Helping
Imperative , Barbara Heron draws on poststructuralist notions of
subjectivity, critical race and space theory, feminism, colonial
and postcolonial studies, and travel writing to trace colonial
continuities in the post-development recollections of white
Canadian women who have worked in Africa. Following the narrative
arc of the development worker story from the decision to go
overseas, through the experiences abroad, the return home, and
final reflections, the book interweaves theory with the words of
the participants to bring theory to life and to generate new
understandings of whiteness and development work.

Heron reveals how the desire for development is about the making
of self in terms that are highly raced, classed, and gendered, and
she exposes the moral core of this self and its seemingly
paradoxical necessity to the Other. The construction of white
female subjectivity is thereby revealed as contingent on notions
of goodness and Othering, played out against, and constituted by,
the backdrop of the NorthSouth binary, in which Canada's national
narrative situates us as the "good guys" of the world.

Industry Reviews

"Who has not thought about going to the Third World to help? Heron pushes our buttons when she argues that helping can be the oldest colonial move. Perceptive, stunning in its honesty, yet unwilling to dismiss helping altogether, this book helps us to thread our way through the moral complexities of the First World position of colonizers who now set out to improve the very societies they continue to exploit. This resolutely anti-colonial study of whiteness and gender is crucial for thinking critically about development." -- Sherene Razack, author of Dark Threats and White Knights: The Somalia Affair, Peacekeeping, and the New Imperialism (2004) -- 200712

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Society & Culture Social Groups Gender Studies Gender Studies: Women and Girls Sociology & Anthropology Anthropology Social & Cultural Anthropology, Ethnography Politics & Government Political Science & Theory Reference, Information & Interdisciplinary Subjects Interdisciplinary Studies

Development Studies Literature, Poetry & Plays Anthologies (non-poetry)Religion & Beliefs Aspects of Religion for Non-Christians Religious Life & Practice Religious Aspects of Sexuality

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Challenging the Development Work(er) Narrative	p. 1
Situating the Theoretical Framework	p. 6
Critiquing Development	p. 12
The Empirical Basis for the Book	p. 15
Overview of the Book	p. 20
Where Do Development Workers Really Come From?	p. 25
Bourgeois Subject Formation: The Era of Empire	p. 27
Colonial Continuities: Planetary Consciousness, Entitlement, and Obligation	p. 33
Development Worker Motivations: Colonial Continuities in Play	p. 38
Planetary Consciousness: The View from Here	p. 38
Obligation: Making a Contribution	p. 41
Entitlement: Making a Choice	p. 45
Concluding Remarks	p. 52
Development Is ... a Relational Experience	p. 55
First Encounters	p. 59
How Do "We" Relate to "Them"?	p. 66
Relations across Difference	p. 68
Barriers We Negotiate	p. 72
Non-Negotiable Barriers: "We" Generate; "They" Impose	p. 79
Concluding Remarks	p. 88
Negotiating Subject Positions, Constituting Selves	p. 91
Considering Whiteness	p. 94
Exploring the Positioning of Northern Development Workers	p. 99
Gender Complexities	p. 104
Claiming Subjectivity	p. 112
Concluding Remarks	p. 120
Participants' Retrospectives: Complicating Desire	p. 123
The Moral Basis of Bourgeois Subjectivity	p. 124
What Do We Think of It Now?	p. 127
No Misgivings	p. 128
Doubt Deepens	p. 130
The Centre Cannot Hold	p. 134
How Can We Resist?	p. 143
Summing Up, Drawing Conclusions	p. 147
What Does All This Imply?	p. 152
Notes	p. 157
Bibliography	p. 175
Index	p. 185
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Desire for Development

Whiteness, Gender, and the Helping Imperative

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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