Anthropology of development and the challenge of South-South cooperation

this article explores some of the challenges and potentials that the emerging phenomenon of south-south cooperation (ssc) might pose to major approaches in the international literature on the anthropology of development. irrespective of particular politico-conceptual preferences, the latter's analytics have been largely crafted based on ethnographic work about development aid provided by northern agencies or north-led multilateral organizations. based on my own fieldwork experience with brazil's contemporary provision of official technical cooperation in tropical agriculture to various countries in the african continent, i propose a discussion about four sets of themes: foucauldian approaches to development based on notions of governmentality and discourse; the associated question of politics/depoliticization; the institutional aspect of development cooperation as a national and global industry and bureaucracy; and the question of ethnographic authority and the transit between what david mosse has referred to as field (relations entertained with informants during fieldwork) and desk (relations entertained with academic peers during ethnographic writing).