How several Colombian communities have worked with international development agencies to rebuild after a devastating earthquake, with very different results

Cauca, located in southwestern Colombia and home to the largest indigenous population in the country, is renowned as a site of indigenous mobilization. In 1994, following a destructive earthquake, many families in Cauca were forced to leave their communities of origin and relocate to other areas within the province where the state provided them with land and housing. Noting that disasters offer communities the opportunity to remake themselves and their priorities, David D. Gow examines how three different communities established after the earthquake wrestled with conflicting visions of development. He shows how they each countered traditional notions of development by moving beyond a myopic obsession with poverty alleviation to demand that Colombia become more inclusive and treat all of its people as citizens with full rights and responsibilities.

Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted annually in Cauca from 1995 through 2002, Gow compares the development plans of the three communities, looking at both the planning processes and the plans themselves. In so doing, he demonstrates that there is no single indigenous approach to development and modernity. He describes differences in how each community defined and employed the concept of culture, how they connected a concern with culture to economic and political reconstruction, and how they sought to assert their own priorities while engaging with the existing development resources at their disposal. Ultimately, Gow argues that the moral vision advanced by the indigenous movement, combined with the growing importance attached to human rights, offers a fruitful way to think about development: less as a process of integration into a rigidly defined modernity than as a critical modernity based on a radical politics of inclusive citizenship.

"“[A] richly textured and at times brilliant ethnography of indigenous development. . .”" - American Ethnologist

"“David Gow has written a fascinating and provocative book on how subaltern indigenous communities in southwestern Colombia re-imagine the concept of ‘development’ to further their own aims. . . . Gow offers readers not only a new understanding of ethnic politics in the Cauca, but also an empowering and ‘moral’ way to do anthropology.”" - Bulletin of Latin American Research

"“David Gow’s book, written with an unprecedented volume of privileged information about the communities, raises questions which will, without doubt, provoke an important debate among anthropologists involved in social development. . .”" - Development in Practice

"“Ethnographers practicing and critiquing development as well as development practitioners themselves would be well advised to read Gow’s ethnography, but the impact of the book stretches beyond development studies. It includes a detailed case study of education policy and practice at the local level and a close examination of indigenous struggle for participatory citizenship in a more inclusive state. This will articulate with Latin Americanists studying new social movements, democracy, and education, especially, in Mexico, Guatemala, and Bolivia.”" - Journal of Anthropological Research

"“Gow should be commended for his attention to indigenous interlocutors and for his meticulous research. . . . [T]he book is a unique and refreshing contribution to an anthropology of development and indigenous peoples, deserving significant attention in these areas.”" - Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology

"“Gow’s book once again points to the necessity of changing the way development is approached in order to make human rights and social justice a priority. The book is to be recommended to scholars, students and practitioners of development, planning and indigenous politics.”" - Journal of Latin American Studies

"“The insights Gow presents are compelling. . . . Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, professionals.”" - Choice