permaculture

["Nicholas Roberts, Permaculture.coop" <permaculturecoop@gmail.com>]

http://www.ellerman.org/Davids-Stuff/Books/NEW%20RELEASE%20NOTICE.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ellerman
http://www.youtube.com/user/permaculturecoop#p/u/8/g_UR0FlrvXk
1
NEW BOOK RELEASE
Helping People Help Themselves:
>From the World Bank to an Alternative Philosophy of Development Assistance
By David Ellerman
Foreword by Albert O. Hirschman
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Publication date: April 2005
Helping People Help Themselves grew out of David Ellerman's ten years at the
World Bank—
and particularly out of his three years as advisor and speechwriter for
Joseph Stiglitz during
Stiglitz's tumultuous term as the Bank's Chief Economist. The book provides
a structural
critique of the World Bank's approach to development assistance—but the main
purpose is to lay
the intellectual foundations for an alternative approach. The book takes a
broad interdisciplinary
approach drawing from educational theory, management theory, community
organizing,
psychology, and philosophy. While many thinkers are discussed, there is a
focus on eight
individuals who have wrestled with the fundamental conundrum of trying to
give external help
that promotes (rather than thwarts) self-help. Those individuals are: Albert
Hirschman, John
Dewey, Paulo Freire, E. F. Schumacher, Douglas McGregor, Carl Rogers, Saul
Alinsky, and
Søren Kierkegaard. Helping People Help Themselves might be considered the
companion
volume focusing on the World Bank to Stiglitz's Globalization and Its
Discontents which
focused on the IMF.
"Ellerman provides a compelling humanist understanding of how economic
development aid can
succeed, if only people and nations are enabled to help themselves."
— William Greider author,The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral
Economy
"A towering achievement. It outdoes Sen and Hirshman in its reach across
economics,
management theory, psychology, sociology, mathematics and philosophy. The
result is a
coherent alternative "way of seeing" the relationship between aid
organizations based in rich
countries and aid recipients based in poorer ones, and some practical
suggestions on how to
reengage the aid agencies more as "helpers" than as "doers". Along the way
it fairly sizzles with
insider insights into the workings of the World Bank."
—Robert Hunter Wade, Development Studies Institute, London School of
Economics
Detailed Table of Contents
Foreword by Albert O. Hirschman
Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview
Helping People Help Themselves
The Fundamental Helping-Self-Help Conundrum
The Key Factor in Development Assistance: Autonomy-Respecting Help
Unhelpful Help
The First Don't: Don't Override Self-Help Capacity with Social Engineering
The First Form of Unhelpful Help
2
The Indirect Approach
The Second Don't: Don't Undercut Self-Help Capacity with Benevolent Aid
The Second Form of Unhelpful Help
The Time-Inconsistency Problem of "Gap-Filling Aid"
Relief Assistance as Generalized Moral Hazard
The Scylla and Charybdis of Development Assistance
Knowledge-Based Development Assistance
The Cognitive Dimension of Development Assistance
The Two Don'ts in Knowledge-Based Assistance
Socratic Approach to Doers' Active Learning
The Three Dos
The First Do: Start from Where the Doers Are
The Second Do: See the World Through the Doers' Eyes
The Third Do: Respect the Autonomy of the Doers
Eight Thinkers Triangulate a Theory of Autonomy-Respecting Help
Chapter 2: Internal and External Motivation: Beyond Homo Economicus
Towards a Critique of Agency Theory
Non-Distortionary Interventions
Non-Distortionary Taxes and Subsidies
The Common Pool Approach to Aid
Independence Today; "Supply Effect" Tomorrow
Independence and Moral Hazard
Commitment Mechanisms to Show Own-Motivation
Gaming the Safeguards
Internal and External Motivation
Moving Beyond Homo Economicus
Foreground and Background
"Higher and Lower Selves"
Action = Behavior + Motive
By-Products Rather than Products of Choice
The Threat-to-Autonomy Effect
The Crowding-Out Effect
The "New Year's Resolutions" and Internalization Theories of
Conditionalities
The Universal Solvent Fallacy in the Economic Design of Institutions
Chapter 3: The Indirect Approach
Introduction
The Indirect Approach in Strategy
The Indirect Approach in Biological Learning Mechanisms
The Indirect Approach of Selectionist Mechanisms
McGregor's Theory Y: A Prototype Indirect Approach
Step 1: Starting from the doer's problem
Step 2: Seeing the problem through the doer's eyes
Step 3: Helping the doer pursue own-ends to best solve the organizational
problem
Step 4: Helping doer to implement, test, and refine the doer's solution
Step 5: Helping doer gain autonomy and take responsibility for solution
Intrinsic Motivation and Theory Y
Chapter 4: Indirect Approaches: Intellectual History
Introduction
Taoist Antecedents
The Socratic Method
The Path of Stoicism
Learning in Neo-Platonism
The Learning Paradox and Augustine
Rousseau's Copernican Revolution in Pedagogy
John Dewey and the Active Learning Pedagogy
3
Carl Rogers' Non-Directive Therapy
Søren Kierkegaard and Ludwig Wittgenstein on Indirect Communication
Gilbert Ryle and Michael Polanyi on Uncodified Knowledge
Gandhi and Satyagraha
Summary of Common Theme: B-ing and Non-B-ing
Chapter 5: Autonomy-Respecting Development Assistance
Development Intervention as a Principal-Agent Relationship
First Do: Starting from Present Institutions
Second Do: Seeing the World Through the Eyes of the Client
First Don't: Transformation Cannot be Externally Imposed
Second Don't: Addams-Dewey-Lasch Critique of Benevolence
Third Do: Respect Autonomy of Doers
Chapter 6: Knowledge-Based Development Assistance
The Standard Methodology and Its Problems
The Standard Theory-in-Use
The Volitional and Cognitive Sides of Helping Theory
Ownership Problems
Self-Efficacy Problems
Cognitive Dependency Problems
Examples of Building "In-capacity"
Core Courses
Training of Trainers
Training Networks
Fees For Service
Evaluations
Public Relations and Other Influence Activities
Economic and Sector Work: A "Jobs Program" for Bank Economists
External Aid Agencies Co-opting Local Talent
Unsustainable Missionary Outposts
Types of Development Knowledge
Universal versus Local Knowledge
Codified versus Tacit Knowledge
Cargo Cult Reforms: "Where is the road that leads to cargo?"
Knowledge Assistance: Brokering Between Experiments, Not Disseminating
Answers
Chapter 7: Can Development Agencies Learn and Help Clients Learn?
Introduction: A "Church" versus a Learning Organization
Roadblock to Learning #1: Official Views as Dogma—with Examples
Roadblock to Learning #2: Funded Assumptions as Dogma
Roadblock to Learning #3: "Social Science" as Dogma
Roadblock to Learning #4: The Rage to Conclude
The Open Learning Model
Competition and Devil's Advocacy in the Open Learning Model
Devil's Advocacy and Countervailance
The General Case for Devil's Advocacy
Problems in Implementing Devil's Advocacy
Devil's Advocacy as the Qualitative Version of the Opportunity Cost Doctrine
Evaluation = Retrospective Devil's Advocacy
Variations: Adversarial Legal Process, The Loyal Opposition, Separation of
Powers, and Civil Society
Non-dogmatism and Socratic Ignorance in Organizations
Rethinking the Agency-Country Relationship
Chapter 8: Case Study: Assistance to the Transition Countries
The Challenge of the Transition
The Privatization Debates: Did History have a "Timeout" under Communism?
Voucher Privatization
The Ideas Behind the Scheme
4
The "Arguments" for the Scheme
Voucher Privatization was a Political Strategy
Institutional Shock Therapy versus Incrementalism
China: An Incrementalist Transition
Why an Incrementalist Approach Might be Successful
The Lease Buyout Counterfactual
Closing Remarks on the Transition Case Study
Chapter 9: Hirschmanian Themes of Social Learning and Change
Introduction
The Balanced Growth Debate
Conditionality-Based Development Aid: The New "Big Push"
Unbalanced Growth Processes
Cognitive Side of Unbalanced Growth
Bridges to Other Thinkers
Herbert Simon's Theory of Bounded Rationality
Charles Lindblom's Theory of Incrementalism and Muddling-Through
Burton Klein's Vision of Dynamic Economics
Jane Jacobs' Vision of Development
Donald Schön's Theory of Decentralized Social Learning
Everett Rogers' Theory of Decentralized Innovation and Diffusion
Just-in-Time Inventory and Continuous Improvement Systems
Charles Sabel's Theory of Learning by Monitoring
Parallel Experimentation as a Basic Scheme for Learning Under Uncertainty
Chapter 10: Conclusions
Concluding the Example of the World Bank
Can the World Bank Change?
Structural Problem #1: Monopolistic Power
Structural Problem #2: Affiliation with United States' Policies and
Interests
Structural Problem #3: Money is Not the Key to Development Assistance
Structural Problem #4: Working Through Governments that are Part of the
Problem
Structural Problem #5: Tries to Control Bad Clients Rather Than Exit
Relationship
A Modest Proposal for the World Bank: Decentralization with Extreme
Prejudice
Concluding Remarks
Appendix: Eight Thinkers on the Five Themes
First Do: Starting From Where the Doers Are
Second Do: Seeing Through the Doers' Eyes
First Don't: Don't Try to Impose Change on Doers
Second Don't: Don't Give Help as Benevolence
Third Do: Respect Autonomy of the Doers
Bibliography
David Ellerman was the advisor and speech-writer for Joseph Stiglitz during
Stiglitz's three years as Chief
Economist of the World Bank. Prior to the World Bank, Ellerman taught at
various universities in a
number of fields. Currently, he is a visiting scholar in the Economics
Department of the University of
California in Riverside and is consulting on development and worker
ownership issues.
Cloth: 0-472-11465-4
354 pages, 6 x 9
$65.00 / £ 37.00
Available at better bookstores online.