Foreningen af Udviklingsforskere i Danmark (FAU) - The Association of Development Researchers in Denmark

FAU CONFERENCE 2010

'Development that matters: Religion, Livelihoods, Social Movements and Community Development'

The Association of Development Researchers in Denmark (FAU) Annual Conference 2010 - 17-19 March 2010 at Danhostel Gjerrild

Theme 2: Community Organisations, Livelihoods and Social Change

Local organisations in the shape of community-based organisations are often
perceived by donors and governments as both an effective and egalitarian media for
organising development at the micro-level, particularly as regards access to resources
and opportunities. These organisations have been accommodated within the broad, but
fuzzy sphere of decentralisation. Local organisations in the shape of social movements,
on the other hand, are often opposed to state and local government, as they struggle
against state policies.
Regardless of scope and purpose, analysis of local organisations tends to be
characterised by the use of notions of ‘community’, ‘cooperation’, ‘collective action’,
‘sustainability, ‘participation’ and ‘empowerment’. But who are the stakeholders at
local level, and how are different interests articulated? What about representation –
whose interests are represented in community based organisations? How effective are
local organisations in terms of livelihood improvement? How democratic are they? Can
social processes at the local level exclude the state and administration levels? To what
extent do state policies and the surrounding economy influence local processes? This
workshop invites papers that address very different topics and processes with the local
level as the point of departure.

Convenors: Torsten Rødel Berg (Aalborg University, AAU) & Vibeke Andersson (AAU)
Resource persons: Søren Hvalkof (Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS),
Ingrid Nyborg (Noragric, Norwegian University of Life Sciences), Annette Kanstrup-Jensen
(AAU), and Mikkel Funder (DIIS)

Keynote Presenter: Frances Cleaver, SOAS, UK.

Frances Cleaver is Reader in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London. Her work is centred on three interrelated themes of central
importance to the understanding of poverty, with particular application to the local governance
of natural resources:
• Institutions, collective action and participatory natural resource management.
• Water governance, poverty and wellbeing.
• The everyday politics of natural resource access and gendered livelihoods.
Her interests link theoretical and methodological advances with practical policy application
and she has pursued them both through research and consultancy work, mainly in Africa.
Additionally Cleaver is interested in the use of participatory action research and ethnographic
methods and has authored work on water governance, gender, collective action, property rights etc.