Interkulturelle Kontakte im Rahmen der Entwicklungskooperation in Zinder (Niger). Ein Zugang und ein Problem

Eva Spies

Africa Spectrum, 2003, vol. 38, issue 3, 347-374

Abstract: The article deals with the questions why private intercultural encounters of European aid workers with the local population of Zinder (Niger) are so rare, and what made the expa-triates avoid intercultural contacts. By using the example of a conflict in the relationship between a cook and his European boss, a general problem of intercultural encounters is elaborated: due to the contact of different cultural models of the relationship and the differing ways of actors coping with the moral implications of them, the expats experience the limitations of their ideals of understanding and their ideas of agency. The experience that ones proper model of understanding is contested, as well as the experience of not being able to act in a consistent way may result in the expats' withdrawal from encoun-ters. The aim of this paper is to underline the importance of an Anthropology of Develop-ment which deals not only with discourses, institutions and local actors of the develop-ment world, but also with interpersonal intercultural contacts. In focusing on the culturally different ways of coping with strangers and strangeness, another perspective on the work of development cooperation might be added to the discussion. Therefore it seems to be important that anthropological research on development cooperation and multi-disciplinary research on intercultural contacts get more closely connected.

Date: 2003
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