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Development as pedagogy: On becoming good models in Japan and Myanmar
Author(s) -
WATANABE CHIKA
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1111/amet.12559
Subject(s) - process (computing) , subject (documents) , agriculture , sustainable development , work (physics) , political science , key (lock) , sociology , engineering ethics , public relations , economic growth , engineering , geography , computer science , economics , library science , law , mechanical engineering , archaeology , operating system , computer security
A key approach to development aid in Japan has been hitozukuri (making persons), which refers not only to the transfer of skills but also to the holistic cultivation of people. The Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement (OISCA), which emerged from a Shinto‐based religious group, has been one of the leading NGOs in hitozukuri aid, training people in sustainable agriculture around the Asia‐Pacific region. A central aspect of OISCA's activities consists of imitative practices such as “leading by example.” Aid workers’ efforts to become and adapt “good models” show how modeling practices are not standardizing but can, rather, be a lens through which to understand development work as a process of learning and making ethical subjects, a process that transforms both aid workers and aid recipients. [ development , learning , ethical subject‐making , modeling , NGOs , Japan , Myanmar ]