IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jodeso/v40y2024i1p52-72.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Re-conceptualizing Development Terminology from a Relational Approach: Perspectives from Two Case Studies in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Marlie Holtzhausen

    (University of Pretoria, Centre for Mediation in Africa, Gauteng)

Abstract

This article uses a relational approach to re-conceptualize development concepts, measures, and practices. It explores how participants in the development sector construct and make sense of their lived realities and how they perceive and act on development initiatives as part of a social process. This is a qualitative study that uses a case study of two organizations in the development sector of South Africa working with individuals and households in communities that are in precarious circumstances. The organizations are small but rich in understanding what it means to be present, to learn, to negotiate, to allow for choices, and to do so within a sustainable view of development relationships. The insights from these contexts and the ethos from which they derive provide us with an opportunity to rethink the ethos that guides the broader development discourse.

Suggested Citation

  • Marlie Holtzhausen, 2024. "Re-conceptualizing Development Terminology from a Relational Approach: Perspectives from Two Case Studies in South Africa," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 40(1), pages 52-72, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:40:y:2024:i:1:p:52-72
    DOI: 10.1177/0169796X231223830
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0169796X231223830
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0169796X231223830?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Deepa Narayan, 2002. "Empowerment and Poverty Reduction : A Sourcebook," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15239.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Helen M. Haugh & Alka Talwar, 2016. "Linking Social Entrepreneurship and Social Change: The Mediating Role of Empowerment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(4), pages 643-658, February.
    2. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2013. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-91.
    3. Alice Tianbo Zhang & Sasmita Patnaik & Shaily Jha & Shalu Agrawal & Carlos F. Gould & Johannes Urpelainen, 2022. "Evidence of multidimensional gender inequality in energy services from a large-scale household survey in India," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 7(8), pages 698-707, August.
    4. Blocker, Christopher P. & Ruth, Julie A. & Sridharan, Srinivas & Beckwith, Colin & Ekici, Ahmet & Goudie-Hutton, Martina & Rosa, José Antonio & Saatcioglu, Bige & Talukdar, Debabrata & Trujillo, Carlo, 2013. "Understanding poverty and promoting poverty alleviation through transformative consumer research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1195-1202.
    5. Deininger, Klaus W. & Liu, Yanyan, 2008. "Economic and Social Impacts of Self-Help Groups in India," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6482, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Saguin, Kidjie, 2018. "Why the poor do not benefit from community-driven development: Lessons from participatory budgeting," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 220-232.
    7. Handapangoda, Wasana Sampath & Sisira Kumara, Ajanth, 2012. "From silence to voice: Examining the empowerment potential of mobile phones to women in Sri Lanka The case of dependent housewives," MPRA Paper 41768, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Oct 2012.
    8. Charles-Gumbs, Ingrid & Stuart, Sheila, 2011. "Progress report on gender equality, poverty eradication and the Millennium Development Goals in the Caribbean," Documentos de Proyectos 4092, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    9. Deval Desai & Michael Woolcock, 2012. "The politics of rule of law systems in developmental states: 'political settlements' as a basis for promoting effective justice institutions for marginalized groups," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-008-12, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    10. Samuelson Appau & Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Russell Smyth & Quanda Zhang, 2022. "Social Capital Inequality and Subjective Wellbeing of Older Chinese," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 541-563, April.
    11. Binswanger, Hans P. & Aiyar, Swaminathan, 2003. "Scaling up community-driven development : theoretical underpinnings and program design implications," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3039, The World Bank.
    12. van der Windt, Peter & Humphreys, Macartan & Sanchez de la Sierra, Raul, 2018. "Gender quotas in development programming: Null results from a field experiment in Congo," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 326-345.
    13. Ambler, Kate & Doss, Cheryl & Kieran, Caitlin & Passarelli, Simone, 2022. "Spousal concordance in joint and separate households: Survey evidence from Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    14. Ruth Alsop & Mette Bertelsen & Jeremy Holland, 2006. "Empowerment in Practice : From Analysis to Implementation," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6980.
    15. Pratley, Pierre, 2016. "Associations between quantitative measures of women's empowerment and access to care and health status for mothers and their children: A systematic review of evidence from the developing world," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 119-131.
    16. Ilar, Glenn Y. & Baconguis, Rowena DT. & Cardenas, Virginia R. & Reyes, Jaine C. & Palis, Florencia G., 2021. "Outcomes and Social Effects of a Community-Based Development Project on Selected Rice-Based Farmers in the Philippines," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development, Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), vol. 18(2), December.
    17. Francesco Bripi & Daniela Grieco, 2023. "Participatory incentives," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 26(4), pages 813-849, September.
    18. Saskia Vossenberg, 2018. "Frugal Innovation Through a Gender Lens: Towards an Analytical Framework," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(1), pages 34-48, January.
    19. Promila Das, 2023. "Examination of Elements Influencing Mothers’ Dynamic Capacity and Versatility: A Household-level Analysis," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 17(1), pages 179-190, April.
    20. Eger, Claudia & Miller, Graham & Scarles, Caroline, 2018. "Gender and capacity building: A multi-layered study of empowerment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 207-219.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:40:y:2024:i:1:p:52-72. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.