The World Bank and Anthropology: conflict and cooperation

This chapter addresses the roles of anthropologists and anthropology in the World Bank. The Bank only began employing anthropologists as staff members in the 1970s. Prior to that, anthropologists, particularly cultural anthropologists or ethnographers, were utilized largely on an ad hoc basis in part because of the sense of economists that they could address social and cultural issues themselves. Significant emphasis of anthropologists in the Bank was placed initially on improvement of development project appraisals. Another area of concern, the negative social impacts of dam-related resettlement, was an issue where anthropologists made important contributions. The Social Development Network in the World Bank sought to improve Bank approaches in areas such as gender, poverty alleviation, Indigenous peoples, and local participation. This chapter examines the ways in which anthropologists have been utilized in the World Bank and how they endeavored to make it a more effective institution than it was in the past.