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

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.