David Mosse Research Articles

Looking back to look forward: Explorations on water scenario in Bundelkhand, Central India

At present, India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history, and millions of lives and livelihoods are under threat. As per NITI Aayog’s1 Water Index Report (2018), 40% of the population will have no access to drinking water by 2030. A 2016 report by Down To Earth (DTE) stated that 116,000 water harvesting structures were constructed between 2006 and 2015, and 15,000 crore rupees were spent on drought-proofing measures in Bundelkhand, Central India. Still, the region had 15th consecutive crop loss and 13 droughts in the past 15 years. Water historians like Elizabeth Whitcombe, Rohan D’Souza, and others have demonstrated how British imperialism led to the replacement of traditional water harvesting structures and systems, severely altering existing water-society relationships. On the contrary, Ian Stone, David Mosse, and Esha Shah argued that the ‘pre-colonial equilibrium’ versus ‘colonial hydrology’ framework is an exaggeration. Within this context, the research reveals the tangled roots of various causes and variables, and practically informing policy circles to tackle contemporary water issues and challenges and achieve SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation.

Power and Religion in Tamil Catholicism - Possessed by the Virgin: Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, and Marian Possession in South India. By Kristin C. Bloomer. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. xv, 325 pp. - The Saint in the Banyan Tree: Christianity and Caste Society in India. By David Mosse. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. xx, 385 pp.

Power and Religion in Tamil Catholicism - Possessed by the Virgin: Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, and Marian Possession in South India. By Kristin C. Bloomer. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. xv, 325 pp. - The Saint in the Banyan Tree: Christianity and Caste Society in India. By David Mosse. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. xx, 385 pp.

David Mosse, The rule of water. Statecraft, ecology and collective action in South India, Nueva Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2003, 337 p.

David Mosse, The rule of water. Statecraft, ecology and collective action in South India, Nueva Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2003, 337 p.

Development blind spots and environmental impact assessment: Tensions between policy, law and practice in Brazil's Xingu river basin

This paper explores the tensions involved in Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and environmental licensing through a detailed analysis of the legal disputes and public contestations surrounding two projects, a large hydroelectric dam and a gold mine, which are proximately located to each other. Broadly, we argue that EIAs may function to reinforce rather than genuinely inform or potentially resist prevailing developmental logics. The research extends David Mosse's argument that development self-perpetuates “success” through participation and procedural licensing mechanisms while on-the-ground realities diverge significantly. It offers a critical examination of EIA utility and processes through identifying three general mechanisms within EIA and environmental licensing procedures that contribute to approval of projects and promote a perception of their legitimacy, while detracting from the intended purposes of EIAs as opportunities for meaningful public discussion and sustainability-oriented decision making. These mechanisms include discourses that entrench project necessity and make them appear inevitable, public participation, and the isolated treatment of related projects. This work situates an understanding of particular EIAs within a deeper process of regional territorial development and resource extraction.

David Mosse, The Saint in the Banyan Tree: Christianity and Caste Society in India

David Mosse’s The Saint in the Banyan Tree is a scholarly feat of a kind that we don’t often see today. Placed in an Anthropology of Christianity series, this is a must-read for anyone interested in Indian history, Dalits, caste and social transformation. The book combines rich historical research on Christianity in Tamil Nadu spanning four centuries alongside fieldwork data collected over the last three decades in a village Mosse calls ‘Alapuram’ in the Sivagangai District of Tamil Nadu. It ...

Insurance, Equality and the Welfare State: Political Philosophy and (of) Public Insurance

Public insurance is both everywhere and nowhere. It is everywhere in the sense that it is omnipresent in industrialised societies: public health insurance, unemployment benefits and pensions. It is a sizeable part of modern nations’ public budget (for many nations like the United States and France about half of it). It has permeated our understanding of societal institutions to the extent that now access to public insurance coverage is understood as being a struggle for equality and equal citizenship (Stone 1999–2000). Public insurance is only one aspect of a broader phenomenon: the transformation of modern societies into insurance societies, i.e. societies that are orientated toward risk-management (Beck 1992; Ericson and Doyle 2003). Nevertheless, public insurance is at the core of the welfare state as insurance system. Paul Krugman once said of the modern state that it is ‘an insurance company with an army’ while David Moss (2002) argues that government is the ultimate risk manager (e.g. money emission, banking system, workers protection, disaster relief, and so forth). At the same time, public insurance is almost nowhere in political philosophy and normative theory (although exceptions include Anderson, Forthcoming; Baker and Moss 2009; Dworkin 2002; Ewald 1996; Heath 2011; Lehtonen and Jyri 2011). Hence, public insurance has attracted little overall interest from political philosophers, especially when compared to redistribution, equality and theories of justice. The present special issue of Res Publica entitled Insurance, Equality and the Welfare State addresses this lack. It is a contribution to an emerging field that might

David Mosse, The Saint in the Banyan Tree. Christianity and Caste Society in India

David Mosse, The Saint in the Banyan Tree. Christianity and Caste Society in India

Book Review: David Mosse, The Saint in the Banyan Tree: Christianity and Caste Society in India

Book Review: David Mosse, <i>The Saint in the Banyan Tree: Christianity and Caste Society in India</i>

Modelling magnetic fields in spiral galaxies

Leon Mestel: David Moss gives an overview of large-scale magnetic field strength and structure in galaxies, focusing on theoretical and modelling studies, with an emphasis on the disc plane.

Anthropology of development and the challenge of South-South cooperation

This article explores some of the challenges and potentials that the emerging phenomenon of South-South cooperation (SSC) might pose to major approaches in the international literature on the anthropology of development. Irrespective of particular politico-conceptual preferences, the latter's analytics have been largely crafted based on ethnographic work about development aid provided by Northern agencies or North-led multilateral organizations. Based on my own fieldwork experience with Brazil's contemporary provision of official technical cooperation in tropical agriculture to various countries in the African continent, I propose a discussion about four sets of themes: Foucauldian approaches to development based on notions of governmentality and discourse; the associated question of politics/depoliticization; the institutional aspect of development cooperation as a national and global industry and bureaucracy; and the question of ethnographic authority and the transit between what David Mosse has referred to as field (relations entertained with informants during fieldwork) and desk (relations entertained with academic peers during ethnographic writing).

David Mosse. Cultivating Development. An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice

David Mosse. Cultivating Development. An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice

The aid effect: giving and governing in international development – Edited by David Mosse &amp; David Lewis

The aid effect: giving and governing in international development – Edited by David Mosse &amp; David Lewis

Development between nuance and neo-liberalism

David Mosse, Cultivating development: An ethnography of aid policy and practice. London: Pluto Press, 2005, 315 pp., 0-7453-1798-7.Tania M. Li, The will to improve: Governmentality, development, and the practice of politics. Dur- ham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007, 374 pp., 0-8223-4027-0 (paperback).Richard Sandbrook, Marc Edelman, Patrick Heller and Judith Teichman, Social democracy in the global periphery: Origins, challenges, prospects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, 289 pp., 0-521-68687-7 (paperback).

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:Warwick Anderson. Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines.Patrice Bidou, Jacques Galinier and Bernard Juillerat (eds). Anthropologie et psychanalyse: Regards croisés.Denise Brennan. What's Love Got to Do With It? Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic.Rae Bridgman. StreetCities: Rehousing the Homeless.Alex Butler. Feminism, Nationalism and Exiled Tibetan Women.Ian Condry. Hip‐Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization.Jennifer Deger. Shimmering Screens: Making Media in an Aboriginal Community.Jean Guiart. Les Mélanesiens devant l'économie de marché: du milieu de XIXe siècle à la fin du millénaire.Maria Heimer and Stig Thøgersen (eds). Doing Fieldwork in China.Robert K. Hitchcock, Kazunobu Ikeya, Megan Biesele and Richard B. Lee (eds). Updating the San: Image and Reality of an African People in the 21st Century.Charles J‐H Macdonald. Uncultural Behavior: An Anthropological Investigation of Suicide in the Southern Philippines.David Mosse. Cultivating Development: An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice.Louise Purbrick. The Wedding Present: Domestic Life Beyond Consumption.Michael Roberts. Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period 1590s to 1815.Jennifer Shennan and Makin Corrie Tekenimatang (eds). One and a Half Pacific Islands: Stories the Banaban People Tell of Themselves.Linda Stone and Paul F. Lurquin. Genes, Culture and Human Evolution. A Synthesis.Reed L. Wadley (ed.). Histories of the Borneo Environment: Economic, Political and Social Dimensions of Change and Continuity.

The Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs van Balthasar ed. by Edward T. Oakes, S.J., and David Moss

292 BOOK REVIEWS understanding of how Scripture and the traditions transmit gospel truth and discipline, but in this they went beyond Trent's text. Because Trent left the issue open, the period 1945-60 saw a vigorous Catholic discussion break out over the relation between Scripture and tradition. Where Trentleft an open door, Vatican Council II walked through to offer a creative reformulation of the relation in chapter 2 of its Constitution on Divine Revelation (1965). But there could have been no twentieth-century argument, and surely no conciliar restatement, if Trent had said "partim . .. partim" in 1547-which it did not do. This reviewer takes no pleasure in playing a role which has to seem to be that of a carping critic. But Reformation theology and Tridentine doctrine are both too important to leave unnoticed the several imperfections that blemish this expensive volume. John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio JARED WICKS, S.J. The Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs van Balthasar. Edited by EDWARD T. OAKES, S.J., and DAVID Moss. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. 282. $70.00 (cloth), $25.99 (paper). ISBN 0-521-81467-7 (cloth), 0-521-89147-7 (paper). Hans Urs von Balthasar resisted the attempt to place the pronounced tensions within his thinking into a systematic theology. How does one produce The Cambridge Companion to such an individual? One could declare an amnesty for his crossing of interdisciplinary borders and single out elements that, once screened by the Homeland Security of today's academics, could still contribute in some fashion to the normal loci. Alternatively, one could present the mysteries hidden within the Master's own style and thought while paying modest attention to the academic skirmishes that Balthasar so often disdained. A third approach would make virtue out of necessity and adopt the stance of postmodern bricolage, simultaneously constructing and deconstructing the not so tidily arranged provocations of the Swiss theologian. All three strategies can be found in this volume, and the coeditors make no effort to privilege one over another. The volume is structured according to theological topics, the trilogy, disciplines, and contemporary encounters. In the first part, eight theological topics are identified. Larry Chapp's opening chapter on revelation sets forth Trinitarian metaphysics, Christ as the concrete universal, and the mediation of a revelatory irruption (i.e., the life of a saint) as three antidotes to a hermeneutics of suspicion that unprofitably reduces the event of revelation to a bare fact. Mark Mcintosh highlights the joining of mission and obedience as a call to BOOK REVIEWS 293 participation, thereby creating a unified spiritual Christology out of Balthasar's diverse historical and systematic explorations. Rowan Williams approaches the Trinity through Holy Saturday and is thus able to shed light upon intradivine difference, gender, and pneumatology (including Balthasar's nuanced differentiation from Hegel). Nicholas Healy and David L. Schindler contribute an essay on the Eucharistic mystery in creation that enables the Church to include in its mission of salvation the transformation of the world. They conclude that this Eucharistic model of ecclesial life not only endorses what Vatican II calls "the legitimate autonomy of earthly affairs" but adds Christological depth to the very notion of creaturely freedom. Lucy Gardner traces "a certain 'l'vfarian watermark' [that] can be detected through Balthasar's massive theology" and suggests after judicious analysis that Balthasar "at once 'sees' and spectacularly misrecognizes" eternal truths about the Mother of God and about women. David Moss in an essay on the saints shows that Balthasar's interest in the topic showed not the least desire "to cruise down the esoteric tributaries of 'spirituality"' but was rather a decision to lay bare "an entire theological programme, funded from the lives of the saints." Corinne Crammer displays theological sophistication ofthe highest order in her essay on Balthasar's theology of the sexes, a topic to which I will return below. In his contribution on eschatology, Geoffrey Wainwright focuses on the Christocentric pattern to Balthasar's thinking about last things and concludes his presentation of the controversy regarding universal salvation with an illuminating and ultimately Socratic dialogue. Three short essays cover the entire trilogy. Oliver Davies treats theological aesthetics as a...

Ethics and development: Some concerns with David Mosse's Cultivating development

Ethics and development: Some concerns with David Mosse's <i>Cultivating development</i>

Towards interactive professional ethics

over ethics of development in relation to David Mosse s book on pp 17-19 of this issue. Ethics as defendable process Recent years have seen an upsurge of concern about ethics and ethical discourses. Anthropology, too, has developed an 'ethical anxiety' (Faubion 2003) and writings have proliferated around ethics in the discipline (Strathern 2000a, Caplan 2003a, Fluehr-Lobban 2004a, Meskell and Pels 2005), and ethics as more broadly conceived (Ong and Collier 2005). This broader concern has also been reflected in the concerns the Association of Social Anthropology (ASA) has with the development of the organization's own ethical guidelines, written as a professional code of conduct for the research process (see www.theasa.org). While most anthropological organizations are similarly concerned with ethical issues, here we focus specifically on the rationale behind the ASA's proposal to broaden the base from which its members relate to and engage with the ethical.

Front and Back Covers, Volume 21, Number 6. December 2005

Front and back cover caption, volume 21 issue 6Front and back coverPOLITICS OF DRESSThe front and back covers illustrate Emma Tarlo's narrative in this issue on the politics of Muslim dress in Britain. On the front cover, Muslim women in London protest against the proposed French law banning the wearing of ostentatious religious symbols in state schools. The march was organized by Hizb ut‐Tahrir, a radical Islamic political party which responded to the French proposal by promoting various forms of Islamic dress (hijab and jilbab) as a means of combating secularism, resisting integration and submitting to the commands of Allah.The back cover shows press coverage of the story of Shabina Begum, the British Muslim girl from Luton who challenged her school's uniform policy in 2002 by requesting to wear the long‐sleeved neck‐to‐toe jilbab in school, and won her case in the Court of Appeal in 2005. Barely visible, but present in the background, is her brother and legal guardian ‐ a link between the two images through his involvement with Hizb ut‐Tahrir, the organizers of the demonstration and Shabina Begum's advisors on issues of religious dress. A further link was made through the trainee journalist whom the Guardian entrusted to write its front‐page article on the outcome of the case. When this journalist wrote a piece on the inevitability of Muslim anger one week after the London bombings, it emerged that, unknown to the newspaper, he was a member of Hizb ut‐Tahrir.At a time when images of Islamic dress are increasingly used in the media as a visual shorthand for dangerous extremism, and when Muslims all over Europe are suffering from the consequences of such associations, how might anthropologists approach the issue of fundamentalist sartorial activism? Is it possible to expose the complexities of the jilbab case without contributing to the popular and false assumption that all forms of Islamic dress for women are necessarily linked to radical and oppressive ideas or suspect political agendas?The jilbab controversy raises important issues about ethnographic responsibility ‐ a theme discussed in relation to David Mosse's book Cultivating development, and in relation to attempts to rethink guidelines on ethics in anthropology. Do anthropologists have a duty to report on politically and morally uncomfortable issues they encounter in the field or should they remain silent? If so, on what criteria should such judgements be made, and how might we assess the potential distortion generated by our silence on certain issues?

Book Reviews

Development Policy ReviewVolume 23, Issue 6 p. 725-752 Book Reviews First published: 24 October 2005 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7679.2005.00310.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Abstract Book reviewed in this article: Why Globalisation Works. By Martin Wolf Globalisation and the Future of the Welfare State. Edited by Miguel Glazer and Dietrich Rueschemeyer The Dynamics of Socio-Economic Development: An Introduction. By Adam Szirmai Growth and Empowerment: Making Development Happen. By Nicholas Stern, Jean-Jacques Dethier and F. Halsey-Rogers The Ethics of Development. By Des Gasper UN Voices: The Struggle for Development and Social Justice. By Thomas G. Weiss, Tatiana Carayannis, Louis Emmerij and Richard Jolly Post-Conflict Development: Meeting New Challenges. Edited by Gerd Junne and Willemijn Verkoren Mind, Heart, and Soul in the Fight Against Poverty. By Katherine Marshall and Lucy Keough Small States in Transition: From Vulnerability to Competitiveness. By Ganesh Wignaraja, Marlon Lezama and David Joiner Geopolitics and the Post-colonial: Rethinking North-South Relations. By David Slater Migration, Development and Poverty Reduction. Economic Growth, Economic Performance and Welfare in South Asia. Edited by Raghbendra Jha Rural India Facing the 21st Century: Essays on Long Term Village Change and Recent Development Policy. Edited by Barbara Harriss-White and S. Janakarajan The United States and the World Economy: Foreign Economic Policy for the Next Decade. Edited by C. Fred Bergsten International Environmental Law and Policy in Africa. Edited by Beatrice Chaytor and Kevin R. Gray Cultivating Development: An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice. By David Mosse The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution. By Henry I. Miller and Gregory Conko Volume23, Issue6November 2005Pages 725-752 RelatedInformation

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Christopher A. Conte, Highland Sanctuary: Environmental History in Tanzania's Usambara Mountains. Alfredo Saad-Filho and Deborah Johnston (eds.), Neoliberalism: A Critical Reader. Stephen J. Russell, Agriculture, Prosperity and Modernization of French Rural Communities, 1870–1914. Views from the Village. David Mosse, Cultivating Development: An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice. Kees Jansen and Sietze Vellema (eds), Agribusiness and Society: Corporate Responses to Environmentalism, Market Opportunities and Public Regulation. Gareth Austin, Labour, Land and Capital in Ghana: From Slavery to Free Labour in Asante, 1807–1956.