Un/Making CSC
Re/making Development

Re/making Development

“There is no tomorrow without a project, without a dream, without utopia, without hope, without creative work, and work toward the development of possibilities, which can make the concretization of that tomorrow viable.”1  
Paulo Freire

‘Political dreaming’ is central to social change. Processes of remaking involve both searching for existing manifestations of ‘alternatives’ in local grassroots resistance settings2, and forms of ‘social dreaming’ to imagine alternative futures3. Through the material metaphors created by practitioners and community members we can engage new “senses, tools, and theories” to read existing alternatives and resistances4, and remake and reimagine alternatives.

The metaphors or ‘remaking’ here speak to the key themes of:

Communication
Collaboration
Resourcefulness
Financing
Empowerment
Continuity
Purpose
Ownership

Gallery

Clothes peg paperclip tree
A digital photograph of a beaded necklace. A Imetaphor that represents the idea that my body is like our organisation, and I am wearing this necklace which has beads that represent the challenges of the youth, women and children in Malawi, the burdens. Our organisation has taken all the burdens on the necklace: this includes young girls who are being defiled, women who are being abused by their husbands, employees who are facing sexual violence. These problems are so heavy, weighing down the body, because our organisation doesn’t have enough resources to take care of all of it, sometimes we get negative publicity; but still our organisation fights on, and finds a way to carry it. Our organisation needs to become stronger to be able to carry it. When we realized that the amount of funding that we have is not enough to deal with all the issues that, that’s when we started looking at social enterprise and marketing some of the services that we have. So that whatever we have from those ventures can be used to support those things. Because over the years we’ve been adding things to our agenda, for example recently I’ve heard about climate change and mental health, and so we take it on.
A digital photo of a wire frame that represents a child; a metaphor expressing that the social enterprise is like a child or a little boy.
A digital photograph of differently coloured pins that represents the idea that empowerment is like ants. Ants have the unique character of working in collaboration to build their homes and source food, and just like empowerment, it is always about collaboration to achieve a goal. It does not happen in a closed space but through participation.
Bearing fruits and a sense of ownership. This tree, which is bearing fruits and money, represents how, if properly managed, donor funded projects can bring results which include financial stability and a sense of ownership in people. As a community we ensured that we not only got the help that was offered, we went ahead to invest by getting into small scale business, including goats, so that our programmes would have a continuous source of funding. So much so that even years after the project had completed, our small businesses are running and the goats have multiplied and been shared, so our community programmes are independent financially. The money drawn at the base of tree were the investments that the community members planted from other projects. The tree represents the businesses that are now established now bearing money-fruits.
Digital photo of pegs to represent a hammer; a metaphor to express the idea that tech is like a tool.
A digital photo of differently coloured pipe cleaners twisted into a strand. This metaphor represents the idea that our approach has different strands, meaning different teams, different themes, which each look distinctive but all strands are working together. We are always flexible, changing and evolving, but maintaining connection, and maintaining the core.
Digital photo of a beaded necklace. A metaphor representing a community media/ social media strategy. For that to bloom to emerge we constantly have to be grounded, represented by the terracotta bead. The glittery bead is the social media - things are constantly changing, hashtags, trends, viral content – we don’t always know what’s coming - but what is constant is the terracotta. We can’t just keep the glitter and forget the context. We always have to be grounded in the context of the audience we have in mind. We have to bring them along. So we use the glitter of social media grounded in the principles of social justice and equity. The terracotta will always be beneath the glitter, and the glitter doesn’t overpower that. That’s what makes it bloom.
A digital photograph of a wrapped object. A metaphor to represent the idea that CSR is like one of those old coir mattress. The structure on the outside is the project and the CSR funding is the coir on the inside. Although it is not very soft, it gives us some cushioning - we’re not approaching multiple funders so it is comfortable - and it also provides some structure. It does have some give or flexibility where we can add our work - we’re able to communicate with the funders and tell them what we have in mind and because of that it is more cohesive. The white cover is because all these interactions are not usually visible on the surface, they happen behind the surface.
A digital photograph of 3 cups and 2 beads. A metaphor to represent the idea that sustainable development is like boreholes. The two beads represent the organisation which supported the community by drilling boreholes. The cups are representing the boreholes which were drilled around the community. Today people are not struggling to access water, even now that the organisation is no longer working in that community. This is what sustainable development is.
A digital photograph of a fluro yellow loop with differently sized and coloured pompoms inside. The CSR loop around the outside is like an enabler, it enables the social change to happen. The dark pompom is the visibility requirement. The yellow pompoms are the focus of the social change goals. The colourful ones are interventions that happen. The visibility is a darkish thing, it is constant. But if we deal with it, we get all these other good things. The size of the yellow social change is double the darker one, and it is not distorted by the dark one. The dark one is soft, not hard, so we can deal with it.
Digital photograph of a mirror; a material metaphor that represents the idea that the approach is like a mirror. It involves a constant cycle of doing and reflecting, doing and reflecting. Our work is a reflection of where we are as an organization at any given time. A mirror helps you to see things you wouldn’t otherwise see. It can also be about helping others to be critically reflecting through the work. The gaps between the mirror shapes could also be showing that it is always a work in progress. Social change is also like a mirroring process. With social change we’re trying to enable positive attitudes shifts, and that gets mirrored back to enrich the approach of our organisation.
This is an unfinished, imperfect structure made of mixed materials. And on top is a nest, and inside the nest are some small things that may grow. We are always working with structures that are not always fully formed, in a state of unfinishedness, a state of becoming, in terms of, for example, public sector, democratic values etc. These are working structures, they are not really robust. The construction is not just a spatial arrangement, it is slow and needs time. The construction using different materials is not always fully connected as it is being built. But we work with what we have. The nest on top is a delicate, a life giving space; a space that nurtures things that are small and that will become bigger. So we try various things (the objects in the nest), they are far from perfect, they are small changes, and they are not always very clearly connected, but maybe they may grow.
Digital photograph of sharpies and two pegs; a material metaphor to represent the idea that donors are like bridges.
Digital photograph of a drawing of a bicycle; a metaphor for development projects.
Digital photograph of the river feeding into the lake.
A digital photograph of a drawing of a football pitch. A material metaphor that represents the idea that development is like a football team. Development is like football, it requires coordination and support by different people. The community are the players on the field, but they also need to collaborate with the coach, the manager, the trainers, who are the government, NGOs, and other stakeholders. Without coordination, the team loses and for development there is no direction neither is there any tangible progress in terms of positive change.
A digital photograph of a piece of paper with a fluffy ball, two colour swatches and a peg that represent a road. This material metaphor represents the idea that YONECO is the yellow fluffy ball, and the goal is the pole with the shiny material, the goal we want to reach symbolizing the ideal society, where all the rights and everything we fight for are accomplished. On the road to our goal we have these gaps that are here, caused by the donor landscape. The landscape is uncertain. And these gaps make us fall down every time we try to move forward. So what we are trying to do with the social enterprise is we are trying to fill in these gaps so we can reach the community. The fillers have different colours, like the yellow one could be the radio, the pink one the car hire. So we’re trying to find these solutions so we can make the journey easier to accomplish our goals.
A digital photo of a drawing of a house; a metaphor that represents Malawi.

References

  1. Freire, P. Daring to Dream: Toward a Pedagogy of the Unfinished. (Paradigm Publishers, 2007). ↩︎
  2. Escobar, A. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. (Princeton University Press, 1995). ↩︎
  3. Escobar, A. Designs for the pluriverse: Radical interdependence, autonomy, and the making of worlds. (Duke University Press, 2018). ↩︎
  4. Escobar, A. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. (Princeton University Press, 1995). ↩︎