Twinning Faith and Development

Hefferan s study is a valuable and important contribution to our understanding of both development and religious organizations... she develops a persuasive and subtle argument that, rather than understanding development as an exclusionary discourse created and maintained by experts, it is better understood as emerging from a modernist worldview widely shared in our own culture. Hefferan s study is uniquely situated to get at this particular analysis, as her focus is not on experts, but on parishioners who become development workers through volunteer work in the church...a very timely and innovative approach to studying current issues in economic development, anthropology, and globalization. Succinctly describes the current status of professionalized development s effect upon the maintenance of the status quo, and how private volunteer development efforts must work to counter the entrenchment of this pervasive model of development.... addresses a gap in the present literature on development by examining local level engagement of lay volunteers in the field of development. Hefferan provides a compelling and insightful ethnographic analysis of the relationships between Catholic parishioners across borders and cultures. Her work sheds new light on how development is de-institutionalized - how it engages non-experts and bypasses states and nongovernmental organizations. In so doing, she shows us how development is lived by those who believe in it.