In the Way of Development: Indigenous Peoples, Life Projects and Globalization

by Mario Blaser (Editor), Harvey A. Feit (Editor), Glenn McRae (Editor)

Authored as a result of a remarkable collaboration between indigenous people's own leaders, other social activists and scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this volume explores what is happening today to indigenous peoples as they are enmeshed, almost inevitably, in the remorseless expansion of the modern economy and development, at the behest of the pressures of the market-place and government. It is particularly timely, given the rise in criticism of free market capitalism generally, as well as of development. The volume seeks to capture the complex, power-laden, often contradictory features of indigenous agency and relationships. It shows how peoples do not just resist or react to the pressures of market and state, but also initiate and sustain "life projects" of their own which embody local history and incorporate plans to improve their social and economic ways of living.

384 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

Mario Blaser is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. He is a co-editor of In the Way of Development: Indigenous Peoples, Life Projects, and Globalization.

Reviews

[T.R. Ormond]

I read this book as part of my project about the Eeyouch, the Crees of Eastern James Bay, so I confined my reading to chapters that dealt with them (Chapters 6, 7, 9, and 10. I give their titles below). Please take that into consideration as you read this review.

The book is academic and is intended for specialists. Some people will find it dry reading. For those who are looking for an in depth analysis of the events in Eastern James Bay since the 1970s, this is a very useful book.

The chapters I read were written by authorities on the subject. Most notably, Grand Chief of the James Bay Crees, Matthew Coon Come wrote chapter 9.

The book is available for free as a pdf at https://www.idrc.ca/en/book/way-devel...

This book's primary strength lies in its effort to explain some of the cultural miscommunication that has taken place between the Crees and Eurocentric-North American culture. Often major developers, governments and other critics have used these instances of miscommunication to undermine Cree claims. Feit's chapter is particularly strong in this regard.

Chapters read:

6. Harvey Feit. James Bay Crees' Life Projects and Politics: Histories of Place, Animal Partners and Enduring Relationships.

7. Glenn McCrae. Grassroots Transnationalism and Life Projects of Vermonters in the Great Whale Campaign.

9. Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come. Survival in the Context of Mega-Resource Development: Experiences of the James Bay Crees and the First Nations of Canada.

10. Brian Craik. The Importance of Working Together: Exclusions, Conflicts, and Participation in James Bay, Quebec.

[S.]

Three stars for an original and valiant effort, but the end product is lackluster.