Towards an Anthropology ‘within’ Development: Educational Inclusion and Decentralized Cooperation in Bosnia Herzegovina

The paper illustrates an ethnographic experience aimed to provide a critical understanding of the processes involved in the so-called decentralized cooperation, a critical trend established in the Nineties to provide viable alternatives to the traditional development “top-down” strategies. The multisited ethnographic experience aimed to "follow" the project, conducting multi-local research in both Bosnia and Italy, performing participant observation among Italian NGO staff and following the various institutionsal coalitions between donor and local governments, Italian consultants and beneficiaries or Bosnian civic group. Following project trajectories allows to grasp the expression of ideas on development or, more broadly speaking, on social change from the different social and institutional actors, calling for innovative research strategies that both capture people’s perceptions of change and analyze such an interconnected coalition of social actors