STUDENT AUDIENCE

The initial-chapter student-experiential reflections demonstrate the value of the multi-dimensional transnational-competence framework (Koehn & Rosenau Reference Koehn and Rosenau2010) in local development contexts. Stephanie Rotolo (p. 21) realised that ‘I was there to learn, and … my most enriching experiences would come from asking questions’ and Maria Romano (p. 34) recommends ‘asking multiple people in your community, young and old, men and women, to help you ‘map out’ the village …’ The empathic component of transnational-emotional competence appears in Romano's urging to ‘put yourself in your interviewee's shoes’ (p. 35). Recurring and connected creative-competence themes are the ability to think outside the box, the serendipitous promise inherent in surprise encounters (p. 174), and the ability to perceive and adapt to personal and project limitations (p. 37). Romano's suggestions (pp. 33–6) about learning and trying to use key words and phrases in the local language, establishing rapport with and understanding the potential biases of your interpreters, and encouraging people to ask you questions, all speak directly to critical aspects of transnational-communicative competence. The necessity for project implementation of building trust through personal relationships, home visits and respectful interactions is featured in all five accounts. While these and other insightful reflections are presented with Northern students in mind, they also will resonate with idealistic university students in Africa and elsewhere in the South.

The project-focused chapters that follow are equally engaging and informative. In Chapter 2, for instance, Alexandra Middleton applies an expanded conception of efficacy in an in-depth explication of the multiple ways (socially, spiritually and relationally as well as physically) that the Kabre's local medical system heals. Rotolo documents how ‘new biomedical tools and diagnostics are used alongside local traditions at increasing rates’ (p. 77) in Togo's rural villages and identifies ways in which ‘traditional healing and biomedical practices complement each other, filling in gaps where each system reaches its limits (of remedy and explanation)’ (p. 68).

Piot wraps up by reminding youthful self-starters that technology alone does not solve development problems. Social, cultural and political context must be taken seriously along with learning through setback how to adapt grand designs to the local situation.

FACULTY FACILITATORS

Faculty facilitators, novice as well as experienced, Southern as well as Northern, will draw valuable lessons from a careful reading of this book. First, there is no substitute for proven and sustained commitment to the engaged community. Piot's 25 years of fieldwork in rural Togo generated a depth of community trust that could be transferred to the undergraduate students he mentored. As Middleton acknowledges on behalf of the 40 students that her professor has taken to Togo over eight consecutive summers, ‘I was able to ask questions and probe local knowledge in ways that probably would have taken years to establish on my own’ (p. 24). In the absence of prior-relationship building, the idea of undergraduates ‘doing development’ becomes infinitely more problematic and troublesome.

The challenges of advance preparation, immersion in the field and post-field mentoring require careful attention, particularly when untested and minimally prepared Northern youth are expected to make life-changing contributions in unfamiliar Southern contexts over eight weeks. In the Duke case, the programme embeds high expectations among cohorts of students who have not completed their first-degree studies, are ‘encouraged’ to take courses on African culture and politics prior to departure, are asked to consult (if possible) with those ‘who have gone before’, and find themselves working independently for the most part on merely ‘brainstormed’ short-term projects (p. 10). This is a recipe that, in most circumstances, should not be attempted. Yet, Doing Development shows that it can work when all facilitating factors (including host receptivity) are aligned and, therefore, partly silences the sceptics.

INSTITUTIONAL PROVIDERS

Still, the book's stories and accomplishments will not be replicated by most Northern and Southern universities. Unless major foundations and national governments are inspired by the experiences recounted here and elsewhere to establish and generously fund open and competitive programmes and to model national-service expectations along carefully designed pre-programme, field-experience and post-field lines, such opportunities will remain possibilities only for well-endowed institutions like Duke University, where DukeEngage annually ‘covers all expenses for students and faculty for more than forty projects worldwide’ (p. 15).

PROJECT STAKEHOLDERS

None of the projects treated in this book would have been possible without extensive and time-consuming stakeholder participation. Accessing local knowledge, tapping into youthful energy on both sides (p. 207; Hawkins Reference Hawkins2014: 568), and timely local partner interventions emerge as keys to research and project success. To their credit, the student authors recognise the indispensable contributions of community collaborators, interpreters and project beneficiaries (e.g. pp. 34, 85, 140). For instance, ideas and strategies gleaned from a local women's microfinancing group (pp. 178–9) prove critical in Emma Smith's microfinancing programme for young adults. Equally important, community stakeholders in the South are energised and informed by contacts with engaged students. In a telling encounter, a local medical worker interrupts Middleton's interview to say ‘Thank you for your questions. We learn from them’ (p. 24; also see Hawkins Reference Hawkins2014: 561).

DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES

The demonstrated value and ‘modest successes’ (pp. 24, 210) of these small-scale, inexpensive, creative and passionately pursued community-based projects speaks directly to bilateral and international development agencies that remain enamoured with massive, capital-intensive, costly, disruptive and top-down ventures (see Koehn & Ojo Reference Koehn and Ojo1999). However, there are important gaps in the book's treatment – including challenges involved in scaling up, ownership, maintenance and long-term-sustainability issues, exit strategy (Reisch Reference Reisch2011: 97–8), and appropriate process-, outcome- and impact-evaluation approaches – that with attention and scrutiny would enhance the credibility of the impressive student narratives.

CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS

Doing Development is an uplifting book with valuable lessons for a variety of academic and non-academic audiences. The gravity of sending Northern undergraduates into the field for two months of situated learning mostly on their own still weighs heavily on this reviewer. Nevertheless, with the requisite resources and community support built on trust from ground-breaking commitments by an experienced mentor, Piot and the reporting students collectively articulate a convincing case for continuing to engage sustainable-development challenges in this fashion and for learning, when necessary, from ‘false starts, missteps, detours, profound setbacks, and flat-out failure’ (p. 210). Particularly illuminating in this connection is the engrossing chapter written by Connor Cotton, the student who knows how to ‘build robots’ and raises $10,000 for a village computer centre before leaving for Togo, but has never travelled ‘outside the English-speaking world’ and has not completed even a single ‘class in cultural anthropology, sociology, global health, or psychology’ (p. 138). Easily the most pessimistic chapter in the book (see p. 152), Connor's solar-powered computer-centre project is at least ‘technically working’ at the last possible minute before his departure (p. 150) and is sustained and expanded by future projects.

Finally, it is important that several of the chapters based on student-research endeavours provide contributions that would merit publication consideration in peer-reviewed academic journals. By devoting considerable time and expertise to editing this book and mentoring its chapter authors, Piot has ensured that all nine Duke undergraduate contributors learned from nurtured participation in the full ‘community of academic practice’ and fulfilled the programme's ethical responsibility to ‘turn the gift of informant collaboration … into a permanent and widely accessible document …’ (Hawkins Reference Hawkins2014: 564–5, 569). Doing development Professor Piot's way is not for every university and certainly not for every student, but the contributions of these Duke participants are valuable, their voices are inspiring, and their informative stories leave one rooting for many more equally committed and reflective student transnational experiences in the years to come.