Development Projects Observed

" The experience accumulated in the wake of more than two decades of sustained effort to promote growth and change in the low-income countries presents a rich field for scholarly inquiry and new insights into the development process. The success and failures of such projects, the new skills and attitudes they impart, and the internal tensions they sometimes generate obviously have an important bearing on the next stages of a county's development effort. Yet little has become known about these truly formative experiences which are due to the behaviorand misbehaviorof development projects. In this recent volume, Professor Albert O. Hirschman turns his attention to the ways in which decision making is molded, activated, or hampered by the specific nature of the project that is undertaken; for example, the establishment and operation of a pulp and paper mill in east Pakistan, an irrigation project in Peru, railway expansion in Nigeria, and other development undertakings. In some parts of the present inquiry Hirschman elaborates on his earlier writings in this series; and occasionally, he qualifies or modifies his previous conclusions; the bulk of the study explores new territory. " "First published in 1967, Development Projects Observed has been a benchmark in practical thinking about economic development. Now, this classic volume is reissued with a thoughtful new preface by the author." "Albert O. Hirschman, one of the great pioneers in the field, offers a first-hand study of eleven major development projects financed by the World Bank and explores the factors that account for the success and failure of some of these efforts. Hirschman looks at the ways decisionmaking is molded, activated, or hampered by the specific nature of the project that is undertaken - a pulp and paper mill in East Pakistan, telecommunications in Ethiopia, an irrigation project in Peru, railway expansion in Nigeria, and other development undertakings. Besides the traditional cost-benefit calculations, he points to a number of historical, technological, and social categories, such as "temporal discipline in construction" and "latitude for corruption," that can have major influence on the course of a project." "With the passage of time, Hirschman's wide-ranging and shrewd analysis has achieved ever greater recognition. The book also marked the publication of one of his most provocative ideas: the "principle of the hiding hand," which states that underestimating the costs or difficulties of a project can actually be a helpful stimulus as it allows people to bring their energies and creative resources more fully into play than might otherwise have been the case."--Jacket Originally published in 1967, the modest and plainly descriptive title of Development Projects Observed is deceptive. Today, it is recognized as the ultimate volume of Hirschman's groundbreaking trilogy on development, and as the bridge to the broader social science themes of his subsequent writings. Though among his lesser-known works, this unassuming tome is one of his most influential.It is in this book that Hirschman first shared his now famous'Principle of the Hiding Hand.'In an April 2013 New Yorker issue, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an appreciation of the principle, described by Cass Sunstein in the book's new foreword as'a bit of a trick up history's sleeve.'It can be summed up as a phenomenon in which people's inability to foresee obstacles leads to actions that succeed because people have far more problem-solving ability that they anticipate or appreciate.And it is in Development Projects Observed that Hirschman laid the foundation for the core of his most important work, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, and later led to the concept of an'exit strategy.'