Studying Aid: Some Methods

INVESTIGATING IDEAS, IDEOLOGIES AND PRACTICES This paper presents some methods for trying to make sense of international aid and of its study.1 Some of the methods may be deemed ethnographic; the others are important partners to them, but rather different. In the course of discussing questions of aid policy and practice—such as: Should international development aid exist at all? How should aid be conducted? Should humanitarian relief be provided in conflict situations when it can provide the resource-base for those engaged in aggression?—one comes to the analysis of concepts, ideas and ideologies. In trying to make sense of the issues and debates one often uses ‘stakeholder analysis’, the systematic rather than casual identification of different groups who are involved (interest groups or ideology groups); and then follows this by trying to document, clarify, understand and compare their views and proposals on each of the component issues: ‘ideology-mapping’.2 Compared to hasty characterization, ideology-mapping usually generates considerable added value. Often it forces one to revise the initial delineation and labelling of groups.