[TimorLesteStudies] Geoffrey Gunn's article: The State of East
Timor Studies after 1999
Jennifer Drysdale
jenster at cres10.anu.edu.au
Tue Jun 5 10:13:28 EST 2007
The State of East Timor Studies After 1999
Geoffrey Gunn
Journal of Contemporary Asia
Vol. 37, No. 1, February 2007, pp. 95-114
Abstract
Taking stock of the state of knowledge on East Timor since the UN
intervention of 1999, this article traces the rise of a hegemonic
discourse especially around development issues notably as promoted by
the World Bank. In turn, the World Bank discourse of lean government,
market-oriented economic policies, and export-oriented agriculture is
reflected in a number of publications. As a formidable patronage
machine in East Timor, it would not be surprising if arriving
international staff along with East Timorese returnees would emerge
as Bank collaborators or even employees. The thriving NGO community
which emerged in East Timor as the underbelly of the UN mission also
found common cause with human rights discourse and, especially,
sustainable development discourse from within the UN mission.
Meanwhile, a number of foreign anthropologists embedded themselves
within and without the UN mission producing a major corpus of
writings. Amidst this "clash of paradigms" East Timor muddled along,
dependent on donor support, but prey to vagaries of seasons,
international markets, and predatory outsiders. To a large extent,
the international agency, NGO, and academic literature tracked these
vagaries but, outside of linguistic studies, we await a critical mass
of autonomous writings by East Timorese about East Timor.
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