This paper explores possibilities to refer to gift-exchange theories and perspectives more meaningfully in the fields of Development Studies and practices, as “The Gift” by Marcel Mauss can be read as one of the oldest texts of Development Studies, discussing principles to maintain and develop societies.

For deepening discussions, the author first examines “The Gift” to understand 1) definition of gift exchange, 2) classification (limited exchange and general exchange), 3) differences between gift and exchange, 4) its positive and negative aspects and 5) those that cannot be never given. Second, the author conducts literature reviews both on academic and applied researches to confirm how far and in which field related researches have already been conducted.

Subsequently, the author examines how such proceeding studies are (not) reflected upon in the fields of Development Studies and practices. First, the literature review confirms that there is an “adacemic bias”. International Relations and Politics tend to deal with macro level cases between nations focusing on violent (exploisive) aspects. In contrast, Anthropology and Sociology have tendencies to deal with community-level cases, focusing on peaceful (reciprocity) aspects. Second, the author also critically discusses Logical Framwork Approach, which is the most used project management tool in development practices, adopting simplified and unrealistic exchange logics. Through the reviews, it is understood that these theories and perspectives are often referred to in development researches in rather limited manners, influenced by perspectives of each academic discipline. Finally, some ideas are shared how it is possible to apply gift-exchange theories and perspectives in the context of development researches and practices more holistically from the following four topics: 1) what are returns in development practices in limited gift-exchange situations, 2) what are given and returned in general gift-exchange activities, 3) understanding people's daily lives through managing, gift-exchange and market-exchange, and 4) what are over-given and never-given.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify some significances that concepts of gift have begun to change, through understanding the development of economic sociology.

Firstly, this paper studies economic sociologists in details, Polanyi and Granovettor, regarding the key concept ‘Embeddedness’.

Secondly, it indicates some importance of networks and social structures for overcoming ‘implicit atomizing’ problematics. At the same time, it surveys some social situations where networks have had tendencies to be undermined, from the fact that welfare states have been weakened and economic globalization has been spread.

On this examination, it focuses on MAUSS's viewpoint which develops conceptualizations of gift made by Marcel Mauss. MAUSS grasps gift as not only exchange but also as social relation, which bridges people between-systems. Moreover, this paper makes assertions that Mauss accounts ‘sortir de soi’ as principle of our life to create some social relations.

And it finds out gift as a constant movement which transcends and creates some contextualized rules among people.

This paper analyses how the relationship between NGOs and Khmer farmers has changed in the process of a rural development project in Cambodia. The purpose of this study is to conduct a critical review of the social business of NGOs, which are attracting attention in the international development sphere by using gift-exchange theory.

In recent years, social enterprises have been attracting increasing attention by trying to solve intractable global social issues not through charity or volunteer work but through the application of business principles for sustainable development. Companies that maximize their profits and NGOs and UN development agencies that help others and solve social issues have been understood as occupying different domains and possessing different organizational cultures. However, these days the gap between these two different realms is narrowing and they are being integrated into the area of international development.

A leading NGO of participatory rural development, which is regarded as a successful case of rural development in Cambodia, established a social enterprise company and started an agribusiness there. This project, which started in a rural village in southern Cambodia in 2001, is different from most projects in this country where top-down development based on patron-client relations is mainstream. This new paradigm was expanded to other provinces and then nationwide. Later, NGOs launched social enterprises to sell crops produced by organic farming, both domestically and outside the country. During the development of the project, what started as a good relationship between NGOs and farmers changed significantly over time, leading to some farmers abandoning the project.

Behind the movement are the differences between traditional business practices and the new business practices introduced by NGOs, and differences between the concept of “NGO” and “business” in the local community. For local people, NGO activities and social relationships with staff have traditionally been in the gift-exchange sphere. However, with the commercialization of NGOs, their activities and their relationships with their staff changed to a market-exchange relationship, creating doubt and confusion, and causing a number of disenchanted farmers to leave the project.

This paper discusses the commercialization of NGOs, which is regarded as aiming to achieve sustainable development, in the sociocultural context of Cambodia. The author points out that projects implemented for sustainable development can lead to unintended consequences that can cause farmer defections.

This paper examines how patronage and hierarchy are constructed between development brokers and beneficiaries through fair trade activities in the Bolaven Plateau, Lao PDR (People's Democratic Republic). The author surveys the implications related to these development practices. The case provided is a fair trade project that aims to reestablish farmers' cooperatives carried out by a Japanese fair trade company. Fair trade, which aims to construct a partnership that enables disadvantaged producers and laborers in the Global South to live a sustainable life, brings morality into market transactions. Despite depending on the market economy (rather than donations or charity), fair trade stresses “empowerment” and “partnership,” which are orthodox concepts in the realm of social development. Under this scheme, all actors are required to construct and maintain social ties with each other, ensuring a positive reciprocal relationship between buyer and seller.

In his seminal work “The Gift,” Marcel Mauss argues that gifts create a connection between givers and receivers, which can sometimes result in the unequal dynamic of patronage and dependency. Drawing on Mauss's gift-exchange theory, Stirat and Henkel (1997) critically identifies how donations, seeming to be pure gifts from the people in the Global North, are transformed into conditional gifts once they reach the recipients via international development Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). While they conceptualize donations as “the development gift” this paper proposes an idea of “the fair trade gift.” Namely, it explores how funds are utilized in the context of fair trade projects. In contrast to Mauss's determination of the morality of exchange within a phenomenon of one-way gifts, the fair trade gift offers a perspective from which to determine elements of gifts within market transactions.

Focusing on the rhetoric through which market-exchange is transformed into gift-exchange (as interpreted by co-op representatives serving as development brokers for Japanese buyer's funds such as pre-payment, social premiums, and labor costs), this paper argues that the fair trade gift eventually affects the construction of a hierarchical patron-client relationship; namely, development brokers act as patrons in their responses to the expectations of beneficiaries as clients, rather than equal “partners.”

There are different ways in which a civil war can end. In Nepal, although the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) waged a civil war in 1996 to realize New Democratic Revolution, the leaders of the party eventually decided to join parliamentary democracy. What made Maoists change their policy and switch over to the opposite side during the civil war? To answer the question, this paper focusses on the political beliefs of Maoist leaders.

Most of the previous studies have primarily focused on external factors such as interventions by foreign countries for explaining the causes of the end of civil wars. However, this paper stresses on the necessity of examining how rebellious leaders interpret the world of politics based on their political belief. It then discusses that the drastic policy change of the Maoists can be party attributed to their political belief, which is unique in its ideological and tactical flexibility. Political beliefs of rebellious leaders as well as external factors can exert a great influence on their decisions and behaviors.

To examine this hypothesis, the paper applies the operational code analysis, which is a tool to assess the psychology of political leaders. This method is utilized in Section 3 to clarify the characteristics of Maoist leaders'political beliefs influencing their behaviors. Also, in Section4, a comparative analysis by using this method is conducted between the political beliefs of Maoist supreme leader, Prachanda, and that of Abimael Gusman, the ex-leader of Sendero Luminoso of Peru, to reveal the differences in their behaviors.

There are substantial debates over China's current domestic development policy and foreign development assistance projects. However, in what context was the concept of “development” (“kaifa” in Chinese) perceived in China? What kind of social background has narrowed down the meaning of “kaifa” into the implying utilization of natural resources and industrialization? Plenty of studies reconsider development by exploring its meaning as an English word, but few uncover the intellectual resources that were involved in exploring “kaifa.” Against such a background, this article will try to provide a context that is different from the west-centric developmental theories and concept studies, by unraveling the history of lexical change of “kaifa” to comprehend present-day China. This research is based on literature investigation of studies and databases of Chinese classical works and newspapers.

The major conclusions can be summarized as follows: The current understanding of “kaifa” in China is similar to that in Japan, which was established until the 20th century. What prompted its establishment was the efforts of Chinese and Japanese intellectuals to modernize China by placing modernization-related concepts. The nuance that existed in the historical process of “kaifa,” such as disclosure of the original value and facilities that something/someone owns, has been diluted owing to its current usage. Since the middle of the 20th century, “kaifa” has started to signify exploitation and creation, and the subject of “kaifa” is shifting to the authority's side. Thus, exploring the historical meaning of “kaifa” can successfully describe a context that is dissimilar to the conceptual construction of development in English, and show how developmental ideas circulate across East Asia. To gain an insight into China's development, future research might need to focus on clarifying the applications and varieties of development-related concepts and their general social background.

The Project on Community Based Smallholder Irrigation (COBSI), initiated by JICA, was implemented in Northern Zambia from 2009 to 2011. The project was unique because locally available material such as wooden poles, stone, clay and peat were used to construct simple weirs, using a simple method. By the end of COBSI, using the COBSI method, 568 sites had been developed or rehabilitated. This study aims to identify sustainable technology for small scale irrigation projects. It analyzes the successful application of irrigation technology by farmers, and how new technology has been adopted in targeted areas.

In Chabukila village (one of the targeted villages), most inhabitants are from the Bemba people who practice “slash and burn” cultivation, known as Chitemene. However, in 2016, when the author conducted a survey, it was discovered that 87% of its households now practice irrigated agriculture. It was also confirmed that using irrigated agriculture allowed farmers to cultivate vegetables throughout the year, thereby securing food during the dry season. As a result of which, unlike Chitemene or any other rain fed agricultural system, the farmers were able to generate income throughout the year. With the profits made from irrigated agriculture, farmers have been able to venture into other businesses. They were also able to purchase chemical fertilizer necessary for the production of rain fed maize. Irrigated agriculture technology, therefore, has been adopted as one of their farming methods in Chabukila village.

Globally, teacher educators are pressured to integrate ICT as one way of fostering teachers' and teacher candidates' technology proficiency. To stimulate ICT integration, policy changes towards teacher educators are evident in many countries. Yet, although policy studies would be helpful to generate insights into strengthening the teacher educators' technology professionalism, there is limited research on policies targeting teacher educators. This case study explored teacher educators' experiences and response to policy at two secondary teacher education institutions in Malawi, utilizing semi-structured interviews with teacher educators (N=14), observations and document review. Results showed that teacher educators were unaware of national policies. However, other educators referred to curriculum as policy, and institutional practices such as sectionalism, ICT-related trainings and ‘class policy’ were evident. Among others, the findings underpin the importance of teacher educators' technology professional development in the domain of policy. Yet, more research needs to be done on how informal policies influence ICT integration.