In Pursuit of Progress: Narratives of Development on a Philippine Island by Hannah C. M. Bulloch (review)

Development is customarily depicted and endorsed as an antidote to backwardness, irrationality, and impoverishment. From election campaign speeches and policy debates to community projects and product endorsements, the proclivity to portray development as an indicator of advancement and hence of something to be desired and pursued remains strong. In social science research, literature inquiring into the many forms and aspects of development, though critical at times, have likewise maintained a favorable rhetoric. Left largely unexplored are local understandings of development and how these understandings reproduce, interrogate, and challenge established interpretations of progress and modernity. By the same token, how such notions inform everyday activities and aspirations of marginalized groups merits further exploration.

Anthropological studies address this inadequacy by highlighting the contentious nature of development. These works show that, although dominant narratives persist, alternative discourses are also pervasive, albeit rarely articulated. More importantly, anthropological inquiry into development contends that experiences and imaginings of progress and modernization from the peripheries warrant discussion. One such work is In Pursuit of Progress: Narratives of Development on a Philippine Island by anthropologist and Australian National University research fellow Hannah Bulloch. Drawing from a wealth of ethnographic data, the book casts a critical gaze on the everyday activities and aspirations of groups at the margins of global modernity. It focuses on local understandings of development on the central Philippine island of Siquijor and describes how the Siquijodnon reread and reshape multiple notions of progress as they continue to construct "meanings, myths, performances and practices" (2). As put forth in chapter 1, the book reminds readers at the outset that "[d]evelopment is a global project," an undertaking shared by multiple stakeholders and not simply a brainchild of North American and Western European pundits and policymakers (1).

The book deserves commendation for offering a rich account of the Siquijodnon's appropriation, reworking, and use of development discourses in different contexts to advance personal goals—an apparent exercise of agency. Equally important is its recognition that socioeconomic status, a key indicator of difference, and the ideas and practices of development are intertwined, an explanation as to why contending discourses of progress and competing notions of how social relationships should be ordered are prevalent. Tension, adds the author, surfaces not only because of conflicting interpretations of development and the good life; it is likewise felt by Siquijor locals as personal ambivalence because living the good life and the notion of leading a simple life (ang simpul nga kinabuhi) intersect. Hence, "prioritiz[ing] an austere lifestyle over mass consumption … and making money" tempers aspirations to "get ahead" and live luxuriously (15).

Illustrating the complexity of representations of development, the author describes in chapters 2 and 3 how the Siquijodnon define prosperity and poverty through kalamboan, literally meaning flourishing but often translated as "development," a metaphor of progress that distinguishes the haves from the have-nots. Incorporated into this metaphor are material symbols (e.g., type of housing and food) and intangibles (e.g., education and migration) that help local residents of the island operationalize otherwise abstract conceptualizations of affluence and scarcity. Kalamboan likewise facilitates the pinpointing of one's own and others' socioeconomic status in Siquijor society, a mechanism that clarifies (and reifies) distinctions based on these operational definitions. The author extends her inquiry into diverse and often conflicting conceptualizations of modernity in chapter 4. She discusses how the Siquijodnon imagine global development hierarchies by positioning themselves as inferior to the more affluent and purportedly cosmopolitan Amerikanos, a conspicuous privileging and idealization of "things Western" from skin color to accent (21).

Knowledge, or "affiliation to certain 'sets' of beliefs," reproduces distinctions between neighbors and kin further (115). The ability to use certain types of knowledge, notes the author in chapter 5, grants the Siquijodnon greater flexibility to negotiate their perceived position in the social hierarchy and to refashion themselves according to the context. The acquisition of cultural capital...