Michael M. Cernea Explained

Michael (Mihail) M. Cernea (born 14 October 1931) is a sociologist and anthropologist born in Romania who reestablished himself in the USA in 1974 where he has since lived. He is widely recognized for introducing sociological and anthropological approaches into the World Bank. He worked as the World Bank's Senior Adviser for Sociology and Social Policy until 1997. He has published on a wide range of the effects of development, including social change, social forestry, participation, grassroots organizations, and population resettlement. He is an author of the term "development-induced displacement and resettlement".

Freidenberg reports Cernea as arguing that "Development Anthropology is a Contact Sport".[1]

Biography

Michael Cernea started working as assistant researcher in the Institute of Philosophy of the Romanian Academy in 1958, became principal researcher, defended his PhD in 1962 and became the Chief of the Institute’s social research section soon thereafter. During the 1960s, he helped break the official publication on empirical anthropological research in Romania at that time by shifting the research section h led at the institute of Philosophy from general social philosophy to empirical sociological field investigations in industrial and rural sociology. He was invited as visiting researcher at the Centre D’Etudes Sociologiques in Paris (1967) and as Fellow in residence at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), Stanford, USA in 1970-1971. The European Society for Rural Sociology elected him as Vice-President (1973-1977). The Romanian Academy awarded Dr. Cernea the Vasile Conta Prize, and other prizes and distinctions for his research publications.

In mid 1974, Cernea emigrated to the United States, where he has since lived, taught and practiced for the longest part of his professional sociological and anthropological career. In August 1974, the World Bank in Washington, D.C. selected him as its first in-house sociologist, then as its Senior Sociologist, and Senior Adviser for Social Policy and Sociology from 1982 to 1997. Between 1998-2003 he was appointed as member of the CGIAR Science Council (the group of 16 International Agricultural Research Centers). Professor Cernea has also served as Senior Social Adviser to international organizations such as the UN, OECD, UNDP, ADB, CGIAR, FAO, BP, Chevron, etc. on social policy, development, cultural and poverty issues. He was elected as officer in various capacities for international and national professional social science organizations, including as Vice-President of The Gusti Foundation (Romania) after 1990. He has worked also for non-profit organizations, served as currently Director in the Board of PACT (USA), and was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Egypt)(2000-2008).

Contributions

At the World Bank, Cernea gradually recruited, established and led a large community of development sociologists and anthropologists, placing these social disciplines on the World Bank’s intellectual map and broadening its skill mix. Cernea decisively helped to gain a place for development-oriented social research in the Bank and professional, applied sociological work in Bank’s operations. He authored, or contributed to defining and writing, some of the Bank's main social policies, particularly its policies on involuntary population resettlement, on indigenous populations, protection of “chance finds” cultural artifacts, cooperation with NGOs, the World Bank strategy for cultural heritage preservation and management, water and irrigation, reforestation, agricultural extension, and others.

In the field, Cernea has carried out social research on policy and operational development issues in hydropower, agriculture, irrigation, forestry, mining, and other sectors, as well as direct project design and evaluation work in many countries. among which: India, Nepal, China, Papua-Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, the Philippines, Pakistan, Moldova, Kenya, Tanzania, Morocco, Yemen, Mexico, Turkey, Togo, Ukraine, and others. He also worked as member of several International Development Expert Panels.

Recognition

Cernea has lectured in Universities in the USA, Europe, India, Japan, and China. In 1979-1980, he was a Fellow in Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Wassenaar/the Hague. Harvard University invited him as Visiting Scholar in its Department of Anthropology and in the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) in the academic year 1990-1991. He also was Research Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at George Washington University where for several years he taught development anthropology and population resettlement. The Hohai University (Nanjing, China) appointed him as Honorary Professor of Social Development and Resettlement in 1992 and the Three Gorges University (Yichang, China) appointed him Professor Emeritus. For his scholarly work on public policies, he received the Solon T. Kimball Award for Public Policy and Applied Anthropology from the American Anthropological Association, and the Bronislaw Malinowski Prize from the international Society for Applied Anthropology.

Publications

Cernea has authored and edited many books on the sociology of development: on social change, population displacement and resettlement, impoverishment and poverty reduction, cultural heritage protection, social forestry, grassroots organizations, sustainability and participation. His most recent books are: Researching the Culture in Agri-Culture (2006) and Cultural Heritage and Development: A Framework for Action in the Middle East and North Africa (2001, 2003). Among his other books are: Putting People First: Sociological Variables in Development (several editions, also translated in Japan, Mexico, China, Indonesia, and France), Research-Extension-Farmer: A Two-Way Continuum (1985); Anthropological Approaches to Resettlement: Policy, Practice, Theory (ed. with Scott Guggenheim, 1993); Resettlement and Development (1994, with S. Guggenheim and assoc.; Social Organization and Development Anthropology (1996); Social Assessment for Better Development (ed. with Ayse Kudat, 1997); Resettlement and Development (vol. I and II, published in China, 1996-1998); The Economics of Involuntary Resettlement (1999): and Risks and Reconstruction. Experiences of Resettlers and Refugees (2000, ed. with C. McDowell).

Key publications

Major Development Reports:

Books Published in Romania:

Awards

External links

Notes and References

  1. "Development Anthropology is a Contact Sport" An Oral History Interview with Michael M. Cernea by Judith Freidenberg. Human Organization, December 1, 2007
  2. Web site: Academia Română homepage. acad.ro. ro. December 20, 2017.
  3. Web site: Solon T. Kimball Award for Public and Applied Anthropology. aaanet.org. 28 February 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20090415052642/http://www.aaanet.org/about/Prizes-Awards/Solon-Kimball-Award.cfm. 15 April 2009.
  4. Web site: Malinowski Award Recipients. appliedanthro.org. 28 February 2013.

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