Cual es su carrera?

A frequent question in Honduras (and back home in Canada too) when you first meet someone, especially in a work-related context, is “Cual es su carrera?”, or “What is your career?” I am envious of people who can answer this question simply and clearly, and I have noticed this is the case for many professionals here in La Ceiba; most have graduated as an Ingeniero (Engineer) or Licenciado (undergraduate degree) in something specific, such as forestry, ecotourism, biology, business administration, etc. (The case would be quite different for most Hondurans, who are not professionals, who often engage in multiple different activities for their livelihoods).

On the other hand, I often find this a challenging question to answer. My undergraduate degree was in International Development, and my Masters in Environmental Studies—both interdisciplinary, and sometimes ambiguous, degrees and fields. When people ask what my specialty is, what field of work I am in, or where I will be job-hunting when I head home, I have no simple answer. This is partly because the only term I can think of to describe the general field of work I am now in as “International Development.”

Now, “International Development” must be one of the most ambiguous, ill-defined and controversial terms, concepts and array of activities. For many, the term ‘development’ conjures up a certain idea of progress, which includes lots of construction, big projects, capitalist markets, and economic growth. For others, International Development is about poverty alleviation, increasing access to education, good health care, clean air and water. (The Fundación Adelante’s work fits in there.) For others, International Development is yet another effort by the Global North (Western capitalist countries) to try to impose their ideals and systems upon the rest of the world.

To confuse things even more, those working within International Development (however they define it) use a whole language containing other, equally ambiguous and controversial terms, such as sustainability, capitalism, capacity development, empowerment, partnership, rural livelihoods, etc etc…

I think International Development is a little bit of all of these things: a complex array of perspectives, definitions, ideals, cultures, relationships, and systems, all interacting, dancing, and colliding with each other. Like most concepts, it is nothing as straightforward as a simple category or definition, and cannot be condemned or praised as one monolithic thing.

All this controversy, disagreement and uncertainty makes declaring a “specialty” or stating what field of work I am in rather challenging to me. As I am still seeking clarity, I cannot offer clarity when answering the question, “Cual es su carrera?” The question conjures up an infinite, relentless and fascinating collection of further questions, each one more complicated than the one before it.

I reflect a lot about what this field of International Development means to me. As someone from the Global North, what is my role in this wide, complicated world of ours? This labyrinthine, antagonistic, entangled and twisted web of International Development both infuriates and motivates me. Yet somewhere within that crazy labyrinth of words, lies a set of issues and challenges that deal with real people’s lives and realities; challenges related to the environment, injustice, socio-economic disparity. How do I fit myself, and how do the countries of the Global North fit, into this web we have created?