ABSTRACT
It is common practice for volunteers from industrialized nations to visit developing countries in efforts to transfer knowledge and expertise on a range of issues (Engineers without Borders, 2012). This chapter evaluates a University of Hartford (Connecticut, USA) student–faculty team implementing a water management project in India. This team brings know-how and expertise to a rural Indian community to solve a public problem, namely water drainage on a public street. The chapter asks whether when researchers or volunteers visit developing nations to transfer policy, are they truly collaborating with local populations? The Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) is used to analyse project implementation, comparing the theoretical prediction to the actual outcome. The theory is also used as a tool to ask whether the theory-predicted cooperative interaction meets key characteristics of interpersonal collaboration (a shared purpose, dialogue, decision making, action and evaluation). Analysis focuses on how the theory in conjunction with a collaboration assessment can highlight whether a policy transfer project, designed to be a cooperative effort, is truly collaborative.
