By Marit Tolo Østebø

Author of

Village Gone Viral: Understanding the Spread of Policy Models in a Digital Age. Stanford: Stanford University Press (2021).

Village Gone Viral explores how Awra Amba, a small village in Ethiopia, gained global recognition as a model for gender equality and sustainable development. By delving into Awra Amba’s journey, the book illuminates the broader dynamics of models and modeling practices in a transnational, digital policy world. In doing so, it challenges the widespread use of policy models as examples of success or blueprints to replicate across diverse contexts.

The book addresses three key questions. First, what are models and how do they come into being? Throughout history, various types of models have been used to explain real-world phenomena, guide policymaking, and influence human behavior. These include human role models, physical prototypes, mathematical simulations, procedural “pen-and-paper models” (e.g., flow-charts or best practices), and model villages. However, the proliferation of models today suggests that they have become increasingly hegemonic as forms of knowledge and tools of governance. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, graphic models depicting and comparing the spread and consequences of the virus were front-page news. These hypothetical models informed us of what the future could look like if we failed to wear masks or comply with physical distancing rules. They were used to create policy in the midst of pandemic uncertainty.

But while models may be useful in making sense of and acting in response to a complex world, they are not neutral or apolitical tools. Models are simplified and idealized entities that reflect taken-for-granted norms and hegemonic political discourses. They are unique, historic, and complex entities that embed the assumptions of those that create or adopt them, often concealing and reproducing the very injustices and problems they aim to address. These processes are neither intentional nor avoidable, but they are intrinsic to the act of modeling itself. Crucially, the process of modeling often involves the silencing of “noise”—erasing complexities or alternative histories that do not align with dominant narratives. For example, Awra Amba’s historical connections to a Sufi community that challenged conservative gender norms as early as the 1960s have been obscured. This erasure reflects how global gender and development discourse often positions Islam as inherently antifeminist, sidelining examples that contradict this assumption.

Second, Village Gone Viral asks why some models “travel” while others do not. To explain Awra Amba’s rise as a policy model and its transformation and adoption into the field of educational technology (EdTech), the book likens the spread of models to the transmission of a virus. Just as a virus requires a host to live and move, models rely on networks of people, technologies, and materials. In the case of Awra Amba, actors and elements not typically considered part of the policy world – including a Finnish filmmaker, a famous travel blogger, and a green hat – played key roles in fueling the community’s virality. Furthermore, for a model to traverse these networks, it must resonate – it must “click” with the people or systems it encounters by engaging not only logic but also emotions and desires. Like viruses, models find fertile ground where they align with preexisting beliefs and desires. For example, when people who enthusiastically promoted Awra Amba as a policy model describe their first encounter with it, they often use the phrase “This is just what I’ve been looking for.”

Finally, Village Gone Viral sheds light on what can happen once a model comes into being. Models, like viruses, can be both constructive and destructive. Awra Amba is a living community, and its model status produces tangible, real-life effects. On the one hand, the village’s reputation has brought it recognition, funding, and partnerships. On the other hand, that reputation compels villagers to perform their utopian narrative, making much of their daily life a public spectacle. This performance, in turn, obscures internal inequalities, protects the community from critical scrutiny, and perpetuates the idealized image necessary for its success.

Awra Amba’s story illustrates how models, even when framed as aspirational or emancipatory, are inherently political and prone to unintended consequences. Models may be less transformative than we typically assume, inasmuch as their resonance is dependent on how well they fit with preexisting beliefs and desires. The pressure to conform to global expectations that often come with policy models can marginalize weaker community members and limit their access to resources as well as their opportunities to challenge inequities. Through a detailed exploration of Awra Amba’s experiences, Village Gone Viral calls for a critical examination of who benefits from models, who is excluded, and the power dynamics and hidden histories they conceal.

Marit Tolo Østebø is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida. Her focal point of interest is anthropology of policy, international development and critical global health. Her work explores the relationship between the normative frameworks, policies, models, and stories that circulate within the policy world and the complex realities that exist “on the ground.” She integrates perspectives from multiple specialties including anthropology of policy, anthropology of religion, gender studies, digital anthropology, medical anthropology, and Science and Technology Studies (STS), and has focused on policy models and modeling communities, translations of gender equality, the interplay between religion and development, the relationship between politics and health research, and—more recently— global oncology and public-private partnerships (PPP). Her research is usually multi-sited and transnational in nature, with a primary geographical focus in Ethiopia, where she has conducted anthropological fieldwork since 2005. She is in an early phase of a new, partly auto-ethnographic research project which examines the lived experiences of missionary children who attended a Norwegian boarding school in Addis Ababa between the 1960s and 1990s. Through archival research and life-history interviews, the study seeks to understand how the boarding school and its physical surroundings shaped childhood, identity, and belonging.