By analysing a comparative case study investigating a development project implemented in Uganda and Vietnam, the article aims to understand how donor directives travel and translate into actual practices in aid chains. Making use of Norman Long’s concept of the interface, we focus on the interfaces between organizations to examine the negotiation of everyday project practices. Based on practice theory, our analysis unpacks how directives are filtered through the power relationships that shape practices at the various interfaces. We find that organizational relations between southern organizations are just as power-laden as north–south relations. Our analysis also shows that neither the management directives nor the freedoms that were granted to the participating organizations resulted in uniform practices and that practices did not have the same implications for organizations. Hence, the aid chain concept tends to simplify the complexities inherent in project systems comprising a multiplicity of vertical and horizontal organizational relations.

中文翻译：

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援助无链：检查援助链接口的开发项目管理实践

通过分析对乌干达和越南实施的发展项目的比较案例研究，本文旨在了解捐助者指令如何传播并转化为援助链中的实际做法。利用诺曼·朗的界面概念，我们关注组织之间的界面来考察日常项目实践的谈判。基于实践理论，我们的分析揭示了指令是如何通过影响各种界面实践的权力关系进行过滤的。我们发现南方组织之间的组织关系与南北关系一样充满权力。我们的分析还表明，管理指令和授予参与组织的自由都没有导致统一的实践，并且实践对组织没有相同的影响。因此，援助链概念倾向于简化由多种纵向和横向组织关系组成的项目系统固有的复杂性。