The anthropology of development can be divided into three approaches: instrumental, critical constructivist, and interactionist studies. On the basis of a case-study of the political negotiations between a hydroelectrical dam and an affected indigenous community the article investigates in how far these paradigms reflect the perspectives of certain actors in the specific context of development projects. In an ethnographic experiment these approaches are related with the actors in the case study and then combined through the concept of "chains of translation" and the actor-network-theory. On the one hand the article shows how development projects constitute themselves by associating heterogenous actors, on the other hand it highlights the production of scientific representations and knowledge.