Thought Provokers
Resisting Rural Dispossession
Dip Kapoor brought together a collective of works that highlight many stories that have not been widely told, stories of localized resistance to large-scale land acquisitions and land grabs. These processes have occasionally included these actors, but often presented them as victims without agency, not actors expressing their agency. In this regard, “Against Colonization and […]
Tags: #Gender #Inequality #Land Grab #Resistance #Rural Dispossession
The Art of the Impossible
I do not have a background in the arts or theatre, and have not done enough reading in my own time to know much of it, which is probably one of the reasons why I kept hearing of Vaclav Havel, but not knowing much of his works. Recently, I came across Havel as he has greatly […]
Tags: #Democracy #Politics #Responsibility #The Art of the Impossible #Vaclav Havel
Secular Translations
A couple of notes from Talal Asad’s “Secular Translations: Nation-State, Modern Self and Calculative Reason” (2018): “Today an important failure is our inability to create a form of collective life on this planet radically different from the liberal capitalist states in which we live. The failure seems to be due not to any lack of […]
Tags: #Capitalism #Language #Liberalism #Secular Translations #Talal Asad
Xala
From Sembene Ousmane’s 1974 novel Xala, translated in 1976 to English: “The colonialist is stronger, more powerful than ever before, hidden inside us, here in this very place.” (p. 84) “All your past wealth – for you have nothing left – was acquired by cheating. You and your colleagues build on the misfortunes of honest, […]
Tags: #Colonialism #Decolonizing #Oppression #Sembene Ousmane #Xala
Rethinking Identity
Kwame Anthony Appiah is probably most well known for his book Cosmopolitanism (2006). His most recent book, “The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity” (2018) explores forms of identities (gender, religion, race, nationality, class, culture), on a chapter-by-chapter basis. The arguments deconstruct these identities, ultimately leading toward a cosmopolitanist case in the conclusion. Essentially, each chapter seeks […]
Tags: #Cosmopolitan #Cosmopolitanism #Identity #Kwame Anthony Appiah #Postmodern
FDI in Large-Scale Agriculture in Africa
In 2019 Atkeyelsh Persson published “Foreign Direct Investment in Large-Scale Agriculture in Africa: Economic, Social and Environmental Sustainability in Ethiopia”. The book (presumably) draws on doctoral work done at UCT (finished in 2016) and most of the data / findings presented come from 2014 or before. The book offers unique insight into environmental and sustainability impacts. […]
Tags: #Agriculture #Ethiopia #Foreign Direct Investment #Land Grab #Large-scale land acquisition
Global Social Policy in the Making
Deacon’s (2013) “Global Social Policy in the Making: The Foundations of the Social Protection Floor” outlines how the ILO was able to obtain agreement on the social protection floor, when previous efforts to have global social policy encountered barriers. In a sense, this is a history of the initiative. The author focuses on four key […]
Tags: #Bob Deacon #Global Social Policy #Social Policy #Social Protection #Social Protection Floor
Reading that should be more common…
Ibn Khaldun (2015 translation, 1377 original) Al Muqaddimah Cesaire, A. (1950) Discourse on Colonialism Fanon, F. (1952) Black Skin, White Masks Fanon, F. (1959) A Dying Colonialism Baldwin, J. (1962) The Fire Next Time Fanon, F. (1963) The Wretched of the Earth Fanon, F. (1964) Toward the African Revolution Memmi, A. (1965) The Colonizer and the […]
Tags: #Alternative Curricula #Books #decolonization #decolonize #Radical Ideas
On the Commodity Trail
Alison Hulme’s “On the Commodity Trail: The Journey of a Bargain Store Product from East to West” (2015) tracks the geographies that products move within. Starting with an inquiry in Bargain Stores, Hulme begins in the dump in Shanghai, then to factories, over seas in containers and via global ports, back to the bargain store, […]
Human Rights in Africa
Bonny Ibhawoh’s (2018) “Human Rights in Africa” is a long overdue contribution to the human rights discourse. This is not only a critical assessment of the dominant narrative about the origins of human rights as known today, but also a call for revival of knowing histories that are not well known, prioritized or taught. The […]
Tags: #Africa #History #Human Rights #Vernacularization #Vernacularizing
About me
Logan Cochrane
Associate Professor at HBKU in the College of Public Policy. He is an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). Over the last fifteen years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Logan acts as a consultant for governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, seeking to create bridges between research and practice.
Featured Posts
Tags
Africa Agriculture Anthropology Books Capitalism Civil society Climate change Colonialism Colonization Conflict Culture decolonization Democracy Development Development Studies Economics Education Ethics Ethiopia Ethnography Fellowship Food Security Gender Globalization Governance History Human Rights Inequality Interdisciplinary International development Islam Justice Land Leadership Middle East Migration Participation Philosophy Policy Politics Post-doc Poverty Power Qatar Racism Resilience Revolution Rural Development South Africa SustainabilitySubscribe to receive new blog posts via email