Thought Provokers
Agrarian Reform in Ethiopia
Dessalegn Rahmato is the leading scholar of land issues in Ethiopia, a subject he has been researching for decades. He has published a large number of works, including The Peasant and the State (2008). One of his earlier books, Agrarian Reform in Ethiopia (1985) covers the land reform of 1975, when Ethiopia made the most […]
Tags: #Agrarian reform #Dessalegn Rahmato #Ethiopia #Land Reform #Land Tenure
The Khat Conundrum in Ethiopia
The growing, consumption and export of khat (a stimulant) in Ethiopia has rapidly increased in over the last two decades. There is an emerging set of literature that explores khat from a range of perspectives, although the literature has focused on the health impacts and consumption in university settings. The complexity of khat is that […]
The Collapse of Globalism
For decades, globalization was promoted as a process to increase global prosperity. In 2005, John Ralston Saul published “The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World” to make the case that globalism was on the decline. Many have praised the book as seeing well beyond its time, particularly as the financial crises followed […]
Tags: #Globalism #Globalization #John Ralston Saul #Nationalism #Negative Nationalism
Agricultural Transformation in Ethiopia
“Agricultural Transformation in Ethiopia: State Policy and Smallholder Farming” (2018) edited by Atakilte Beyene is an excellent book on diverse components of the agricultural sector. Given the importance of agriculture in Ethiopia, this is an important addition as there are few books that cover the sector comprehensively (several are available that cover specific components). The introduction by Atakilte […]
Tags: #Agriculture #Atakilte Beyene #Ethiopia #Rural Development #Smallholder farming
Why Civil Resistance Works
Over the last year I have posted about a number of books related to civil resistance. In reading that literature, one of the works that gets frequently referred to is “Why Civil Resistance Works – The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict” by Chenoweth and Stephan (2011). Given that the field of study is a relatively […]
Tags: #civil action #Civil resistance #mass movements #Nonviolence #Violence
Can We Know Better? Reflections for Development
Cochrane, L. (2019) Review: Can We Know Better? Reflections for Development. Progress in Development Studies 19: 84-86. Starting in the 1980s, there have been regular publications of books that invite critical self-reflection in development study and practice: Rural Development: Putting the Last First (1983), Challenging the Professions (1993), Whose Reality Counts? (1997), Participatory Workshops (2002), […]
Tags: #Can We Know Better #Development #Development Studies #Reflections for Development #Robert Chambers
Human Rights and the Food Sovereignty Movement
Priscilla Claeys’s “Human Rights and the Food Sovereignty Movement: Reclaiming Control” (2015) had some high level support and praise (Jun Borras, Olivier De Schutter, etc). The beginning of the abstract reads: “Our global food system is undergoing rapid change. Since the global food crisis of 2007-2008, a range of new issues have come to public […]
Tags: #Food Security #Food Sovereignty #Human Rights #La Via Campesina #Legal Advocacy
Education, Politics and Social Change in Ethiopia
In looking for research that explores the challenges of ethnic federalism and language in Ethiopia, I came across the book “Education, Politics and Social Change in Ethiopia” (2010), edited by Paulos Milkias (Concordia University) and Messay Kebede (University of Dayton). All of the contributing authors are based outside of Ethiopia, which is not necessarily negative, […]
Tags: #Education #Ethiopia #Language #Politics #Social change
Kofi Annan – Interventions
Kofi Annan (1938-2018) was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006, a turbulent time to say the least. He penned “Interventions: A Life in War and Peace” (2012) with Nader Mousavizadeh to provide some of the high, lows, challenges and successes of his time leading the UN. The book is a recounting […]
Tags: #Colonialism #Kofi Annan #Leadership #Security Council #United Nations
Who Really Feeds the World
Vandava Shiva was one of the earliest challengers to corporate control of food and the food system. In her most recent book, “Who Really Feeds the World: The Failures of Agribusiness and the Promise of Agroecology” (2016), Shiva continues the activism. While I am generally in agreement with the positions advocated in the book, it […]
Tags: #Agribusiness #Agroecology #Food system #Vandana Shiva #Who Really Feeds the World?
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.
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