Logan Cochrane

Nationalisation in Saudi Arabia

Some books are available in book shops globally and others only in local or regional markets. The Doha International Book Fair is a great place where regional publishers come together, and where the local and regional books are available. One example was “Nationalisation and Labour Market Policies in Saudi Arabia” (2023) by Abdullah Al Fozan, […]

Tags: #Abdullah Al Fozan #Labor Market #Nationalisation #Nationalization #Saudi Arabia

Explaining Successes in Africa

Erin Accampo Hern’s “Explaining Success in Africa: Things Don’t Always Fall Apart” (2023) is a great teaching book (upper undergraduates or generalist graduate students). The book is easy to read, presents a clear methodology, and integrates theory / variables / data in a most-similar most-different approach. In a class, this could be the foundation, with […]

Tags: #Development Studies #Erin Hern #Explaining success in Africa #Theory #Things Don't Always Fall Apart

The Power of Positive Deviance

In 2010 Pascale, Sternin and Sternin published “The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World’s Toughest Problems”, published by Harvard Business Review. I am not sure how this book landed on my desk, but takes an outlier sampling approach to be utilized in a self-driven learning context for social change (and in […]

Tags: #Outliers #Positive Deviance #Social Change #Social systems #Sternin

Travesty in Haiti

I cannot recall where or how I was directed to “Travesty in Haiti: A True Account of Christian Missions, Orphanages, Food Aid, Fraud and Drug Trafficking” (2008) by Timothy Schwartz. The book appears to be self-published, and Paul Farmer is quoted on the back as saying “This book knocks it out of the park” (assuming […]

Tags: #Aid #Corruption #Haiti #ODA #Travesty in Haiti

Fields of Gold

Focusing on two country studies of the USA and Brazil, Madeleine Fairbairn’s “Fields of Gold: Financing the Global Land Rush” (2020) explores the financial side of the global rush for land. This book provides unique perspectives on a widely written about topic (often under the land grab or large-scale land acquisition frame, I’ve also used […]

Tags: #Field of Gold #Finance #Land grab #Land rush #Madeleine Fairbairn

The Horn of Africa

One of the Horn of Africa’s long-time scholars, Christopher Clapham, wrote “The Horn of Africa: State Formation and Decay” (2017), with Oxford University Press. A lot of the book, expectedly, focuses on Ethiopia. And, unfortunately for Clapham, the world of Ethiopia and the Horn has changed dramatically since. The book is accessible, which is often […]

Tags: #Clapham #Ethiopia #Horn of Africa #Somalia #Somaliland

Shariah Law Questions and Answers

In 2017, Mohammad Hashim Kamali, published a collection of crafted questions about Shariah, divided into 17 sections and 190 questions. I have posted on a number of Kamali’s books, largely with reference to their use in teaching ethics and integrating more diverse thought traditions into the course. The audience of the book appears geared toward […]

Stokely Speaks

Stokely Carmichael, better known as Kwame Ture, gave a number speeches and penned articles and letters, which were gathered in “Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism” (1965), with multiple prints and new Forwards added with each new print. A few quotes: “I wouldn’t be the first to point out the American capacity for self-delusion. One […]

Tags: #Colonization #Kwame Ture #Racism #Stokely Carmichael #Stokely Speaks

Beginning with Heidegger

Millerman draws our attention to Heidegger as a source of key philosophical and political contributions that have shaped thought since his contributions in Beginning with Heidegger (2020). I came across Millerman via Dugin, some of whose books he has translated into English. This book is a slightly modified version of Michael Millerman’s 2018 PhD thesis with the […]

Tags: #Heidegger #Millerman #Philosophy #Political Theory #Politics

Democracy and Development in Africa

While a visiting scholar at Brookings, Claude Ake wrote “Democracy and Development in Africa” (1995), published by Brookings. As nearly three decades have passed, I focus less on the specifics (e.g., agricultural policy recommendations) and highlight the general arguments, a few notes: “Many factors have been offered to explain the apparent failure of the development […]

Tags: #Africa #Claude Ake #Democracy #Development #Ideology of development