Thought Provokers
Power tends to corrupt…
Fiction (1945): “…out from the door of the farmhouse came a long file of pigs, all walking on their hind legs…out came Napoleon himself, majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to side, and with his dogs gambolling round him. He carried a whip in his trotter. There was a deadly silence. Amazed, terrified, huddling […]
Letting them Die – Why Programs Fail
“In the old South Africa we killed people. Now we’re just letting them die.” – Pieter-Dirk Uys In her 2003 book, ‘Letting them Die’: Why HIV/AIDS Prevention Programmes Fail, Catherine Campbell describes how “the best-intentioned programmes, even when they achieve high levels of mobilization of the least-powerful sectors of small local communities, may have […]
Tags: #Failure #International development #Participation #social capital #Stakeholders
The Making of a Better World
Rosalind Eyben spent a career as a practitioner in international development and then as an academic on the subject. Her 2014 book, “International Aid and the Making of a Better World: Reflexive Practice” is one of the few books that critically self-analyzes a personal trajectory. Unlike some personal journals/journeys of aid workers, this focuses upon […]
Tags: #Gender #Human Rights #International development #Participation #Reflexivity
Infections and Inequalities
An essential read, whether you are in development studies, anthropology or medicine, is Paul Farmer’s Infections and Inequalities (1999). “This book examines inequalities in the distribution and outcome of infectious diseases. It asks why people like Annette Jean and her siblings are likely to die of infections such as tuberculosis and AIDS and malaria, while […]
Tags: #Anthropology #Cost effectiveness #Gender #Inequality #Paul Farmer
The Anatomy of Giving
Most of the time development folks just speak with and to other development folks. Outsiders can bring a healthy voice to the conversation. Augusta Dwyer, in her 2015 work “The Anatomy of Giving” offers such a perspective on the aid industry, focusing upon Haiti. With a background as a journalist, she sets out to answer […]
Tags: #Aid #Anatomy of Giving #Civil society #Empowerment #International development
Navigating Complexity in International Development
Danny Burns and Stuart Worsley offer one of the best development studies reads of 2015 with their book “Navigating Complexity in International Development: Facilitating Sustainable Change at Scale.” There are shelves of books that cover similar topics in development studies, with much repetition and little innovative thinking. Burns and Stuart offer just that by viewing […]
Tags: #Complex systems #Complexity #International development #Power #Sustainability
Rules for Radicals
Saul Alinsky was one of the most influential community organizers, activists and rabble-rousers of his time (1909-1972). His most well known work is “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals” (1971). The book provides a wealth of interesting examples of community organizing, these stories and experiences make the book well worth the read, […]
Tags: #collective action #Democracy #Participation #Participatory #Social change
There is no such thing as a free gift …
“No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy” by Linsey McGoey (2015) provides critical perspectives on the role of foundations, and more generally on philanthropy. However, the book makes a series of questionable linkages and claims, without which it would have been a much stronger book. Attempting to drive home […]
Tags: #Capitalism #Gates Foundation #GMOs #Inequality #Philanthropy
The World’s Emergency Room
Michael VanRooyen’s book (2016) “The World’s Emergency Room: The Growing Threat to Doctors, Nurses, and Humanitarian Workers” presents a personal narratives of work in the humanitarian sector. While readers do gain glimpses of humanitarian work, and of the challenging settings staff work within, the book does not make a forceful argument about the growing threat […]
Tags: #Coordination #Harvard Humanitarian Initiative #Humanitarianism #Novice aid #Positionality
Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
Acemoglu and Robinson are most well known for their book Why Nations Fail. This thought provoker post covers an earlier work, from 2006: Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Parts of this book are heavy with the formulas; so those wary of economics and mathematics, and interested in more of the social sciences side of political […]
Tags: #Democracy #Dictatorship #Institutions #Middle Class #Power
About me
Logan Cochrane
Logan is a 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 twenty 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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