Logan Cochrane

Social Consequences of Resettlement & Relocation

Particularly since 2008, there has been a rise in displaced people due to land grabbing, or large-scale land investments. These developments has led some researchers to ask what the consequences, beyond the obvious loss of land, abuse of rights and disruption of livelihoods. For this, history has much to teach us. One such study is […]

Tags: #Anthropology #Political Protest #Relocation #Resettlement #Social Consequences

Yemen and the Politics of Permanent Crisis

Before the onset of the 2015 Yemeni war, the situation in the country was dire: it was home to one of the world’s highest rates of child malnutrition, was chronically food insecure, depleting oil and water resources, corruption and long-term instability. Sarah Phillips explores these dynamics in her work “Yemen and the Politics of Permanent […]

Tags: #Instability #Politics #Politics of Permanent Crisis #Power #Yemen

Descent into Chaos – Afghanistan

Reflections on international development from Ahmed Rashid’s award-winning 2008 book “Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.” For those interested in the region, or of military intervention in the era of the ‘war on terror’ this is essential reading. Proposals before 9/11: “We proposed using economic aid related […]

Tags: #Afghanistan #Conflict #Failure #International development #War on Terror

On “supportive outsiders”

Platzky and Walker offer some suggestions on the role of ‘supportive outsiders’ in the context of the struggle against apartheid in their book “The Surplus People: Forced Removals in South Africa” (1985), covered here. It may be interesting for students of international development to reflect on the progression of ideas over the last three decades, […]

Surplus People: Forced Removals in South Africa

The experts for this ‘thought provoker’ come from “The Surplus People: Forced Removals in South Africa” (1985) by Platzky and Walker, which is the summarized version of a five volume study on the topic. The book was published while apartheid was still forcing relocation and displacement, as one of its many policies for “separate development.” In […]

Tags: #Apartheid #Forced Removal #Relocation #South Africa #Surplus People

Moral History of the 20th Century

Jonathan Glovers’ (1999) Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century explores why atrocities occurred – from World War I to the Rwandan genocide – and insight on how we can learn from this history to prevent similar events from occurring again. This “thought provoker” post presents a limited selection of those insights; those interested […]

Tags: #Ethics #Morality #Nietzsche #Prisoner's dilemma #Tribalism

On “peasants” and GMOs

Hardt and Negri’s “Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire” (2004) is a work of political philosophy, and specifically a book about democracy (presented here). Some points raised in the book offer interesting food for thought, potentially of use in the classroom, or for contrasting different opinions, for example: On the “peasant”: “It makes […]

Tags: #Democracy #Frankenfoods #Genetically modified organisms #GMOs #Peasant

War and Democracy in the Age of Empire

This “thought provoker” presents views on political philosophy and democracy from Hardt and Negri’s “Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire” (2004). Some have criticized the book as lacking concrete data to support its claims, however it is essentially a work of philosophy, and thus that is necessarily expected of it. For those […]

Tags: #biopolitical weapons #Democracy #Multitude #Political Philosophy #sovereignty

How Philanthropy Fails to Alleviate Poverty

Erica Kohl-Arenas’ new book, “The Self-help Myth: How Philanthropy Fails to Alleviate Poverty” (2016) offer strong criticism of philanthropic work, by asking “Can the surplus of capitalist exploitation be used to aid those on whose backs this surplus is generated? Can these surplus dollars contribute to addressing entrenched poverty while refusing to address systematic questions of […]

Tags: #Capitalism #Inequality #Poverty #Structural Poverty #Systematic Change

Power & Politics in the Horn of Africa

Alex de Waal is one the world’s most well versed scholars on East African politics, and has been intimately engaged with the region for decades. His 2015 book, “The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa: Money, War and the Business of Power,” is essential reading for those interested in the region, or the intersection of […]

Tags: #Alex De Waal #Political Marketplace #Politics #Power #Somaliland