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Kinship, State Formation and Governance in the Arab Gulf States
Compared to other regions, there are few books about the GCC, and specifically Qatar. I try to track new publications and I came across “Kinship, State Formation and Governance in the Arab Gulf States” by Scott J. Weiner (2022), which was published by Edinburgh University Press. The book is covers Kuwait, Oman and Qatar (the latter less so compared […]
The Fourth Turning is Here
Neil Howe’s “The Fourth Turning is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis Will End” offers a generational approach to understanding history, and predicting the future. He argues that generations move through cycles, more-or-less in 100 year periods, often marked by key events or experiences that leave imprints […]
Tags: #Fourth Turning #Generational Cycles #Generational Theory #Neil Howe #Saeculum
From Black Gold to Frozen Gas
In 2023, Tusiani and Johnson wrote “From Black Gold to Frozen Gas: How Qatar Became an Energy Superpower”, published by Columbia University Press, in the Center on Global Energy Policy Series. The book provides a unique and detailed look into the deal, actors, contracts of the development of the energy sector in Qatar, often interwoven […]
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
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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