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The History of the Ethiopian Army

The History of the Ethiopian Army

Richard Pankhurst made innumerable contributions to the history of Ethiopia. I found an original copy of “An Introduction fo the History of the Ethiopian Army”, published by the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force, 101st Training Centre, in 1967. The Forward (of only 2 pages) by Colonel Aberra Wolde Mariam provide interesting insight into the thinking of […]

Tags: #Army #Ethiopia #Ethiopian Army #History #Pankhurst

Thought Provokers
Collective Choice and Social Welfare

Collective Choice and Social Welfare

Amartya Sen has made significant contributions to economics, development studies and philosophy. His early work actually focused on collective choice, which was the the topic of his 1970 book “Collective Choice and Social Welfare” (re-printed with significant additions in 2017). In the 2017 Introduction, Sen outlines what social choice theory is and the broad array […]

Tags: #Amartya Sen #Capabilities #Collective Choice and Social Welfare #Economics #Group choice

Thought Provokers
Civil Resistance and Power Politics

Civil Resistance and Power Politics

Over the last decade there have been quite a number of books published on non-violence action (under a wide range of terminologies: people power, poor people’s movements, civil resistance, collective action, etc). A good number of these works start out with the premise that non-violence is the best / only way for political change to […]

Tags: #Civil resistance #collective action #non-violent action #people power #Power Politics

Thought Provokers
Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom

Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom

Taiaiake Alfred’s “Wasase: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom” (2009) was recommended to me, as I sought out a book (or parts of a book) that might be used to introduce undergraduate students to ethical and justice issues of colonialism in Canada. In some ways, it is similar to Ngugi’s work on decolonizing the mind, […]

Tags: #Colonization #decolonization #Indigenous #Reconciliation #Taiaiake

Thought Provokers
The Violence of the Green Revolution

The Violence of the Green Revolution

Vandana Shiva has long been one of the key actors and advocates promoting locally-driven and owned, agroecologically-oriented and opposing corporate control of the agricultural and food sector. Although it was not her first publication, this message gained a global audience with “The Violence of the Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology, and Politics” (1989). With […]

Tags: #Agroecology #Corporations #Green Revolution #Inequality #Vandana Shiva

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Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don’t

Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don’t

This is the question that drives the recent book by Leslie Crutchfield, “How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don’t” (2018). This book is about social movements in the US, or that are primarily US-led. It offers some interesting case studies, quite descriptive throughout. The author summarizes the objective as seeking to understand […]

Tags: #Celebrate success #How change happens #Leadership #Management #Social movements

Thought Provokers