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
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
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
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
An earlier post highlighted the first land tenure survey in Ethiopia, this post presents “Land Tenure in Eritrea (Ethiopia)” (1966) by Ambaye Zekarias. This publication is part of a broader set of literature that emerged during the 1960s (see broader literature here, with historical studies being a particular strength). The forward of this particular book […]
Hans Rosling passed away in 2017, but his “Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things are Better than You Think” (2018) carries his legacy on. For those familiar with Hans and his work, this is a good summary of a career working to educate. For those unfamiliar with Hans, this […]