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Adjustment with a Human Face

Adjustment with a Human Face

Anyone who has taken a development studies class has most likely heard about the failure of the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs). Indeed, these programs caused significant harm to the most vulnerable in society. Yet, far too often students are only given a brief summary supported by carefully selected examples (that the World Bank is bad […]

Tags: #Adjustment with a Human Face #Structural Adjustment #Structural Adjustment Programs #UNICEF #World Bank

Thought Provokers
Can Trade Promote Development?

Can Trade Promote Development?

Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton wade through the debates and evidence in “Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development” (2005). The book aims to “describe how trade policies can be designed in the future with a view to helping the developing countries” including that “liberalization needs to be managed carefully – the task […]

Tags: #Comparative advantage #Development #Policy #Sustainable development #Trade

Thought Provokers
No is Not Enough

No is Not Enough

Naomi Klein has written some great books: “No Logo” (2000), “Shock Doctrine” (2008), and “This Changes Everything” (2014). She is a prolific writer, activist and regular on the speaker circuit. When I picked up “No is Not Enough: Resisting the New Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need” (2017), I was surprised to see […]

Tags: #Counter narrative #Naomi Klein #No is not enough #Resistance #Trump

Thought Provokers
The Quest for Socialist Utopia

The Quest for Socialist Utopia

Bahru Zewde’s “The Quest for Socialist Utopia: The Ethiopian Student Movement c. 1960-1974” (2014) is brilliant. It is detailed, and may be of interest to a narrow audience as a result. However, this exploration of the student movement – leading up to the overthrow of the Imperial Regime in 1974 – is extremely well done, […]

Tags: #Ethiopia #History #Revolution #Socialism #Student Movement

Thought Provokers
The Great War of Africa

The Great War of Africa

“Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa” by Jason K. Stearns (2011) “tells the story of the conflict that resulted from these regional, national, and local dimensions and that has lasted from 1996 until today” (p. 8). The author not only has a depth of […]

Tags: #Conflict #Congo #DR Congo #DRC #Great War of Africa

Thought Provokers
Indigenous Research Methodologies

Indigenous Research Methodologies

A number of past posts presented books on decolonization – Fanon on struggles, Ngugi on language, and Smith on methodologies. How might a grounding in decolonization shape research? Margaret Kovach addresses this question in “Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts” (2009). In seeking to understand how Indigenous methodologies have been utilized in research, Kovach presents […]

Tags: #decolonization #Indigenous Methodologies #Indigenous Research Methodologies #Methodologies #Reflexivity

Thought Provokers