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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

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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
Why Don’t the Poor Rise Up?

Why Don’t the Poor Rise Up?

An article in the New York Times in 2015 provoked Michael Truscello and Ajamu Nangwaya to bring together the volume: “Why Don’t the Poor Rise Up? Organizing the Twenty-First Century Resistance” (2017). This book is divided into two sections, one on the Global North and another on the Global South, and is an “anthology of […]

Tags: #collective action #people power #Resistance #Social movements #Struggle

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False Start in Africa (1962)

False Start in Africa (1962)

Rene Dumont’s “False Start in Africa” (1962) is arguably one of the most influential and widely read texts on agriculture in Africa. The book is more of a conversation, than it is an academic text. However, Dumont was a pioneering voice for identifying key issues such as soil erosion, micronutrient deficiencies, soil type and quality […]

Tags: #Africa #Agriculture #False Start in Africa #Rene Dumont #Rural Development

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