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Ebola: How a People’s Science Helped End an Epidemic

Ebola: How a People’s Science Helped End an Epidemic

As other reviewers of this book have mentioned, there is probably few who are better suited to write this book than Paul Richards, with such a depth of knowledge and experience of the areas where the epidemic occurred. In “Ebola: How a People’s Science Helped End an Epidemic” (2016) the author argues that faced “with […]

Tags: #Citizen science #Ebola #Epidemic #Public Health #Social science

Thought Provokers

New Publication: Worldviews Apart: Agriculture Extension and Smallholder Farmers

Cochrane, L. (2017) Worldviews Apart: Agriculture Extension and Ethiopian Smallholder Farmers. Journal of Rural Social Sciences 32: 98-118. Abstract: This paper presents an inquiry-based learning assessment into why farmers in the highlands of Ethiopia were not adopting a new planting methodology promoted by the government and non-governmental organizations. It offers a process of reflexivity whereby assumptions […]

Tags: #Agricultural extension #Agriculture #Ethiopia #Rural Development #Worldviews

Research
The Challenge of Democracy from Below

The Challenge of Democracy from Below

Edited volumes do not tend to have staying power as a publication – collections of essays pass like most academic articles. Rarely does an edited volume remain an essential reading for decades. “Ethiopia: The Challenge of Democracy from Below” edited by Bahru Zewde and Siegfried Pausewang (2002) is one of those books. A number of […]

Tags: #Democracy #Ethiopia #Governance #Participation #Power

Thought Provokers
Violence, Justice and Decolonization

Violence, Justice and Decolonization

If you are looking for a tour de force of colonialism, anti-colonization struggle and decolonization, Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961) should be high on the list. Fanon is a unique voice; in style, content and argument. This work has influenced revolutionaries from Palestine to Sri Lanka and South Africa, as well as […]

Tags: #Colonization #decolonization #Frantz Fanon #Justice #Violence

Thought Provokers
The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies

The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies

Why are policies created they way they are? This question is particularly interesting when the policies do not appear to function well. It may be that the ‘failing’ policies are not actually failing, but serving another, often unstated, purpose. A classic, essential read on this question is “Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political […]

Tags: #Agricultural policy #Agriculture #Political Basis of Agricultural Policies #Politics #Power

Thought Provokers

New Publication: Stages of Food Security

Cochrane, L. (2017) Stages of Food Security: A Co-produced Mixed Methods Methodology. Progress in Development Studies 17(4): 1-16. Abstract: This article presents the stages of food security methodology, an adaptation of stages of progress developed by Dr. Krishna. Studies of food security are primarily survey based, applying a common set of generalist indicators across a range […]

Tags: #Development Studies #Ethiopia #Food Security #Mixed methods #Stages of Food Security

Research