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Secular Translations
A couple of notes from Talal Asad’s “Secular Translations: Nation-State, Modern Self and Calculative Reason” (2018): “Today an important failure is our inability to create a form of collective life on this planet radically different from the liberal capitalist states in which we live. The failure seems to be due not to any lack of […]
Xala
From Sembene Ousmane’s 1974 novel Xala, translated in 1976 to English: “The colonialist is stronger, more powerful than ever before, hidden inside us, here in this very place.” (p. 84) “All your past wealth – for you have nothing left – was acquired by cheating. You and your colleagues build on the misfortunes of honest, […]
Rethinking Identity
Kwame Anthony Appiah is probably most well known for his book Cosmopolitanism (2006). His most recent book, “The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity” (2018) explores forms of identities (gender, religion, race, nationality, class, culture), on a chapter-by-chapter basis. The arguments deconstruct these identities, ultimately leading toward a cosmopolitanist case in the conclusion. Essentially, each chapter seeks […]
FDI in Large-Scale Agriculture in Africa
In 2019 Atkeyelsh Persson published “Foreign Direct Investment in Large-Scale Agriculture in Africa: Economic, Social and Environmental Sustainability in Ethiopia”. The book (presumably) draws on doctoral work done at UCT (finished in 2016) and most of the data / findings presented come from 2014 or before. The book offers unique insight into environmental and sustainability impacts. […]
Global Social Policy in the Making
Deacon’s (2013) “Global Social Policy in the Making: The Foundations of the Social Protection Floor” outlines how the ILO was able to obtain agreement on the social protection floor, when previous efforts to have global social policy encountered barriers. In a sense, this is a history of the initiative. The author focuses on four key […]
Reading that should be more common…
Ibn Khaldun (2015 translation, 1377 original) Al Muqaddimah Cesaire, A. (1950) Discourse on Colonialism Fanon, F. (1952) Black Skin, White Masks Fanon, F. (1959) A Dying Colonialism Baldwin, J. (1962) The Fire Next Time Fanon, F. (1963) The Wretched of the Earth Fanon, F. (1964) Toward the African Revolution Memmi, A. (1965) The Colonizer and the […]
On the Commodity Trail
Alison Hulme’s “On the Commodity Trail: The Journey of a Bargain Store Product from East to West” (2015) tracks the geographies that products move within. Starting with an inquiry in Bargain Stores, Hulme begins in the dump in Shanghai, then to factories, over seas in containers and via global ports, back to the bargain store, […]
Human Rights in Africa
Bonny Ibhawoh’s (2018) “Human Rights in Africa” is a long overdue contribution to the human rights discourse. This is not only a critical assessment of the dominant narrative about the origins of human rights as known today, but also a call for revival of knowing histories that are not well known, prioritized or taught. The […]
Evaluation Landscape in Africa
Thousands of evaluations have been conducted across Africa, producing large amounts of knowledge. However, these reports are not often captured and shared nor are they easily accessible, nor are always made available to the public. There is no search platform, like Web of Science for academic publications, for evaluations. Some donors have created their own databases, but […]
Who Are You and Why Are You Here?
I have previously noted my interested in the expanded journal version of people recounting their experiences (e.g. this recent book on the Ebola response). The style (and title) of Jacques Claessens “Who are you and why are you here?” (2018), which was originally published in French in 2013 and translated in this version by Nigel […]
About me
Logan Cochrane
Associate Professor at HBKU in the College of Public Policy. He is an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). Over the last fifteen years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Logan acts as a consultant for governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, seeking to create bridges between research and practice.
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