New publications from 2018: Cochrane, L, Boulanger, R. F., Sheikheldin, G. H. and Song, G. (2018) The Case for Local Ethics Oversight in International Development Research. Canadian Journal of Bioethics 1: 8-16. [from journal here] Cochrane, L. and Cafer, A. (2018) Does Diversification Enhance Community Resilience? A Critical Perspective. Resilience. [from journal here] Cochrane, L. and Rao, […]
As appears in Progress in Development Studies 18(2): 147-14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1464993417749150 Abbink, Jon. 2017: A Decade of Ethiopia: Politics, Economy and Society 2004-2016. Leiden: Brill. 253 pp. $24.00. ISBN: 9789004345881. Ethiopia is a country of contradictions. There have been sustained, high rates of macro-economic growth and progress on development indicators, with persistently high levels of poverty […]
The role of institutions in development has becoming increasingly important, most notably in the recent works “Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy” (2006) and “Why Nations Fail” (2012). Before these books, Basil Davidson wrote “The Black Man’s Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State” (1992), which places a large emphasis on the role of […]
Robert Sobukwe (1924-1978). Leader of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in South Africa, a focal leader in the struggle against apartheid, Sobukwe was so feared by the apartheid government that after he led a mass non-violence protests to break unjust laws, he was jailed indefinitely for fear of what he might do. A law was […]
The Arab Spring caught everyone by surprise, but was quickly explained as an expected, inevitable event. How can these largely contradictory narratives be brought together? This is part of the task undertaken in “Revolution and Authoritarianism in North Africa” (2017) by Frederic Volpi. The author writes that the “book strives to retain the implications of […]
In 1962 Rene Dumont wrote False Start in Africa, which offered unique perspectives for the time period, many of which continue to be relevant. I picked up “Stranglehold on Africa” by Rene Dumont and Marie-France Mottin (1983) hoping to find an equally interesting ideas. I did not find it as good as the earlier work. […]
Few can tell the story of the Syrian revolution better than Yassin Al-Haj Saleh, who has been engaged in political activism in Syria for decades (spending sixteen years in jail for that, and now living in exile). “The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Revolution” (2017) is Yassin’s first book in English, but he […]
Kinfe Abraham (1950-2007) was one of Ethiopia’s leading academics, although his books are not well known outside of the country. In this post I pull some though provoking quotes and ideas from his 1994 publication “Ethiopia from Bullets to the Ballot Box: The Bumpy Road to Democracy and the Political Economy of Transition”. The book […]
A previous post covered the main arguments of Dessalegn Rahmato’s “The Peasant and the State: Studies in Agrarian Change in Ethiopia, 1950s-2000s” (2008), this highlights some interesting critiques ofDe Soto’s influential book and argument: “To begin with, by over-emphasizing the determinant role of property law and its legalization de Soto adopts a state-centric view of […]
Dessalegn Rahmato is one of Ethiopian social scientists, his ideas and publications have shifted public perceptions on issues of land and the rural smallholder farmers. This posts draws upon his work, “The Peasant and the State: Studies in Agrarian Change in Ethiopia, 1950s-2000s” (2008), which is essential reading for anyone interesting in rural Ethiopia. As […]