Development Studies

Can We Know Better? Reflections for Development

Cochrane, L. (2019) Review: Can We Know Better? Reflections for Development. Progress in Development Studies 19: 84-86. Starting in the 1980s, there have been regular publications of books that invite critical self-reflection in development study and practice: Rural Development: Putting the Last First (1983), Challenging the Professions (1993), Whose Reality Counts? (1997), Participatory Workshops (2002), […]

Tags: #Can We Know Better #Development #Development Studies #Reflections for Development #Robert Chambers

Thought Provokers Jan 11

Navigation by Judgement

In development studies and practice we can get excited by new ideas, and over-stretch them. Participation was a cure all, then it became tyranny, and now we have more informed ‘split ladders’ that help determine when, where, why and how participation can work well. The rise of results- and evidence-based decision making was at its […]

Tags: #Development Practice #Development Studies #Evaluation #Learning #Navigation by Judgement

Thought Provokers Sep 3

The Development Dance

The practice of development is messy. Far too often it is much more messy we tend to acknowledge. That messiness often does not appear RCTs or evaluations, but it has a significant impact on the implementation of activities. One of the layers of messiness is the negotiation between donor and recipient governments, covered in Haley […]

Tags: #Development Dance #Development Studies #Donors #International development #Politics

Thought Provokers Aug 23

Development Blindspot: Children & Environmental Toxins

Robert Chambers recently highlighted corruption, entomophagy, neglected tropical diseases, cookstove air pollution, climate change and ocean ecology as blindspots in his “Can We Know Better?” (2017) book. I think we ought to add environmental toxins and child health. Consider the following quotes from “Children & Environmental Toxins: What Everyone Needs to Know” (2018) by Landriagan […]

Tags: #Blindspot #Chemicals #Children #Development Studies #Environmental toxins

Thought Provokers May 23

How China Escaped the Poverty Trap

Yuen Yuen Ang’s “How China Escaped the Poverty Trap” (2016) is an excellent read and should be essential reading for all development studies students and actors. This book challenges many assumptions that have long been repeated as mantras in research and practice. The author summarizes the book as one that “investigates how China escaped the […]

Tags: #China #Development Studies #How development occurs #Inequality #Participation

Thought Provokers Apr 27

The Parable of the Pauper

“Imagine a pauper who turns to two finance gurus for advice. Not only is he broke, this pauper is poorly educated and lives in a rough neighborhood. The first guru urges, “Earn your first paycheck. Once you start making money, your circumstances will improve, and you will eventually escape poverty.” The second guru counsels differently: […]

Tags: #Best practices #China #Development #Development Studies #Parable of the pauper

Uncategorized Apr 22

Stranglehold on Africa

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. […]

Tags: #Africa #Agriculture #Development Studies #Rene Dumont #Stranglehold on Africa

Thought Provokers Feb 2

New Publication: Does diversification enhance community resilience? A critical perspective

Cochrane, L. and Cafer, A. (2018) Does Diversification Enhance Community Resilience? A Critical Perspective. Resilience. https://doi.org/10.1080/21693293.2017.1406849 Abstract: Resilience has become a key component of how practitioners and scholars conceptualize sustainable communities. Given sustainability’s focal role in shaping international development funding, policies and programming it is imperative that we critically engage with the concepts embedded within the […]

Tags: #Development Studies #Diversification #Ethiopia #Resilience #Sustainability

Research Dec 4

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 Aug 30

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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.

Logan Cochrane