Inequality
End Times
Why do nations rise and fall, different theorists and theories abound, in “End Times – Elites, Counter-Elites and the Path of Political Disintegration” (2023) Peter Turchin gives some answers. What I really appreciate about Turchin’s work is the methodological rigor and the use of data. His approach takes in components of culture, history, geography and […]
Tags: #Cliodynamics #Elite over-production #End Times #Inequality #Turchin
Capitalism, Alone
In the realm of those interested in inequality, Milanovic and Piketty have been leading intellectual voices in the last decade. A few years ago I wrote about Milanovic’s 2016 book on global inequality, this post covers his 2019 book Capitalism, Alone. In general, I think anyone interested in development economics should read this, and fortunately […]
Tags: #Capitalism #Citizenship #Ideology #Inequality #Milanovic
Resisting Rural Dispossession
Dip Kapoor brought together a collective of works that highlight many stories that have not been widely told, stories of localized resistance to large-scale land acquisitions and land grabs. These processes have occasionally included these actors, but often presented them as victims without agency, not actors expressing their agency. In this regard, “Against Colonization and […]
Tags: #Gender #Inequality #Land Grab #Resistance #Rural Dispossession
Measuring What Counts
In “Measuring What Counts: The Global Movement for Well-Being” (2019), Stiglitz, Fitoussi and Durand build upon the work that was conducted following a 2009 commission to re-think what measures are used to assess the health of the economy (particularly GDP). The financial crises forced reflections on how the vulnerabilities were not understood; to which these […]
The Violence of the Green Revolution
Vandana Shiva has long been one of the key actors and advocates promoting locally-driven and owned, agroecologically-oriented and opposing corporate control of the agricultural and food sector. Although it was not her first publication, this message gained a global audience with “The Violence of the Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology, and Politics” (1989). With […]
Tags: #Agroecology #Corporations #Green Revolution #Inequality #Vandana Shiva
The Origins of Political Order
Francis Fukuyama’s “The Origins of Political Order” (2011) is already standard reading, and should be read by all students of development studies. For those unfamiliar with the work, it focuses on the development of government institutions. This post picks up on a few points that resonated on a recent reading: The background: “Political institutions develop, […]
Tags: #Fukuyama #Inequality #Methods #Origins of Political Order #Unity
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
The Price of Inequality
Joseph Stiglitz is one of the most respected economists of our times and a person who has also held positions of significant influence, including chief economist of the World Bank and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors for the US President (Clinton). In 2012 he authored “The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society […]
Tags: #America #Democracy #Inequality #Stiglitz #The Price of Inequality
Global Inequality
Inequality is headline news. Recently Oxfam reported that only 8 individuals own as much as the poorest half of the world’s population. In 2014, Piketty published a widely read book on the subject, taking a historical economics approach. But, this question is not new. Amin addressed it in his 1976 book “Unequal Development“, the greater […]
Tags: #Globalization #Historical economics #Inequality #International development #Policy
Infections and Inequalities
An essential read, whether you are in development studies, anthropology or medicine, is Paul Farmer’s Infections and Inequalities (1999). “This book examines inequalities in the distribution and outcome of infectious diseases. It asks why people like Annette Jean and her siblings are likely to die of infections such as tuberculosis and AIDS and malaria, while […]
Tags: #Anthropology #Cost effectiveness #Gender #Inequality #Paul Farmer
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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