Social media & Development

Posts on development blogging & social media 

Social Media and Global Development Rituals: a content analysis of blogs and tweets on the 2010 MDG Summit

Forever Young: Kony 2012 and the quest for teenage belonging and community


5 questions for a post-Kony 2012 debate


Research on development blogging reloaded-new survey on audience and impact

Development evaluators, make blogging part of your workstyle!
 
Do we need an MA in Social Media for International Development & Change?
 
Twittering your MA? Development studies, social media and challenging dominant discourses
 
The globalisation of aid rituals-MDG summit and twittering about peace in Darfur

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Should aid workers fly less? Yes, but it’s a bit more complicated

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Over at From Poverty to Power my dear colleague Thea Hilhorst shared some reflections on why aid workers should fly less and how the industry needs to address air travel in its efforts to lead climate and social change work by example.

I generally agree with her sentiment to fly less, have tougher discussions within aid organizations about (air) travel and be the change they want to see from other actors. But as basically everything else in #globaldev, things are a bit more complicated...

Getting a sense of the scope of the problem
How much of an issue is aid worker air travel?
Most of us will probably agree that time-sensitive humanitarian work will always require air travel. There is probably also some ‘essential’ travel to get safely into countries and to avoid long road trips. And then there are trade-offs, for example whether stressed staff should be allowed to fly from their duty station to a relaxing R&R break or how often they should be allowed to fly ‘home’ to their famili…
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Dear Colonialism - guest post by Ami V. Shah

I am honored to kick off the week with a powerful guest post by my colleague Ami V. Shah, Assistant Professor of Global Studies & Anthropology at Pacific Lutheran University.
We have been discussing many issues around decolonization for a while and I am thrilled that she shares her reflections here on Aidnography! Ami also tweets as SeenFromAfar.

Dear Colonialism,

I’m writing a letter to you, because I’m not sure you’ll listen when I talk. You claim that you want to come back to my house, and that in fact, your visit will be good for me. Dear colonialism, I do not agree.

Especially since you have yet to leave my house.

When you arrived you were uninvited. I do not need to document the tragedies that unfolded under your watch. I do not need to document the painful legacies that you created. Others have done so more eloquently, devastatingly, and, indeed, empirically than I might right now in this short letter.

You might want to consult with them.

You claim that you have been ignore…
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Should I consider a PhD in International Development Studies?

After the Economist’s piece on the (non-)value of doing a PhD and some comments later (e.g. Prometheus doesn't read the Economist (I like the slightly cynical dichotomy between ‘civilians’ and the ‘academic insiders) or the '100 Reasons NOT to Go to Graduate School' (they are only halfway through so check it out regularly in the future...) I had an interesting conversation with a prospective PhD student a few days ago.
This was not the first time that I had been approached about doing a PhD and I always try to be as frank as possible, even playing the ‘devil’s advocate’ when it comes to the complicated ‘should I or shouldn’t I?’ decision-making process. At the end of our conversation I sat down and tried to summarize a few important and generic points from the point of view of doing a PhD in Development Studies and in the UK.
I understand that every case is different and involves a range of motives, options and rationales, but there a few important questions and topics t…
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Links & Contents I Liked 298

Hi all,

This week I needed to take a little break from blogging-but there's always time for a great weekly link review!

Development news: You saw the Congo wedding pics, right, and thought 'WTF, white people...'; the political science of 'going local'; political economy reports nobody read; will Swedish mining executives go to jail for crimes in Sudan? The UN's failed 'war on drugs'; migrating from Nigeria; more on the World Development Report; UN wants to ban virginity tests; Optimism at the UNGA; What next for #AidToo? How to become a great #globaldev blogger?

Our digital lives: Traveling on a 'weak' passport; the botification of Gmail communication.

Publications: Technology for feminist creativity; security mapping Haiti.

Academia: International criminal courts as sights of spectatorship; why we recycle. 

Enjoy!

Development news
Dear White People...
A couple took wedding photos of themselves appearing to be held at gunpoint in the 'Congo ghett…
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Who really needs a World Development Report?

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The World Bank released its annual World Development Report (WDR) last Friday.

The Changing Nature of Work has already triggered some negative feedback which contributes to an emerging case study about the value of ‘flagship reports’, development policy discourses and ritualized behavior from the critics; above all, bigger questions loom what the purpose of the WDR exercise really is.

Just in case you have been hibernating for the last five to eight years or so the report starts with an ‘everything has already been said-but not by everybody’ summary:
Technology is changing the skills that employers seek. Workers need to be better at complex problem-solving, teamwork and adaptability. Digital technology is also changing how people work and the terms on which they work. Even in advanced economies, short-term work, often found through online platforms, is posing similar challenges to those faced by the world’s informal workers. The Report analyzes these changes and considers how governme…
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