Aidnography

Hello all, This week's links focus is on a slightly broader range of development-related topics from fight ing censorship t o unpaid care-giving, a nother new development professional network, Canada's policy shift to 'mining for pea ce an d prosperity' (actua l title of the policy document may be different), foreign policy lobbying in the U.S. , a slightly unsatisfying TedX talk on listening, how the Avon model is re inv ented in devel oping countries , the burning question of what consultant s do (' fifty percent of the job is nodding your head at whatever’s being said, thirty percent of it is just sort of looking good, and the other twenty percent is raising an objection but then if you meet resistance, then dropping it'). ...and L-O-V-E ;)! Enjoy! New on aidnography Book review: The Golden Fleece-Manipulation & Independence in Humanitarian Action Development We Fight Censorship WeFightCensorship.org (WeFC) is a Reporters Without Borders project tha

I firmly believe that in our fast-paced development communication world of blog posts, TedX talks and nightly Twitter discussions and despite crisis calls from traditional publishers, books will continue to play an important role in reflecting on and learning about development. In many ways, The Golden Fleece : Manipulation and Independence in Humanitarian Action is a very good example of what’s right about today’s academic publishing industry. There are two main reasons why I thoroughly enjoyed the book: First, the chapters and case studies come with a detailed historical framework – something that is all too often overlooked when making an argument for something ‘new’ or different or the latest approach on how to ‘solve’ a development-related problem. Second, the book is well-edited – which is a tricky thing to achieve when you have a collection of 12 chapters and which quite a few books do not manage as they end up as published conference proceedings. But let’s look at the conte

H ello all, As a ground-breaking Thanksgiving change to the link review I have reversed the order this we ek and start with interesting insights from Academia before moving on to Anthropology and finally Development ! It is worth the scrolling as there are many interesting nugge ts on learning st yles, the curious case of the academic job market, transformational leader, peer coaching , social entrepreneurism s bli nd spots, great book reviews and insights from the epic Twitter conversation between @JeffDSachs and the rest of the twitterin g development research uni verse ;)! Enjoy! Tap Into the Surprising Benefits of Gratitude Researchers affirm that gratitude can also boost our mental health and well-being. They found that people who kept notes on what they’re thankful for have reported higher levels of positive emotions, more joy and pleasure, more happiness and optimism. They felt more alert, alive, and awake than others who did not practice gratitude. Notably, people who are

Hello all, This looks like a nice link round-up of the week. There are 'development news' featuring interesting reports and more factual stuff, followed by 'development op i nion '-from a 'po lemic against NGOs' to 'Peace Corps Guilt ', thought leadership and no n-development topics such as a critique of Teac h First USA and reflections on the 'high-quality compost' left over a fter an unsuccessful camp aign for Congress in Calif ornia. Finally, there's more on the question whether 'online courses sp ell t he end of the traditional university' and how (aca demic) community engagement looks a lot like development (or the other way round?!)... Enjoy! New on aidnography Is Coca-Cola a social enterprise now? Why ‘development’ needs to be more critical with global corporations If you visit Coca-Cola's new website you may think that you arrived at some philanthropic endeavor, a social enterprise or foundation maybe. (...) No matter ho