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Showing posts from August, 2014

Links & Contents I Liked 124

Hello all, The new semester is round the corner and one of the many ways to welcome our new students is to encourage them to get immersed in and (slightly) overwhelmed by the debates featured in the link review! From the global remittance transfer cartel to the astonishing finding that 'research is no panacea for development', from the question of whether war reporting is worth the dangers to challenges of post-war capitalism in Nepal this is a jam-packed review! A social entrepreneur evangelist pinches her filter bubble and we learn all about bad aid. And what about hashtaggism and that water-pouring meme? This week's must-read is Evgeny Morozov's essay on the data-driven delusion of disruption and more sobering thoughts on digital ethics, crowd-funding and states disguising as 'democracies'. Finally, some anthropological reflections on the crisis in Liberia and a glimpse into the world's best Communication for Development program ;)! Enjoy! New from aidno...

There always needs to be a product: 'Self-reflection', volunteering & the emerging development entertainment industrial complex

First, there was good, old volunteering in Africa or Latin America, then we (were) discovered (by) the CV-enhancing experience industry around voluntourism in developing countries and now we are faced with the fast-growing genre of critical self-reflection by returning volunteers who discovered how self-serving #InstagrammingAfrica really is. ‘Why is it always former volunteers who now write about their so-called discoveries after yet another bad experience in a so-called orphanage?’, a friend asked on facebook a few weeks ago. The urge to build: From schools, to CVs and reputations First, our parents’ generation went to Nicaragua to build schools, then we baby-boomer children went on to volunteer in Nepal, Cambodia or Ghana and a few years later an orphanage-cum-English-teaching industry has been firmly established, leaving little to no room for a meaningful, political engagement with poverty, injustice and underdevelopment. But like most other parts of our carefully managed lives...

Links & Contents I Liked 123

Dear all, Back from a proper holiday it is time to go through the link assemblage and share a mix of 'brand new' and 'still relevant' content with you: More on Canada's crackdown on civil society; why 'value for money' in aid is an austerity excuse; research on the ineffectiveness of celebrities in development branding; a critical view on social enterprises; will there be more jobs in aid? How to get a digital aid job-and how to build an exit strategy to leave aid altogether-plus new publications. Our digital lives looks at data and politics, the 'children of silicon valley' as well as data and Disney...finally, Academia & Anthropology looks at research on academic influence on Twitter, ethnography and policing & ethical questions of the 'data overflow'. Enjoy! New from aidnography It’s about the thesis-PhD and PWFP (People With Formal Power) First, when contemplating non-thesis activities and engagements be aware of the People Wit...