No Links I Liked 501-Why I am taking a break from my weekly #globaldev content curation

As I briefly mentioned in the 500th anniversary post at the beginning of December, my weekly Links I Liked post will take a break in the new year.

I will briefly discuss some of the personal, content-related and digital challenges that led me to this decision.

Maintaining regular blogging during the pandemic was a small writing strategy to maintain important routines, connections and to focus on topics other than Covid-19.
But like many of my readers, I am just tired right now.

The developments on social media, a key resource to learn about new content, are another factor linked to this fatigue (what Cory Doctorow describes as “enshittification”).
I don’t have to discuss the state of affairs at the platform formerly known as Twitter and even though I enjoy Bluesky it’s not the same and perhaps never will be for global development and humanitarian content.
At the end of the day I just want to spend less time on social media in 2024 and not feel guilty that I haven’t collected enough interesting articles for Friday’s review. 

I mentioned changes in journalism a few years ago and they have become more of an issue recently. Foreign Policy, The Economist, Financial Times, Bloomberg or Quartz all have interesting and relevant articles regularly-but behind tall paywalls. Even if I may have access to some of the publications through my university’s library they will be paywalled for many readers.
This is not going to turn into a discussion about the future of journalism-a future that is also more decentralised and globalised.
I always wanted to share open, accessible information and the fact that I’m losing out on interesting reads while encountering paywalls is not very satisfactory. I appreciate The New Humanitarian, Global Press Journal or Rest of World immensely-but you are hopefully subscribed to their newsletter as well…the Guardian also remains a great source for #globaldev content (although I miss op-eds or an aid “agony aunt/person”), but that’s not exactly a well-kept secret…

At the same time global development writing on the Internet keeps changing-from blogs to newsletters, substacks and podcasts.
I have found LinkedIn a great platform for exchange, information and discussion-often much better than other major social networks. Good writing will always exist, perhaps it just doesn’t need a one-man curation team anymore…

But there is also a bit of an elephant in the room…I’m tired and perhaps a bit overwhelmed by the today’s “write-only” culture-another 30-page report on localization, another news article on how #globaldev is under pressure by another right-leaning government or another influencer who wants to save “Africa” one, many wells at the time…

This will certainly not be the end of Aidnography by now probably one of the longest-running personal blogs on international development.
I really like book reviews and there will be new ones again in 2024-they take time, they are fun to write and even if they are unlikely going to be viral posts, they are a great way of connecting with interesting authors, projects and publishers!
This will include our forthcoming Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality a project I am immensely proud of as one of the co-editors.

And there should always be time for more spontaneous posts-what blogging was intended for. You can subscribe to my newsletter-perhaps a monthly affair in the future-so you will stay in touch.

Thank you for being part of the journey, for encouraging me to read, skim and skip thousands of article that have made me a better teacher, researcher and communicator!

Happy holidays-see you in 2024!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Global Development Substacks I Like

Image
The other day a friend asked me about recommendations for development-themed Substacks and rather than responding to him directly, I decided to share my favorite "blogs-send-out-as-newsletters" resources on the blog... For many years a group of German media entrepreneurs has been awarding the Goldenen Blogger and one category they had for many year was "bloggers without a blog"-this is a bit how I feel about Substack and the concept of (mostly) long newsletters instead of traditional blogs. So which are some of my favorite writers and concepts then? An Africanist Perspective Ken Opalo is a towering figure in the #globaldev Substack community-his posts, fully developed essays really, set the standard for long-form post-blogging... Disability Debrief I am so grateful to learn every week something new about (dis)ability & development thanks to Peter Torres Fremlin's newsletter! Suvojit's Newsletter "I currently live in Nairobi, and write regu...
Read more

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 t...
Read more

Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality - Chapter 05 - Humanitarianism, development and peace: a southern perspective

Image
Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024.  This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 05 - Humanitarianism, development and peace: a southern perspective - contributed by Priya Singh and Paula Banerjee. From the introduction There has been a significant increase in emergencies caused by conflicts and deeply entrenched development issues over the last decade in many parts of the world, especially in the Global South. New conflicts, probability of renewed conflicts, failures of peace agreements, an alarming increase in global forced displacement with most refugees finding shelter in low-and middle-income states with shared borders, are added onto earlier rounds of humanitarian crises such as partitions of countries by colonial powers (e.g. Murshid, 2014 ) and multi-country wars. Added to these are crises related to climate change ( Jolly and Ahmad, 2019 ) and other ‘natural’ ...
Read more

What if MrBeast really is one of the futures of philanthropy-and what does that mean for communicating development?

Image
“ I feel good seeing myself dancing after receiving the money. It makes me appreciate the moment my life changed and reminds me of when I was able to send my son to school .” (Resident of Nakapiripirit, Uganda) “ It might seem strange to carp over a few good deeds filmed for YouTube clicks. After all, even if this Gen Z mode of philanthropy is brash and narcissistic, some lives are being changed for the better. Yet at the same time, Donaldson is exploiting less fortunate people’s problems to shape his image of decency, while reinforcing the aid illusion that has blown so much money and achieved so little over the past half century .” (Ian Birrell, UnHerd ) “ As people have noted, if you watch the video in total isolation, it's maybe not that bad? Mr Beast is good at this. And he's not obviously mocking or manipulating these people. Then again, the TV commentators in the Hunger Games fawned over Katniss. That wasn't the issue .” (Justin Sandefur, Center for Global Developmen...
Read more

Dear white middle class British women: Please don't send used bras (or anything, really) to Africa

Image
I am supposed to be on my summer blogging break , but the world of bad development does not seem to take a vacation... The first time I came across the #SWEDOW (Stuff We Don't Want) debate about what to do with unwanted stuff and whether to send it to 'Africa' was in 2010; in fact, I wrote about a shoe donation project on the blog in 2012. Fast forward to July 2019 and a local British Women's Institute Facebook page with about 500 page likes is posting a picture of two innocent-looking parcels that has been shared very widely. The vast majority of the 500+ comments under the post are positive and I am sure that both charities will receive quite a few parcels in the next few days. It seems almost futile and pointing out bad examples of charity and development is not always the best way to communicate, but I anonymize the post as much as possible to avoid simply shaming a particular Women's Institute chapter. 'Rapey men here are the same as rapey men t...
Read more