Aidnography

Recently, three separate incidents have caught my attention: A new report from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) on The role of volunteering in sustainable development was launched, a post on the GUARDIAN asked the critical question: Volunteering overseas: the best method for creating new aid workers? and discussions with Danish colleagues revealed that the Danish Foreign Ministry wants to fund a new volunteering scheme in cooperation with Denmark’s leading NGOs. While the debates on volunteering and voluntourism are prominently featured in virtual debates ( as early as 2009 ) and research , including on this blog (e.g. Are 80 million potential voluntourists, slacktivists & DIY humanitarians the future of charity? or There always needs to be a product: 'Self-reflection', volunteering & the emerging development entertainment industrial complex ) , I find it important to add a more nuanced, shall we say, ‘political economy’ discussion to the topic. The

Hi all, New week, fresh linkage! ' Yoga is helping to end poverty in Africa '-you, I & Jeff Sachs knew it all along! But there are better stories from Africa, including storytelling from South Sudan and the question when 'immigrants' become 'expats'; there's a great section on the issue of how NGOs need to be political to stay relevant for social change; the World Bank realizes that Google maps don't solve resettlement issues; research communicators need to be political, WhyDev celebrates some kind of anniversary; and we have tech debates around radio call-in shows, girls’ empowerment and crowdsourced data. Our digital lives looks at instagrammed fashion moments, Air bnb ’s tricky maps, and upscale Monocle magazine and what we can learn for development communication. Finally, the question whether we need more adjunct administrators rather than teachers in higher education. Enjoy! New from aidnography Why I promote book reviews Book reviews are

Book reviews are time consuming and are usually read and shared less than other blog content-so why bother with them? Book reviews have been one pillar of my blog since I started Aidnography in September 2010. I recently received a few comments about my reviews, particularly whether it is ‘worth’ writing them in an era of fast social media trends and various discussions about the future of books in a digital age in general and in academia more particularly. I actually wrote about some of these is sues as e arly as 2 011: Publishing books vs. the modern world II - The Ebook post . In addition to simply saying that I enjoy reading books and consider myself very fortunate that this activity is (a small) part of my paid full-time employment, I want to structure my reflections along four themes: the stamina of books, the relationship between books and my research, the changing nature of (academic) publishing and my resistance against overpriced edited anthologies. Books are here to

Hi all, The latest link review once again reminded me what a fantastic network of friends, colleagues and digital acquaintances I have that do and write about really great stuff! Development news features a great portrait of the state of the UN and his current leader, insights into the World Development Report, the future of the SDGs, post-traumatic growth, tourism in Haiti, the legacy of Greg Mortenson, and another bad celebrity campaign. Our digital lives continues with some of the topics, featuring insights into the 'Ferguson industry', hyper-transparency, facebook tips for non-profits-and Buzzfeed. Academia features a call for better practice in business school ivory towers and thoughts on anthropology's 'long tail'. Enjoy! New from aidnography Blinded by Humanity (book review) I can recommend Martin Barber’s book highly because of his historical view (many aid worker biographies start with the Sudan or Rwanda crises of the 1990s) and, more importantly, be

One of the privileges of being able to read, think and write about books in the context of international development work and its people is to explore the breadth and depth of this growing genre. My recent reviews covered books written by a young aid worker , a collective of female humanitarians and a journalist who thought she was somehow involved in aid work ... Martin Barber’s Blinded by Humanity: Inside the UN’s Humanitarian Operations is a more conservative – although ‘traditional’ may be a more fitting term – autobiographical account of a senior UN staff member. To be honest, I was a bit worried that the set-up - male, British UN bureaucrat reflects on exciting coordination meetings with Kofi Annan in the room - may not work in this day and age, but his engaging prose and well-edited narrative avoid most of such pitfalls. In fact, when I finished reading the book it left me with a very satisfying feeling that I learned something about the historical scope of what the UN has

Hi all, Another much-needed link review as interesting reads kept piling up in my Inbox... Development ne ws looks at impact of policy briefs, the cost of post-2015 data collection, an extended section on media, journal ism & the aid industry and interesting case studies on digital campaigning from South Af rica, Chad, Libya & Indonesia ; Digita l Lives focuses on algorithms-and what they mean for non-profit communication and online community engagement; finally, Academia features a vignette from the bad old days of 1970s anthropology, David Graeber 's new book , an uneasy (?) relationship between defe nse money and open aid data & reflections on Northern-dom inated global IR debates. Enjoy! New from aidnography 5 reasons why everyone should work for a large organization at some point in their international development careers Look beyond bureaucratic stereotypes when engaging with large development organizations; these organizations can offer a lot of insights