Aidnography

Hello all, This week's review features a 'political economy of flawed policy-making' section including insights from agricultural protection, Canadian development research, climate change knowledge, 'Northern chauvinism' at global conferences and reflections on 'principled activism' in Sudan. Insights from WhyDev's Peer Coaching pilot project and an interview with a pioneer of distance education also found their way into the review - and there's more to discover!   Enjoy! New on aidnography Reflexive engagements: the international development blogging evolution and its challenges We are very happy that a long-promised journal article on development blogging is finally published in Development in Practice! The article is based primarily on interviews with prominent development bloggers, my professional experience as development blogger and our joint intellectual capabilities. Development New Working Paper: Why Do Members of Congress Support Agricul...

We are very happy that a long-promised journal article on development blogging is finally published in Development in Practice ! Reflexive engagements: the international development blogging evolution and its challenges is b ased primarily on interviews with prominent development bloggers (individual 'Thank You' emails are on their way!), my professional experience as development blogger and our joint intellectual capabilities. The full version of the article can be downloaded here , but there is also an un-gated pre-print version available on Academia.edu . One of the major goals of our research and article was to introduce (development ) blogging into the mainstream of peer-reviewed academic journals : Writing weblogs (blogs) has become a substantial part of how development is discussed on the Internet. Based on research with development bloggers and the authors' own social media practice, this article is an exploratory case study to approach the impact of blogg...

Hello all, The weekly link review is still a bit off with me getting settled in in Sweden work- and life-wise. So this week's edition comes a bit late/early. This week's theme is 'Africa' with interesting posts about humanitarian fiction and reality in Somalia, misguided German development communication and a fantastic photo essay on Kampala's youth! In other news, a very optimistic article on UNDP's social media potential, a new book on Bono and his brand of celebrity humanitarianism and a great interview with James 'Anti-Politics machine' Ferguson are some of the highlights. But the value of teaching for community colleges, the value of engineers for development and the value of good conferencing are also interesting posts worth your attention! Enjoy! New on aidnography Missionary, Mercenary, Mystic, Misfit (#MMMM book review) As Mary-Anne manages to live through the four ‘humanitarian states of being’ (Missionary, Mercenary, Mystic and Misfit) and...

I approached J’s new book Missionary, Mercenary, Mystic, Misfit , the second humanitarian (romance) novel after Disastrous Passion ( which I reviewed almost a year ago ), with a bit of caution. As much as the pace of the first novel fitted the immediate post-quake relief effort in Haiti which served the purpose of introducing novice aid worker Mary-Anne well, I was skeptical whether the second novel would try to trump the dynamics of high-paced relief effort and high-paced love affair with a French aid worker. Luckily, J. decided to take a different approach which in my view benefits the novel and shows the evolution of Mary-Anne, of humanitarian aid complexities and him as a writer. In many ways, he seems to have captured the pulse of the ‘aid industry’ in a gentle, yet critical way which allows for deep insights into the realities of living the life of an aid worker in the context of Ethiopia/Somalia. Think less reality TV (‘The real aid workers of Dolo Ado’) and more two-part PBS...

Hello all, My first link review from Sweden includes two interesting events that will be happening in Scandinavia, including a conference on 'celebrities in development' next week! But there's more on African coffee producers, Mexican resilience to violence and new questions about the future of Canada's development institutions. New research looks at 'unruly politics' in detail and an African entrepreneur asks a key question to the Generation 2.0: Do you have the Courage to make a Commitment? Enjoy! New on aidnography MOOCs, power relations & the tacit knowledge of academic socialization My reflection focuses on the argument that academic socialization, learning the tacit knowledge that comes with a university education and the powerful ‘soft skills’ happen to a large extent outside the classroom. More provocatively: Who really remembers their undergraduate lectures and seminars and instead creating networks, participating in social activities from parties...

Daniel Esser and I are very happy that our journal article on social media, development rituals and the 2010 MDG Summit was published in Third World Quarterly last week! Social Media and Global Development Rituals: a content analysis of blogs and tweets on the 2010 MDG Summit features quite a few household names of the development blogosphere and is one of the first academic articles that critically engages with social media and development. Individual emails to connect, share and comment will be sent out later this week. There is also an un-gated pre-print version available on Academia.edu . Abstract Social media content generated by web logs (‘blogs’) and Twitter messages (‘tweets’) constitute new types of data that can help us better understand the reproduction of global rituals in the context of international development policies and practice. Investigating the United Nations High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS), a t...

Professors in the philosophy department at San Jose State University are refusing to teach a philosophy course developed by edX, saying they do not want to enable what they see as a push to "replace professors, dismantle departments, and provide a diminished education for students in public universities." ( Why Professors at San Jose State Won't Use a Harvard Professor's MOOC ) The more I engage with the MOOC debate (e.g. 4 reasons why MOOCs should be discussed in international development ), the more I am wondering whether the focus on lecturing, teaching and the virtual or physical classroom experience ignores important and powerful debates in higher education. These are debates that those institutions that are at the forefront of the MOOC trend tend to conveniently ignore. My reflection will focus on the argument that academic socialization, learning the tacit knowledge that comes with a university education and the powerful ‘soft skills’ happen to a large exten...