Aidnography

Dear all, Apologies for the slight delay of this week's link review which coincided with U.S. Thanksgiving and a lot of work in Sweden. e.g. my lecture on organizational ethnography in development contexts entitled Organizational, institutional, systemic – anthropology & ‘doing ethnography’ on ‘making development’ (it is an unedited broadcast and my lecture starts around the 5:00 mark). I also answered a reader query (see below). So without further delays, let's get to the link review! After some reading recommendations there are interesting articles from Kenya and Colombia as well as a longer section on the future of NGOs, the 'lost soul' of charities and how to do meaningful work amongst those shift, disruptures and challenges. 'Development' issues in Philadelphia and encounters in expat life round off the first section. In Academia we look beyond academic careers, the dominant MOOCs discourse and virtual teaching from your office! Enjoy! New on aidnograp...

It is always great to engage with reader's reflections on development's conundrums, challenges and paradoxes.   In my first post the question was about Eradicating poverty with a PhD and/or UN job . This time it is a bit more complicated, because finding the right approach to do valuable and sustainable volunteer-led development work with some critical self-reflection and local knowledge about the complexities is a close to development's holy grail... Dear Tobias, (…) I'll be going back to (country) at the end of November to spend 6 months with a Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Awareness and Services NGO to help them expand their focus to include violence elimination and offering support for victims. I am well aware of the countless instances where aid rather than aiding in fact introduces new problems and/or exacerbate the situation and am naturally keen on avoiding both. My personal conundrum during my last stint in (country) had more to do with f...

Dear all, Welcome to the centennial weekly blog review! In addition to a special post on curating development content (see below) there is a great link review featuring all the topics you like to engage with critically (e.g. patriarchy, open government, digital humanitarianism, anthropological dress-codes, MOOCs for elites), all the celebrities you actually like to read less about and the odd discovery about Twiplomacy , African Digital Woman, French philosophers & why we really don't need HR departments anymore! Enjoy!! New on aidnography 100 weekly link reviews later: Why I still like curating #globaldev content 11 post-Haiyan articles that are relevant for every disaster (UPDATED) Development Gender and Statebuilding in Fragile and Conflict-affected States This publication provides an overview of the key issues, challenges and opportunities for ensuring more systematic consideration of gender issues in statebuilding in fragile and conflict-affected countries. It makes t...

It is a nice coincidence that my 100th weekly development link review and a surprisingly widely shared curated link post on 9 post-Haiyan articles (which has grown to 11 links by now) have been published these days. Both give me the opportunity to share some reflections on sharing links and curating interesting virtual content for about two years now. Curating and expanding the boundaries of knowledge just before the arrival of 'The Internet' (Thomas Wijck : The Alchemist) My weekly link review… …forces me to stay connected, read and digest new content This is probably the most obvious insight, but it is also easier written than done. Between marking student assignments, compiling new research and producing it myself , engaging with and reviewing books and catching up with news, my job already involves a lot of reading. Collecting links throughout the week and then compiling the review means that I actually have to read these things-and staying connected with vario...

I have not included posts about the typhoon Haiyan response in my regular weekly link review , but I have come across quite a few posts that are not only worth sharing, but also worth curating and keeping in mind for the next disaster response scenario. As with many issues in development and humanitarian aid, 'we' know quite a lot about dos and don'ts and this short collection provides a good overview over key issues, from the small and practical to the bigger political realm. Some of the advice may seem a bit repetitive (but you can never stress local capabilities enough) and most of the articles have further links to other interesting material. Also, if you have come across a great post just share it in comments below! 18 November: I added two more articles at the end of the post. The GUARDIAN article stresses the importance of locally-grounded approaches (again) from the view of supply chain logistics; Agnes Bun's reflections as journalist covering the disaster are...

Hello all, After a stimulating seminar with students and colleagues in Berlin the weekly link review is back! To make up for the short hiatus there are a few more recommended reading included this week: From Brazil's homicide epidemic to mobile money in Kenya the development news section offers a glimpse at new reports and publications. There is quite a comprehensive section on the challenges of the open government/development/transparency discourse, plus the future of graduate employment at AusAid and reflections on what 'local' really means in peace and development work. An excellent interview with anthropologist Tim Ingold, the human randomness of academic search committees and outsourcing of exam marking are the highlights of the anthropology and academia sections.  Enjoy! New on aidnography A few reflections on the ‘blended professor’ of the future What we will likely see more of is a generation of academics that will use (or forced to use) a mix of blended technolo...