Aidnography

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

I read Platforming - what can NGOs learn from AirBnB and Amazon? by Paula Gil Baizan, World Vision ’s Global Humanitarian Director for cash based programs with interest-but also some astonishment. I disagree with a lot of her arguments and the general sense that (I)NGOs and other humanitarian actors should turn into entities similar to the giants of platform capitalism. First and foremost, I find it quite astonishing that a senior manager of an INGO does not even hint at the hidden cost, exploitation and side effects that platform capitalism comes with. It is a bit more complicated than ‘ Amazon and AirB’n’B are good with data’. From the, shall we say diplomatically , difficult conditions in Amazon ’s warehouses and its broader corporate culture to the bigger issue of precarious employment (e.g. Deliveroo in the UK ) or the challenges AirB’n ’ B is increasingly posing on urban rental markets and related service industries (e.g. in New York , Barcelona or Berlin ), a picture emer

Hello all, After a final week of work to wrap of the semester, you are probably not entirely surprised that the weekly link review arrives with a bit of a delay...however, I did the compiling, reading and editing work so you can enjoy some good, critical reads this Sunday or early on in the week. Development News feature pieces on new militarized NGOs, more evidence on how biofuels fuel malnutrition, how the American Red Cross dodges transparency requests as well as news from Nepal, Tunisia & Equatorial-Guinea. Development as career has more advice for aspiring humanitarians, challenging times for expats in Asia and questions on how the data revolution can challenge organizational routines. Our Digital Lives on a Facebook experiment with questionable ethics and reflections on 'big data' and historical anthropological data collection. Finally, more Anthropology questioning the 'monster myth' of sexual violence and a round-up of the recent BBC ethnography award. E

Hello all, Let's just jump right into another comprehensive review! We have new stuff from Aidnography-and a new section that digs into t he blog's archive. UN South Sudan whistle blowing , international adoptions, a code of conduct f or using photos, the problem with ' evidence' and 'founderiti s'; new reports from UNV on global volunteer ing and from IRIS on localising humanitarianism; tons of digital issues: PopTech, cyber cartels, your dads tech & the cha llenges of big data and tra nsparency for school quality rating websites; last not least, a look into the value of research methods when d iscussing Hollaback and research papers as high as Mount Kilimanjaro! Enjoy! New from aidnography The future of expats in a globalized development industry-Reflections on the Devex Career Forum The (expat) aid worker experience will become ‘cheaper’ – in terms of lifestyles, salaries and perks as well as a general ‘doing more with less’ theme. Old* from aidno

Hi all, Amidst the end of the teaching term demands and our forthcoming trip to New York and Guelph, I managed to fit in a fresh link review: More on our forthcoming communication and development seminar in Canada; it's not just World Bank publications that nobody reads; Canada’s ‘confidential’ aid transparency; why I largely agree with Anti-Voluntourists; debunking myths about the ‘data revolution’; why ICT4D will stick around as political project; women entrepreneurs' difficult access to funding; DevBalls-new fresh aid snark from the UK; Is science blogging bad for research applications? New publications by Saskia Sassen and on Foucault & Deleuze Enjoy! New from aidnography Shame (book review & discussion with author Jillian Reilly) One of my personal highlights of our recent trip to South Africa was the discussion I had with (former) aid worker and author Jillian Reilly. We took her biography as the starting to discuss aid work as a career, entering the industry