Aidnography

Transparency International just published ‘ Transparency in Corporate Reporting: Assessing the World’s Largest Companies ’. Some of us probably remember the discussion around the 'Top NGO' ranking that Dave Algoso started . In some ways, I have similar problems with Transparency’s ranking based on self-reported, publicly available information by multinational companies. Any ranking suggests a hierarchy of ‘good’ companies at the top and not-so-good companies at the bottom. I am not entirely convinced that the aggregated data provide an accurate picture of some of the top performers impact on 'development' and a discussion on their ‘governance’ or 'development impact' should complement quantitative desk research in the future. Transparency is transparent about the limitations of their study, though: Transparency International has not undertaken to verify whether information disclosed on websites or in reports is complete or correct. In other words, if a com

Interesting coincidence that I stumbled upon Tom Murphy's post ' The NRA has no clue about the UN ' on how an NRA spokesperson ‘discusses’ the UN treaty on fire arms while reading Clifford Bob's latest book. In the end, it boiled down to the well-rehearsed argument from the political right that an unaccountable UN may be able one day to take away fire arms from law-abiding Americans citizens. Besides some good, old-fashioned fear-mongering it exposes a key component of right wing lobbying in international affairs: Plant a seed of doubt and see it growing in public policy debates. Once you start digging deeper into the debates of global governance and right wing civil society political interference you probably end up at a point where you ask yourself ‘Why hasn’t anybody written a book about this yet?!’ The good news is: Clifford Bob ’s ‘ The Global Right Wing and the Clash of World Politics ’ is a well-researched, accessible introduction to the complex topic of how g

Hello all! This week's links will take you on a virtual trip from Rio to Haiti, Palestine, Angola, Bangladesh and Guatemala. Topics include a great essay about Haiti's temporary camps, a theatre play that tries to engage with aid donors and critical reflections on EU bureaucracy's call for innovative projects, the 'failed states' index and the political economy of Nick Kristof's writing...plus a new Angolan-Chinese development dream (??), living ethnography and protesting against neo-liberal higher education 'reforms' in Guatemala. Enjoy! New on aidnography From the archives: Reflections on the original Rio Earth Summit 1992 As more and more snapshots from this year’s Rio+20 Summit arrived I did what any researcher/geek likes to do: I went to my nearest trusted academic library and browsed through some old books that were written shortly after the 1992 Rio Summit. Development “Waiting for Helicopters”? Cholera, Prejudice, and the Right to Water in H

"The route is now marked out," Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said in a blunt farewell to an audience that included several of the 118 heads of state and government who had journeyed here. "Today we have agreed to hold to present levels the pollution we are guilty of. One day we will have to do better -- clean up the planet." " The function of the United Nations is not to mask general inaction with verbiage, speeches, reports and programs ," he said. I initially came across the quote in a book I recently re-discovered in the library. As more and more snapshots from this year’s Rio+20 Summit arrived I did what any researcher/geek likes to do: I went to my nearest trusted academic library and browsed through some old books that were written shortly after the 1992 Rio Summit. Global attention for sustainable development and networked governance The general tone was not surprising and is captured well by Ranee K.L. Panjabi: If Rio was largely an

Hello all, A good week for interesting links, photos and documentaries! Football is about to start, so I suggest you just sit back, relax and scroll the links in the meantime! Enjoy! New on aidnography How peacebuilding has become a ritualised space-Summary of my PhD project To make rather unexciting PhD research a bit more exciting, there's already an interesting development since I published the post on Tuesday: The full version of the thesis is no longer available from the University of Sussex website and this is unlikely to change any time soon. One of the organisations from Germany is concerned with my research approach and I am currently working with the university on ways to keep the thesis accessible in the public domain. Development Nothing invokes the good old days of air travel like a PanAm Boeing 747 at JFK Airport...The year is 1973 amd 'volountourism' wasn't even invented yet ;)! Actually, there is a more appropriate reason why the picture and the lin

After a long journey, I am finally able to share my doctoral thesis How peacebuilding has become a ritualised space- An aidnography from Germany and Nepal with you. In the unlikely event that you are not as excited as I still am and you don’t want to jump straight to the full 233 page document here [see 'Update' below], this post provides a more accessible overview. The post comes in three sections, starting with the brief abstract  of the project, followed by a short-ish summary of findings that you can also download here as a pdf file. Finally, there’s the table of contents as a teaser to what to expect should you add the thesis to your reading list. I also sent out a Thank You Email to many friends and colleagues who contributed information, advice and sometimes ‘just’ an open ear to the process and I’d like to extend those Thank You’s to the development blog community as well! If you have any questions, comments or require more reading ;) –just drop me a message!  U