Aidnography

Every summer needs (reading) superlatives and this summer’s global development fiction pick is clearly Disastrous Passion – a humanitarian romance novel . Well-known for his aid blogging and setting up the Aid Source community, J. from Tales from the Hood also worked on his first aid romance novel . Now, for the first time the complete ebook has been published and I really enjoyed it as a perfect summer read: It’s easy enough for a hot afternoon on the porch, but there are some serious, interesting and even thought-provoking nuggets of aid wisdom in the novel that should take it to the level of undergraduate reading lists (a real compliment ;)!). As I have confessed in previous reviews on first-hand accounts of aid work in Afghanistan and Iraq , I am a big fan of this genre. J’s fictionalised account from Haiti links it to the growing body of ‘development fiction’ that has recently grabbed academic attention . In some ways, the book seems partly an ‘update’ of ‘ Emergency Sex and

Hello all, This week's collection of links is a bit more annotated than usual, but I felt that the Guardian's article on the Kibera settlement, an interesting post on the chances and limitations of academic migration studies, DfID's announcement about open access and a great post from 'onthinktanks' on the power of labels and frameworks deserved some additional reflections ;)! And while most of the attention was on India's power outage this week, there's a really insightful piece on the disappearing water of Delhi and good comment on Nepal and the current state of social science that shouldn't be missed! Enjoy! Development The disappearing water of Delhi. More serious than you think If a city has no sense of its river, imagine the ease with which it has ruined its natural water bodies, old step wells, man-made lakes, each time evoking the fallacious argument of development. Shamsi Talab, once a water reservoir, is hemmed in by growing construction aro

Hello all, Tony Blair, Oprah, Thomas Friedman-this week's link review turned out to be a bit of a 'celebrity issue' and as often, I don't mean it in a good way...but there are also some interesting critical nuggets on the power of failing, on what makes a good NGO and one of the downsides of collecting lots of data with little context...and there's even more on ethnographic pedagogy and predicting conflict using WikiLeaks material! Enjoy! New on aidnography Tony Blair, Olympic impact & development jargon from the 80s If you read the full GUARDIAN piece and basically replace 'Olympics' with, say, Millennium Villages, you would be criticised left, right and centre, because Blair uses a jargon that partly seems to be straight out of a World Bank infrastructure project document of the mid-1980s. His ramblings also show what a huge and sometimes ridiculous amount of pressure is put on today's development work to demonstrate (short-term) impact and how i

Next time someone in your family, workplace or community questions development or has a really, really critical question about the aid industry do NOT point them in the direction of plastic-worded Tony Blair. Because as Tony Blair demonstrated in his ramblings on the long-term benefits of the Olympic Games ( Tony Blair tells London 2012 critics to show 'a bit of pride') , all this talk about 'impact', 'evidence-based policy', 'sustainability' and how to spend the precious money of the taxpayer does not seem to matter when it comes to grand projects like the London Olympics. If you read the full GUARDIAN piece and basically replace 'Olympics' with, say, Millennium Villages, you would be criticised left, right and centre, because Blair uses a jargon that partly seems to be straight out of a World Bank infrastructure project document of the mid-1980s. His ramblings also show what a huge and sometimes ridiculous amount of pressure is put on today

Hello all! From the reflective to the ironic, from the 'creative destruction of the aid industry' to the 'momentum of the blogosphere', plus quite a few new papers worth checking out-this week's link round-up got it all! Enjoy! New on aidnography Is there are space for Google+ Hangouts in global development? Now includes first responses, including an interesting example of how WFP used a Hangout to discuss the Sahel hunger crises Development From 1987-1990, MARLEX was the exclusive Licensor of this Humanitarian Organisation (MSF) and launched a licensing program with a complete line of toys and action dolls, and a family board-game. In a word: WOW! There really was a set of toys sold in France to set up your own MSF health clinic-only complete with white doctors and Africans on crutches and stretchers! Voluntourism: We Have to Stop Making This About Your Niece I spent a lot of time that year wondering if I had unintentionally exploited the children I'd travel

To be honest with you, I am still at a bit of loss when it comes to Google+ - especially in the context of international development communication, teaching etc. I am not an active member of Google+ so there may be a chance that I am missing out on a bunch of interesting discussions. But what I found quite interesting is that I have not come across any posts and videos that engage with Google+ Hangouts in the context of development (if there are examples, please send me links or comment below to put me out of my ignorance). The official Hangout videos on Google's YouTube channel have only received modest hits so far, e.g. this short introduction : I do realise that cupcake baking looks more fun and is more active and interactive than, say, talking about land grabbing in Africa, but Google+ also promotes a more 'chatty' use of hangouts, e.g. during the upcoming Olympic Games : Googles Hangout feature is once again giving Google+ users a chance to get closer to t

Hello all! Great week for lots of interesting material! Make sure you have a glimpse at the articles from and about Nepal and scroll down all to the end for some critical reflections on higher education, upcoming challenges on how Obama is linked to the 'Death by degrees'! There are also two new posts by yours truly and additional stuff on UN and its link to private security firms and the philosophy of aid blogging explained in neat charts by Aaron Ausland! Enjoy! New on aidnography The Global Right Wing and the Clash of World Politics (Book review) 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 global civil society and governance are no longer the exclusive domain of left-leaning and progressive organisations. By looking at contested policy themes such as gay marriage or international and national gun control/access, Bob outlines an important new arena for research on internation