Aidnography

As development students submit their theses and finish their programs, Karen Attiah’s post ‘ Who Gets to Criticize the International Aid System? Not Grad Students, Apparently ’ is an interesting reminder about some of the core challenges that many new graduates are likely to face in the coming months. There has already been a debate on Karen’s initial post on AidSource last year, but I want to take the opportunity to share some thoughts on what Karen describes as her ‘original intent’ of her post: The original intent of my first post was, “What role does academia and our pre-profressional schools play in this flawed system that we have?” (...) I would love to hear from “J” and those inside and outside of AidSource on how our schools are doing, preparing people for the world of international development, and how graduate programs could better prepare students for that life, or even further yet, how academia can improve the international development system as a whole. I want to a

Last week, a core group of participants of the original APSA panel 40-3 'Issues of and responses to Internet governance' decided to take advantage of modern technology and try out a virtual panel via Google Hangouts . We also broadcasted and recorded the HangOut on YouTube : Also, make sure to check out Luke Perez' blog for more presentations from #virtualapsa ! I just want to take the opportunity and share a few technological, practical and academic reflections on the event. First, I am definitely not suggesting that virtual meetings are a panacea or ‘the future’ for academic conferences, but getting 6 people from 3 countries, 2 continents and 4 different States in the US online at the same time was pretty amazing. Second, for core academic exchanges, i.e. presenting research, talking to colleagues about that research and getting feedback on your research virtual meetings like HangOuts are a great start and definitely worth considering if you are planning a smaller

Hello all, As some of the more political science-minded among you have probably noticed, this week's annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) got cancelled . I wasn't planning to attend in the first place (The Monkey Cage had an interesting discussion about the whole cancel-not cancel/ attend-not attend scenario), but I took the opportunity and suggested a virtual panel via a Google HangOut and it looks like this will be happening tomorrow, Friday 31 August from 12 noon to 1p.m. EST (drop me a line if you are interested to join but I will also tweet details). The original panel 'Issues of and Responses to Internet Governance' will likely be reduced to two nonetheless interesting presentations: JP Singh (Georgetown University) will present 'Representing Power: Participation and Deliberation in ICT4D Projects and Internet Governance' and Daniel Esser (American University) will present a paper he and I co-wrote together: 'Do Socia

Hello all, This week's links feature three highlights: First, do watch Daniela Papi's TED-talk on voluntourism and service learning! Second, have a look at Jennifer Lentfer's interview questions for aid organisations (and why they are great but may not lead to employment...) and third, have another look at this week's education debate on the paradoxes of studying, teaching and working inside and outside academia with a PhD. And if you happen to have a book recommendation on 'development' books that would be great, too! Enjoy! New on aidnography More development (fiction) tales After my review of Disastrous Passion I received a few messages regarding recommendations of books that portray development in a similar way-fictionalised, but not 'invented' stories. I didn't want to think too long and 7 books came to my mind that are in some ways similar to Disastrous Passion even if they are not 'development fiction' in the narrow sense. Some

After my review of  Disastrous Passion I received a few messages regarding recommendations of books that portray development in a similar way-fictionalised, but not 'invented' stories. I didn't want to think too long and 7 books came to my mind that are in some ways similar to Disastrous Passion even if they are not 'development fiction' in the narrow sense. Some of them are fictionalised accounts of real events, one is purely fictional, but there are also titles that are not fictional and present 'development' in different first-hand accounts, giving you some ideas about the range of writing-styles that academics and practitioners have employed between 1959 and today. In short, my list is subjective, eclectic and incomplete, but the following seven titles are definitely not your average (academic) text books on 'development' and they highlight the possibilities of writing about development in engaging and different ways that are still readable

Hello all,  This week's focus is on some great pieces on 'civil society', NGOs and the challenges of philanthropy. You can also enjoy my comment on Duncan Green's latest post on a 'annoying paper' from the perspective of an academic writer. Plus, an interesting piece of Timor-Leste's changing 'fragility' and three pieces on (mis)education, plagiarism and no-show classes for college sports student. Enjoy! Development What can we learn from a really annoying paper on NGOs and development? I’ve got a paper I want you to read, particularly if you work for an NGO or other lobbying outfit. Not because it’s good – far from it – but because reading it and (if you work for an NGO) observing your rising tide of irritation will really help you understand how those working in the private sector, government or the multilateral system feel when they read a generalized and ill-informed NGO attack on their work. Duncan Green's post is a great start to kic

Hello all, Although this week features not as many links as last week (probably because it's the first full week of summer-holiday-August?) there's still a nice selection of good stuff: The photo essay from inside the Nigerian oil industry (although originally from 2010) is worth (re)sharing, the visualisation of GlobalGiving's project document language and for anthropological method geeks enthusiasts there's a brilliant essay on the ethnographic study of Wikipedia sources as well. So enjoy a quick reading break from your summer vacations! New on aidnography Disastrous Passion-a humanitarian romance novel (Book review) 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 eve