Aidnography

There is a fair amount of competition for attention on introductory texts on the history and con cepts of ‘development’. Since a new academic year has started recently and students (and teachers...) are probably already overwhelmed with literature I decided to add two more titles to pote ntial reading lists. Patrick Develtere’s ‘ How Do We Help - The Free Market in Development Aid ’ is the first one and a second new textbook review will follow soon. I liked the idea of reading a textbook from a continental European academic as opposed to Anglo-Saxon writing that dominates the market. But in all fairness, ‘How Do We Help’ is only a partial success and recommendation. Right from the introduction I had difficulties understanding the ‘free market’ notion that is hinted at in the subtitle. As far as I could tell from statements like we seek to demonstrate that at present the market dimension has gained the upper hand at the expense of the arena, and especially at the expen

Hello all, This has been a gre at we ek for picking up interesting stuff from around t he blogosphere! Some insights from Nepal, Afghanistan and Cyprus first before a substan tial section on reflections on the chances and limitations on social entrepreneurism , (aid worker) well-being and transnational lifeworlds (great piece on the evolut ion of the baggage tag for travel nerds!); The 'Aid Prayer' from Nigeria is a must-read, but make sure to check out the academic section on how traditional writing skills prepare under-performing high schools for better results and why governments pretend to like social scientists with PhDs... Enjoy! Outsourcing peace With the integration of ex-Maoist combatants almost completed, the army is keen to improve its public relations and wants to project its role as an international peacekeeping force with a good record overseas. It is keen to diversify its activities at home as well as abroad, and although the UN has no such thing as perman

Hello all, Invisible Children are back with a new video/documentary-and the blogosphere is not exactly exploding with reactions...still, if you haven't done yet, check out Tom Murphy's post (and maybe mine, too ;). Serious reading this week includes a really interesting piece on Afghanistan and the growing critique of foreign experts and expertise, a detailed study on psychological distress for humanitarian aid workers and a discussion on the burning question 'What on earth is a "Political Settlement"'? On the lighter side, there's the 'First World Anthem' , an exciting project on a Nairobi-based NGO version of 'The Office' and the question whether watching reality TV shows turns everyone into anthropologists! Enjoy! New on aidnography The Kony 2012 video franchise, or: Invisible Children’s latest ‘Move’ Tom Murphy's take on the latest Invisible Children video is also worth reading: Little Movement in Invisible Children's Latest Vi

It was interesting to watch Oprah’s Next Chapter on Sunday with Jason Russell. As the format suggests, this was all about Jason with a particular focus on his breakdown after the Kony 2012 video went viral and his recovery since. Oprah, always looking for ‘Aha moments’, found it when Jason described how the breakdown may not only have been caused by PTSD, but as a reaction of feeling to self-important, stopping to listen to friends who told him to slow down and wanting to take full advantage of the buzz that the Kony 2012 video had caused within an extremely short amount of time. In short, as always with Oprah’s approach, it was a minimum of critical context and a maximum of emotionalisation – an approach that makes every development enthusiast beam with joy and excitement. The timing of the interview is important as Invisible Children has just launched a new video where they are telling people that making and watching YouTube is not enough to change the world...but let’s not be cyni

Hello all, Sometimes I wish there were more days to a week...I have been prevented from 'proper' blogging due to some academic publication deadlines and other projects. However, there is always time for the weekly link round-up and I hope there are some interesting stories for you to discover. The short, provocative and very interesting 'Wherever you are, there you can "change the world"' by Daniel Miller (EWB Canada) is one of them. '50 global education leaders you should follow on Twitter' is a good social media starter and there are some good resources on African issues, transitional justice, women and peacebuilding & participatory video engagement-and, as always, there's more... Enjoy! Development Africa Portal's Community of Practice blog The Africa Portal’s Community of Practice blog signals important policy research topics and trends in Africa. Contributors include top researchers and practitioners conducting on-the-ground, field-ba