Aidnography

I firmly believe that in our fast-paced development communication world of blog posts, TedX talks and nightly Twitter discussions and despite crisis calls from traditional publishers, books will continue to play an important role in reflecting on and learning about development. In many ways, The Golden Fleece : Manipulation and Independence in Humanitarian Action is a very good example of what’s right about today’s academic publishing industry. There are two main reasons why I thoroughly enjoyed the book: First, the chapters and case studies come with a detailed historical framework – something that is all too often overlooked when making an argument for something ‘new’ or different or the latest approach on how to ‘solve’ a development-related problem. Second, the book is well-edited – which is a tricky thing to achieve when you have a collection of 12 chapters and which quite a few books do not manage as they end up as published conference proceedings. But let’s look at the conte

H ello all, As a ground-breaking Thanksgiving change to the link review I have reversed the order this we ek and start with interesting insights from Academia before moving on to Anthropology and finally Development ! It is worth the scrolling as there are many interesting nugge ts on learning st yles, the curious case of the academic job market, transformational leader, peer coaching , social entrepreneurism s bli nd spots, great book reviews and insights from the epic Twitter conversation between @JeffDSachs and the rest of the twitterin g development research uni verse ;)! Enjoy! Tap Into the Surprising Benefits of Gratitude Researchers affirm that gratitude can also boost our mental health and well-being. They found that people who kept notes on what they’re thankful for have reported higher levels of positive emotions, more joy and pleasure, more happiness and optimism. They felt more alert, alive, and awake than others who did not practice gratitude. Notably, people who are

Hello all, This looks like a nice link round-up of the week. There are 'development news' featuring interesting reports and more factual stuff, followed by 'development op i nion '-from a 'po lemic against NGOs' to 'Peace Corps Guilt ', thought leadership and no n-development topics such as a critique of Teac h First USA and reflections on the 'high-quality compost' left over a fter an unsuccessful camp aign for Congress in Calif ornia. Finally, there's more on the question whether 'online courses sp ell t he end of the traditional university' and how (aca demic) community engagement looks a lot like development (or the other way round?!)... Enjoy! New on aidnography Is Coca-Cola a social enterprise now? Why ‘development’ needs to be more critical with global corporations If you visit Coca-Cola's new website you may think that you arrived at some philanthropic endeavor, a social enterprise or foundation maybe. (...) No matter ho

When Coca Cola launched its new website Coca Cola Journey a few days ago, marketing and social media experts a nd even j ournalists at the New York Times were full of delight about the future of brand communication : T he company known for decades for promoting its flagship brand as “the pause that refreshes” is refreshing its corporate Web site for a new century, adopting an approach and attitude more akin to a consumer magazine than a business portal. The new design is closer to a magazine, with content for consumers. The company is, of course, Coca-Cola, which plans on Monday to give its site a makeover that executives describe as the most ambitious digital project they have undertaken. And if you visit the website you may think that you arrived at some philanthropic endeavor , a social enterprise or foundation maybe. Smiling non-white children in blue school uniforms (usually one of the best ‘development indicators’...), a corporat

Hello all, Welcome to the 50th anniversary post of my weekly link review! Before I jump to the 'business as usual' part, I'd like to say thank you to all of you for visiting and re-visiting this humble effort and sharing great stuff. What I did not fully realize at the start almost a year ago was that a commented link review is actually quite a bit of work. However, I will continue to comment and share 'purposefully' rather than just dropping off a bunch of links. As always, I like to hear from you - about great new blogs, topics I keep missing or shout outs of how enjoyable these weekly posts are ;) Enjoy the next 50 weeks! New on aidnography OLPC in Ethiopia: The thin line between digital innovation, cargo cult and peoples on parade Development Maps before maps Amanda Uren has a fun collection of map-like scans from the 11th century. Some of them are geographic, but most of them are more like rough sketches of how the individual saw the area the image represe