August 4, 2021
As part of writing a paper with the overall findings from our ‘Emergent Agency in a Time of Covid’ project, I’ve been catching up with some fascinating recent work from the Philippines, where Oxfam and the Philippine Sociological Society are publishing a fascinating series of case studies of civic responses to Covid. They include the Community Pantry Movement, supporting cycling
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Links I Liked
August 2, 2021
The RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) recorded a 2,000% increase in donations in a single day amid a surge in support over rescues of migrant boats. Criticism by Nigel Farage and others sparked an unprecedented flood of donations, including over £200,000 yesterday alone. Will Farage now offer to slag off other charities, for a suitable fee/% of the surge? He
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Development Nutshell: audio round-up (16m) of FP2P posts, w/b 26th July
July 31, 2021
No excerpt
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How does Innovation happen in Systems?
July 29, 2021
I approached Building Better Systems: A Green Paper on System Innovation, by Charles Leadbeater and Jennie Winhall, with a fair degree of initial scepticism – these kinds of papers tend to involve a lot of hand waving, and not many specifics. But I warmed to it as I read. First, some nice crunchy case studies on things like young adults
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Why Oxfam is talking about race
July 28, 2021
Guest post by Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, Chief Executive, Oxfam GB In the past few weeks Oxfam’s work on anti-racism has attracted some criticism. Various commentators have characterised it as “woke posturing” or “anti-white.” I think they have got it wrong. Let me explain why tackling racism is an integral part of Oxfam’s mission. It is almost 80 years since a small group of volunteers,
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What’s blocking progress in fixing the Global Water Crisis?
July 27, 2021
I took part in a fun podcast recently on ‘water for development’. I was in the company of some people who actually know about the subject (Michael Wilson, Rosie Wheen, Melita Grant and Rachel Mason Nunn). I was playing my favourite role in this final wrap-up conversation of a series of discussions, that of informed ignoramus burbling on about how
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Development Nutshell: audio round-up (16m) of FP2P posts, w/b 19th July
July 26, 2021
No excerpt
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Micro, bottom-up research can shed new light on power and politics in fragile places, but it’s REALLY difficult!
July 22, 2021
Another intense couple of days hearing back from the 30 or so researchers in the Action for Empowerment and Accountability research consortium, as it approaches the end of its programme. I was returning after a couple of years’ absence (I did some work on adaptive management in an earlier phase) and it was great to hear where people had got
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Links (and Graphics) I Liked
July 21, 2021
The Pandemic Changed the World Of ‘Voluntourism.’ Some Folks Like The New Way Better Thought-provoking Foucauldian analysis of the rise of ‘research impact’ The racist abuse of England players has sparked a political row over the government’s stance over taking the knee. The team took the knee to protest against social injustice. What does the data show about the scale
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Not All in This Together: How Covid has driven up inequality in Supermarket Supply Chains
July 20, 2021
I was speaking on a UN panel on Decent Work last week, so thought I’d better catch up with the latest Oxfam report, Not in This Together, written by Anouk Franck and Art Prapha. It provides a great case study of Covid as an ‘engine of inequality’ (and of how to write a research-based advocacy report – killer facts galore,
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Development Nutshell: round-up (26m) of FP2P posts, June/July
July 17, 2021
No excerpt
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How can we make sure Covid-driven localization in aid endures after the pandemic?
July 15, 2021
Lots of people are hailing a surge in pandemic-driven ‘localization’ as one of the silver linings of the current grimscape. The argument goes that lockdowns have suspended aid’s standard ‘white men in shorts’ operating model, allowing local organizations to expand into the space, run their own responses, (eg to humanitarian emergencies) and generally take more control of the aid process
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