Northern Institutions Dominate International Development Research: So What?

February 15, 2022
Guest post by Veronica Amarante, Nisha Arunatilake, Ronelle Burger, Arjan de Haan, Ana-Lucia Kassouf and Lucas Ronconi The international community has long accepted that development needs to be locally owned, and that international support and cooperation need to facilitate leadership by local actors. Yet it is increasingly noticeable that development research is lagging behind in this respect. As we raise
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Is Social Media a New Frontier for Marginalised Communities to Challenge Old Power? The Flint Water Tragedy, and the Power of Place-Based Digital Activism

February 3, 2022
In the second of their four-part blog series (first published on Global Policy), which seeks to spark new ways of thinking about digitally-mediated activism, Nina Newhouse and Charlie Batchelor (two of my LSE students from last year’s cohort), use Timms and Heimans’ New/Old Power framework to ask how activists can use the internet to achieve new forms of power and
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New and Old Power: A New Way to Understand and Cultivate Digitally-Mediated Activism, or Just Another Framework?

February 2, 2022
This is the first of a four-part blog series first published on Global Policy, which seeks to spark new ways of thinking about digitally-mediated activism. Written by two of my LSE students from last year’s cohort, Nina Newhouse and Charlie Batchelor, it uses Timms and Heimans’ New/Old Power framework to interrogate power: asking how activists can use the internet to
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Highlights of 2021 on From Poverty to Power

January 4, 2022
Hi everyone, have you stopped putting HNY on your emails yet? Kicking off the year with the usual round up of stats and most-read posts from 2021 – buys me a bit of breathing time to start generating this year’s first batch of posts. 2021 saw a lot of tech hassle – turns out ‘one man and his blog’ is
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Featured image for “What’s stopping aid from putting local people and organizations first? Answers from a global conversation”

What’s stopping aid from putting local people and organizations first? Answers from a global conversation

November 4, 2021
Guest post from Courtenay Cabot-Venton The world is currently at an inflection point that could enable the transformation of aid for developing countries. The convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the withdrawal of most international staff across the globe, has opened up space for more honest conversations around racism and the decolonization
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Featured image for “Traditional approaches to aid and development are failing us. It’s time to invest in community-driven change.”

Traditional approaches to aid and development are failing us. It’s time to invest in community-driven change.

November 2, 2021
By Mary A. Kabati, Ronah K. Lubinda, Adela Materu, Kingsley Makuwila, Jones Mwalwanda, Prosper Ndaiga and Moses Zulu If COVID-19 and the recent uprisings for racial justice around the world have made one thing clear, it is this: the global development sector needs to radically rebuild itself from the ground up. As leaders of community-based organizations in Tanzania, Zambia, and
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Featured image for “In the Presence of “White Skin”: The Challenges of Expectations upon Encountering White Researchers”

In the Presence of “White Skin”: The Challenges of Expectations upon Encountering White Researchers

October 5, 2021
Final post in the outstanding Bukavu Series of blogs on life for national researchers in the DRC, from Élisée Cirhuza Balolage and Esther Kadetwa Kayanga. Introduction to the Bukavu series here. Search on ‘Bukavu’ for the other posts in the series or see list at end of this piece. Original post here. We have seen how the presence of a light-skinned researcher
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When the Room is Laughing: From Female Researcher to Prostitute Researcher

September 30, 2021
A last couple of posts in series from the Bukavu workshops on the realities of research in the DRCongo, this one by An Ansoms and Irene Bahati. Introduction to the Bukavu series here. Search on ‘Bukavu’ for the other posts in the series or see list at end of this piece. Original post here. Working in a conflict zone is difficult
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ICYMI: Some summer highlights on FP2P

September 16, 2021
It has come to my attention that in some parts of the northern hemisphere, people were away during chunks of late July/August on some retro exercise apparently known as ‘holidays’. Mary Sue Smiaroski suggested I help with their re-entry by linking to some of the best FP2P posts they may have missed while away. No probs – always happy to
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Remunerating Researchers from the Global South: A Source of Academic Prostitution?

September 9, 2021
Next up in our series on the realities of being a researcher in the DRC, Élisée Cirhuza Balolage. Introduction to the Bukavu series here. Search on ‘Bukavu’ for the other posts in the series or see list at end of this piece. Reposted from the Bukavu series original. While researchers from the Global North are granted a guaranteed salary, risk funds,
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North-South Power Differentials and Competition in the Research Business

September 8, 2021
Next up in our series on the realities of ‘research in the South’, reposted from the Bukavu workshops in the DRC, by Godefroid Muzalia. Introduction to the Bukavu series here. Search on ‘Bukavu’ for the other posts in the series or see list at end of this piece. Original here. Collaborative research is committed to a division of labour. To summarise,
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Featured image for “We Barely Know These Researchers from the South! Reflections on Problematic Assumptions about Local Research Collaborators”

We Barely Know These Researchers from the South! Reflections on Problematic Assumptions about Local Research Collaborators

September 7, 2021
Next up in the series of reposts of Bukavu blogs from the DRC, Emery Mudinga. Introduction to the Bukavu series here. Search on ‘Bukavu’ for the other posts in the series or see list at end of this piece. Original of this post here. I’d like to reflect on three main assumptions that are circulating concerning research assistants and collaborators from
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