I won't post my paper here, but i have written at least 30 pages thus far and have finally overcome my writers block! However, now i'm struggling with revisions, adequate information on certain sections, and finding a good case study in which to analyze based on my review of the literature. I'm so close yet still soooo far away :( but i'm trying to get the motivation to just get it finished and start finalizing a presentation.
Also sent my draft into Elitza and will start on revising based on her comments tomorrow...
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
stuck
i've been staring at my computer screen for about 2 hours and have only gotten through the introduction... writer's block has gotten the best of me!! only 2 1/2 more weeks!!! i've got to get something down soon or my brain might explode! i thought after all that reading it would come pouring out of me, but that's not the way things are going at the moment... back to staring at the screen and tryign to get somethign down :(
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Annotated Bibliography
Andersen, Thomas Barnebeck, Thomas Harr, and Finn Tarp. “On US politics and IMF lending.” European Economic Review. 50.7 : (Oct 2006) : 1843-1862. Science Direct. Appalachian State Univ. Lib., Boone, NC. 7 Mar. 2009 < _ob="ArticleURL&_udi="B6V64-4HNSGBT-1&_user="634929&_coverDate="10%2F31%2F2006&_alid="882555620&_rdoc="1&_fmt="high&_orig="search&_cdi="5804&_sort="d&_st="4&_docanchor="&_ct="1&_acct="C000033778&_version="1&_urlVersion="0&_userid="634929&md5="222b34d3bf5dbc817af1ae3de9646072">.
This analysis of US politics and US influence and role in IMF lending is important when considering the role of IMF in developing nations, especially it’s policies, agenda’s and lending practices. They have proposed a model in which the “US acts as principal within the IMF and seeks to maximize its impact on the policy stance of debtor countries” (1843). Their hypothesis is that IMF lending will increase with the more political concessions a country makes, and they use the data collected to support this hypothesis. I will use this to illustrate the ways in which the US and its foreign policy and national interest influence and effect the decisions made by the IMF which directly affects developing nations, and more often than not in a negative manner or generating faux short term success.
Banerjee, Abhijit Vinayak. Making Aid Work. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2007.
This book is a forum for discussion on the effectiveness of aid and the call for effective evaluations to determine what does and doesn’t work. He calls for randomized trials and field experience to deter wasteful aid spending. In response multiple ‘experts’ respond to his analysis and recommendations, giving the reader more than one side to the argument through alternate suggestions, critiques, or perhaps supporting agreements. Although his suggestions are valid they will not work in all cases as many of the response experts bring to the fore. His work will be helpful in suggesting ways in which donors can improve their evaluations in favor of transparent and ultimately helpful results rather than misleading conclusions of illusions of success or effectiveness.
Bebbington, Anthony. “Modernization from below: An Alternative Indigenous Development?.” Economic Geography. 69. 3, Environment and Development, Part 1 (Jul., 1993) : 274-292. Jstor. Appalachian State Univ. Lib., Boone, NC. 7 Mar. 2009.
This work is about the an indigenous agrarian development that focuses on the incorporation of modern technology to offset out-migration and sustain indigenous culture and societal practices, something which is contrary to the Green Revolution and the approach of most grassroots efforts. However he argues that without such incorporations, out-migration poses a much higher threat to indigenous identity than new technology. He also emphasizes the importance of their ‘situation’ which I would argue should be analyzed in every development projected, since every group/person is situated differently according to social, political, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, environment, etc. and this is very important in addressing complex issues. This work is important in my research because it displays the idea that for development strategies to be indigenous doesn’t depend so much on the incorporation of new technologies or strategies but rather its social control and objectives, i.e. sustaining livelihoods that allow the continuation of other social practices that identify them as indigenous. This should be a good case for autonomy respecting help that Ellerman discusses.
---. “Reencountering Development: Livelihood Transitions and Place Transformations in the Andes.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 90.3 (Sep 2000) : 495-520. Jstor. Appalachian State Univ. Lib., Boone, NC. 7 Mar. 2009.
This particular work I hope to use as a case study for autonomy respecting help among 3 regions in the Andes that are centers of indigenous Quichua populations. This piece is also helpful because it analyzes arguments from poststructuralists and neoliberals while calling for a loose interpretation of development that emphasizes human agency and gives room to move within otherwise constraining institutions or interpretations. Livelihood is an important aspect of the work as well, as well as the role of the state in fostering the regions self control over the areas. Both are two aspects I tend to address in my research.
Berthélemy, Jean-Claude, and Ariane Tichit. “Bilateral donors' aid allocation decisions—a three-dimensional panel analysis.” International Review of Economics & Finance 13.3 (2004) : 253-274. Science Direct. Appalachian State Univ. Lib., Boone, NC. 7 Mar. 2009 < _ob="ArticleURL&_udi="B6W4V-4B4XP8P-4&_user="634929&_coverDate="12%2F31%2F2004&_alid="882552824&_rdoc="5&_fmt="high&_orig="search&_cdi="6552&_sort="d&_docanchor="&view="c&_ct="5&_acct="C000033778&_version="1&_urlVersion="0&_userid="634929&md5="ee9019beb1eb0d65db82a0d6e38028f4">.
This work is based on data collected for 20 years on 22 donors and 137 recipients of aid and compares data collected. It also looks at the policies of the donor organizations and the effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Variables include, donor interest, recipient needs and policies. Findings suggest since the collapse of the Soviet Union donor/recipient relations have moved toward trade partners and rewards for good economic policy and good governance. This data is important for my research because it provides a scientific evaluation of the data and uses it to analyze policy and agenda’s of donors.
Ditcher, Thomas W. Despite Good Intentions: Why Development Assistance to the Third World has Failed. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press: 2003.
Thomas Ditcher has had a wide range of experience for the past 35 years working with such agencies as the Peace Corps, WB, UNDP, and USAID, as well as a variety of NGO’s. His experience has led him to believe development has become an “international poverty alleviation industry” in which it has failed to serve the needs of the people their trying to help and ultimately being ineffective despite “good intentions.” His work ties into Ellerman’s ideas of the importance of agency prestige, illusions of success, self-perpetuation and the importance of public relations. He also evaluates the role of money in perpetuating dependency and illusionary success and the ideas of direct intervention as opposed to indirect and thus autonomy respecting help. He calls for fewer agencies and fewer experts, he focuses on moving away from what has in the past, and till this day, not worked.
Earle, Duncan, and Jeanne Simonelli. Uprising of Hope: Sharing the Zapatista Journey to Alternative Development. Maryland: Altamira Press, 2005.
The Zapatistas and their ideas of autonomy and self-determination that are conveyed in Uprising of Hope will be the main case study for my research. It is their global network of local agencies that I argue illustrate the ideals of Ellerman’s network of local agencies and his ideals of autonomy respecting help. The authors look at the Zapatista’s approach to an alternative development in which they themselves are in control of their community, environment, their children, etc. while maintaining the balance between isolation and a connection with the larger world.
Easterly, William, ed. Reinventing Foreign Aid. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2008.
This book is a collection of works that brings to light what has worked, failed, been learned, and remains to be learned when it comes to development aid. It’s a call to make aid work. The work includes an emphasis on why scientific evaluation is important in development, the problems of Aid-financed delivery of public services, problems with donors, analysis on the IMF and WB, and analysis on new forms of aid. Each work in the anthology looks to be helpful in my research but it may come down to only needing to use a few of the works from the anthology.
Ellerman, David. Helping People Help Themselves: From the World Bank to an Alternative Philosophy of Development Assistance. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 2005.
Helping People Help Themselves is a great resource for my research because it evaluates the World Banks overall approach to development and why it has not been successful or effective in long-term development. Also, Ellerman is sure to analyze the WB’s lack of true and transparent self evaluations that would undoubtedly show the failures in their approach rather than the evaluations they conduct now which show only short term ‘successes’ and promote the name and agenda of the WB’s policies and approaches, which ironically continues the cycle of faux successes. Ellerman addresses the importance of the autonomy respecting development in what he called the “doer-helper relationship.” He lays out the dos and don’ts of achieving autonomy respecting help and emphasizes an alternative approach which consists of a global network of local agencies, thus opposing the current system of unified global agencies such as the WB, IMF, etc.
Lancaster, Carol. Foreign Aid. Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2007.
Lancaster’s work sets the stage for why and how aid came about, as well as addressing its history and purposes. She argues that there are diplomatic purposes behind the myriad of US aid throughout history and to this day, citing the War on Terror as a recent example. However she does argue that there are two purposes of aid, the diplomatic already mentioned and development interests. Her work moves chronologically from the beginnings of aid, i.e. the beginning of the cold war and end of WWII, through each major presidential administration up to the G.W. Bush administration. This work will help determine some of the motives behind US foreign aid and perhaps evaluate the impacts of such aid.
Mosse, David, and David Lewis, eds. The Aid Effect: Giving and Governing in international Development. London: Pluto Press, 2005.
This is an anthology done by scholars of development and foreign aid. Only some of which may be helpful for my research. One of the works that will be helpful is on global governance and aid, highlighting the role of global agencies, dominant global powers and their emphasis on democratization, and host governments and their affects on aid. Another work deals with aid and power and the significance of power in aid relationships. Understanding the role of aid as power and governments and agencies possessing power and the uneven relationship this generates is of great importance if aid and development can move forward and be reformed.
Narayan, Deepa, Robert Chambers, Meera Kaul Shah, Patti Petesch. Voices of the Poor: Crying out for Change. New York: Oxford Univ. Press for The World Bank, 2000.
Because this book is published for the WB, I expect it to be non-transparent and somewhat misleading agenda’s of the WB and their view on what the poor need. The voices of the poor supposedly have a platform in this book to inform donors and NGO’s of what they need. In reality, the work consists of one or two sentences from people all over the world followed by an analysis of ‘experts.’ Where’s there voice? Of course they need clean water, access to education, health care, jobs, food, shelter, etc. but where are their voices in creating solutions to these problems? This book is no more than another ‘plan’ based on decisions made from above without much consideration for the situation on the ground. I will use this book to criticize, or maybe better phrased ‘evaluate’ the WB policy and agenda, and their lack of autonomy respecting help.
Perreault, Thomas. “Social Capital, Development, and Indigenous Politics in Ecuadorian Amazonia.” Geographical Review. 93.3 (Jul., 2003) :328-349. Jstor. Appalachian State Univ. Lib., Boone, NC. 7 Mar. 2009.
Thomas’s work gives insight into the political and cultural organization called FOIN or the Federation of Indigenous Organization of Napo, in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It provides a good example of community networking in analyzing environmental management, rural development, and resource conflicts as opposed to a global agency such as the WB stepping in to manage projects and tasks at hand. However, although FOIN is a relatively local and small scale organization it has been susceptible to some of the same faults as the WB such as focusing on organization prestige and influence (as displayed in the PUMAREN project), the petting of ego’s, failing to take in to account culture of those being helped, location of offices and FOIN employees compared to communities helped, lack of people’s voice, mismanagement of funds, ambitions of employees versus the success of projects, and amongst other things the importance of politics over development needs. Through FOIN we see even a local network of agencies and organizations can falter if under the wrong leadership and with the wrong goals in mind. Eventually the federations elite became “more concerned with national politics than with local development needs” and although most residents felt they weren’t helped much in any way, they still viewed the federation in a positive light leading to a relationship between FOIN and its community that is “complicated by differing expectations and contradictions between the benefits that are abstract and symbolic and those that are immediate and material” (343). I will use this organization as a small case study to show the complications that exists within any development organization whether global (like the WB) or local/regional.
Tarp, Finn, ed. Foreign Aid and Development: Lessons Learnt and Directions for the Future. London: Routledge, 2000.
This is another anthology addressing the current donor debates and issues over the roles, effectiveness, and the future of aid. It includes analysis of past programs and policies and recommends what could be done better in the future and ultimately a reassessment of aid and its role in development. An important work that I will be using is one on the role of government in economic development and the effectiveness of aid. Other issues the work includes are gender equality, poverty reduction, reforms, environment, politics, conflicts, debt, and private sector development; all contentious issues in the development community.
Wade, Robert Hunter. “US Hegemony and the World Bank: The Fight over People and Ideas.” Review of International Political Economy. 9.2 (May 2002) : 201-229. Jstor. Appalachian State Univ. Lib., Boone, NC. 7 Mar. 2009.
This work is about US and WB relations and how the US intervention and interests influence the WB and threaten the second pillar of hegemony: belief that the processes and procedures of the dominant system of rule are fair and appropriate and will be enforced on the dominant group as well as the subordinate group. For example, “breaking collectively legitimated rules of for example, personnel selection, research independence”, etc (201). The work looks at the case of Joseph Stiglitz (“the Rebel Within”), fired from the position of Chief economists (although I believe Ellerman took the position that he resigned * double check this*) and the resignation of Ravi Kanbur, director of the World Development Report. It looks at the influence and idea-controlling the US has over these positions within the Bank. It also questions the Bank’s autonomy and addresses current development agendas.
This analysis of US politics and US influence and role in IMF lending is important when considering the role of IMF in developing nations, especially it’s policies, agenda’s and lending practices. They have proposed a model in which the “US acts as principal within the IMF and seeks to maximize its impact on the policy stance of debtor countries” (1843). Their hypothesis is that IMF lending will increase with the more political concessions a country makes, and they use the data collected to support this hypothesis. I will use this to illustrate the ways in which the US and its foreign policy and national interest influence and effect the decisions made by the IMF which directly affects developing nations, and more often than not in a negative manner or generating faux short term success.
Banerjee, Abhijit Vinayak. Making Aid Work. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2007.
This book is a forum for discussion on the effectiveness of aid and the call for effective evaluations to determine what does and doesn’t work. He calls for randomized trials and field experience to deter wasteful aid spending. In response multiple ‘experts’ respond to his analysis and recommendations, giving the reader more than one side to the argument through alternate suggestions, critiques, or perhaps supporting agreements. Although his suggestions are valid they will not work in all cases as many of the response experts bring to the fore. His work will be helpful in suggesting ways in which donors can improve their evaluations in favor of transparent and ultimately helpful results rather than misleading conclusions of illusions of success or effectiveness.
Bebbington, Anthony. “Modernization from below: An Alternative Indigenous Development?.” Economic Geography. 69. 3, Environment and Development, Part 1 (Jul., 1993) : 274-292. Jstor. Appalachian State Univ. Lib., Boone, NC. 7 Mar. 2009
This work is about the an indigenous agrarian development that focuses on the incorporation of modern technology to offset out-migration and sustain indigenous culture and societal practices, something which is contrary to the Green Revolution and the approach of most grassroots efforts. However he argues that without such incorporations, out-migration poses a much higher threat to indigenous identity than new technology. He also emphasizes the importance of their ‘situation’ which I would argue should be analyzed in every development projected, since every group/person is situated differently according to social, political, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, environment, etc. and this is very important in addressing complex issues. This work is important in my research because it displays the idea that for development strategies to be indigenous doesn’t depend so much on the incorporation of new technologies or strategies but rather its social control and objectives, i.e. sustaining livelihoods that allow the continuation of other social practices that identify them as indigenous. This should be a good case for autonomy respecting help that Ellerman discusses.
---. “Reencountering Development: Livelihood Transitions and Place Transformations in the Andes.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 90.3 (Sep 2000) : 495-520. Jstor. Appalachian State Univ. Lib., Boone, NC. 7 Mar. 2009
This particular work I hope to use as a case study for autonomy respecting help among 3 regions in the Andes that are centers of indigenous Quichua populations. This piece is also helpful because it analyzes arguments from poststructuralists and neoliberals while calling for a loose interpretation of development that emphasizes human agency and gives room to move within otherwise constraining institutions or interpretations. Livelihood is an important aspect of the work as well, as well as the role of the state in fostering the regions self control over the areas. Both are two aspects I tend to address in my research.
Berthélemy, Jean-Claude, and Ariane Tichit. “Bilateral donors' aid allocation decisions—a three-dimensional panel analysis.” International Review of Economics & Finance 13.3 (2004) : 253-274. Science Direct. Appalachian State Univ. Lib., Boone, NC. 7 Mar. 2009 < _ob="ArticleURL&_udi="B6W4V-4B4XP8P-4&_user="634929&_coverDate="12%2F31%2F2004&_alid="882552824&_rdoc="5&_fmt="high&_orig="search&_cdi="6552&_sort="d&_docanchor="&view="c&_ct="5&_acct="C000033778&_version="1&_urlVersion="0&_userid="634929&md5="ee9019beb1eb0d65db82a0d6e38028f4">.
This work is based on data collected for 20 years on 22 donors and 137 recipients of aid and compares data collected. It also looks at the policies of the donor organizations and the effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Variables include, donor interest, recipient needs and policies. Findings suggest since the collapse of the Soviet Union donor/recipient relations have moved toward trade partners and rewards for good economic policy and good governance. This data is important for my research because it provides a scientific evaluation of the data and uses it to analyze policy and agenda’s of donors.
Ditcher, Thomas W. Despite Good Intentions: Why Development Assistance to the Third World has Failed. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press: 2003.
Thomas Ditcher has had a wide range of experience for the past 35 years working with such agencies as the Peace Corps, WB, UNDP, and USAID, as well as a variety of NGO’s. His experience has led him to believe development has become an “international poverty alleviation industry” in which it has failed to serve the needs of the people their trying to help and ultimately being ineffective despite “good intentions.” His work ties into Ellerman’s ideas of the importance of agency prestige, illusions of success, self-perpetuation and the importance of public relations. He also evaluates the role of money in perpetuating dependency and illusionary success and the ideas of direct intervention as opposed to indirect and thus autonomy respecting help. He calls for fewer agencies and fewer experts, he focuses on moving away from what has in the past, and till this day, not worked.
Earle, Duncan, and Jeanne Simonelli. Uprising of Hope: Sharing the Zapatista Journey to Alternative Development. Maryland: Altamira Press, 2005.
The Zapatistas and their ideas of autonomy and self-determination that are conveyed in Uprising of Hope will be the main case study for my research. It is their global network of local agencies that I argue illustrate the ideals of Ellerman’s network of local agencies and his ideals of autonomy respecting help. The authors look at the Zapatista’s approach to an alternative development in which they themselves are in control of their community, environment, their children, etc. while maintaining the balance between isolation and a connection with the larger world.
Easterly, William, ed. Reinventing Foreign Aid. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2008.
This book is a collection of works that brings to light what has worked, failed, been learned, and remains to be learned when it comes to development aid. It’s a call to make aid work. The work includes an emphasis on why scientific evaluation is important in development, the problems of Aid-financed delivery of public services, problems with donors, analysis on the IMF and WB, and analysis on new forms of aid. Each work in the anthology looks to be helpful in my research but it may come down to only needing to use a few of the works from the anthology.
Ellerman, David. Helping People Help Themselves: From the World Bank to an Alternative Philosophy of Development Assistance. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 2005.
Helping People Help Themselves is a great resource for my research because it evaluates the World Banks overall approach to development and why it has not been successful or effective in long-term development. Also, Ellerman is sure to analyze the WB’s lack of true and transparent self evaluations that would undoubtedly show the failures in their approach rather than the evaluations they conduct now which show only short term ‘successes’ and promote the name and agenda of the WB’s policies and approaches, which ironically continues the cycle of faux successes. Ellerman addresses the importance of the autonomy respecting development in what he called the “doer-helper relationship.” He lays out the dos and don’ts of achieving autonomy respecting help and emphasizes an alternative approach which consists of a global network of local agencies, thus opposing the current system of unified global agencies such as the WB, IMF, etc.
Lancaster, Carol. Foreign Aid. Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2007.
Lancaster’s work sets the stage for why and how aid came about, as well as addressing its history and purposes. She argues that there are diplomatic purposes behind the myriad of US aid throughout history and to this day, citing the War on Terror as a recent example. However she does argue that there are two purposes of aid, the diplomatic already mentioned and development interests. Her work moves chronologically from the beginnings of aid, i.e. the beginning of the cold war and end of WWII, through each major presidential administration up to the G.W. Bush administration. This work will help determine some of the motives behind US foreign aid and perhaps evaluate the impacts of such aid.
Mosse, David, and David Lewis, eds. The Aid Effect: Giving and Governing in international Development. London: Pluto Press, 2005.
This is an anthology done by scholars of development and foreign aid. Only some of which may be helpful for my research. One of the works that will be helpful is on global governance and aid, highlighting the role of global agencies, dominant global powers and their emphasis on democratization, and host governments and their affects on aid. Another work deals with aid and power and the significance of power in aid relationships. Understanding the role of aid as power and governments and agencies possessing power and the uneven relationship this generates is of great importance if aid and development can move forward and be reformed.
Narayan, Deepa, Robert Chambers, Meera Kaul Shah, Patti Petesch. Voices of the Poor: Crying out for Change. New York: Oxford Univ. Press for The World Bank, 2000.
Because this book is published for the WB, I expect it to be non-transparent and somewhat misleading agenda’s of the WB and their view on what the poor need. The voices of the poor supposedly have a platform in this book to inform donors and NGO’s of what they need. In reality, the work consists of one or two sentences from people all over the world followed by an analysis of ‘experts.’ Where’s there voice? Of course they need clean water, access to education, health care, jobs, food, shelter, etc. but where are their voices in creating solutions to these problems? This book is no more than another ‘plan’ based on decisions made from above without much consideration for the situation on the ground. I will use this book to criticize, or maybe better phrased ‘evaluate’ the WB policy and agenda, and their lack of autonomy respecting help.
Perreault, Thomas. “Social Capital, Development, and Indigenous Politics in Ecuadorian Amazonia.” Geographical Review. 93.3 (Jul., 2003) :328-349. Jstor. Appalachian State Univ. Lib., Boone, NC. 7 Mar. 2009
Thomas’s work gives insight into the political and cultural organization called FOIN or the Federation of Indigenous Organization of Napo, in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It provides a good example of community networking in analyzing environmental management, rural development, and resource conflicts as opposed to a global agency such as the WB stepping in to manage projects and tasks at hand. However, although FOIN is a relatively local and small scale organization it has been susceptible to some of the same faults as the WB such as focusing on organization prestige and influence (as displayed in the PUMAREN project), the petting of ego’s, failing to take in to account culture of those being helped, location of offices and FOIN employees compared to communities helped, lack of people’s voice, mismanagement of funds, ambitions of employees versus the success of projects, and amongst other things the importance of politics over development needs. Through FOIN we see even a local network of agencies and organizations can falter if under the wrong leadership and with the wrong goals in mind. Eventually the federations elite became “more concerned with national politics than with local development needs” and although most residents felt they weren’t helped much in any way, they still viewed the federation in a positive light leading to a relationship between FOIN and its community that is “complicated by differing expectations and contradictions between the benefits that are abstract and symbolic and those that are immediate and material” (343). I will use this organization as a small case study to show the complications that exists within any development organization whether global (like the WB) or local/regional.
Tarp, Finn, ed. Foreign Aid and Development: Lessons Learnt and Directions for the Future. London: Routledge, 2000.
This is another anthology addressing the current donor debates and issues over the roles, effectiveness, and the future of aid. It includes analysis of past programs and policies and recommends what could be done better in the future and ultimately a reassessment of aid and its role in development. An important work that I will be using is one on the role of government in economic development and the effectiveness of aid. Other issues the work includes are gender equality, poverty reduction, reforms, environment, politics, conflicts, debt, and private sector development; all contentious issues in the development community.
Wade, Robert Hunter. “US Hegemony and the World Bank: The Fight over People and Ideas.” Review of International Political Economy. 9.2 (May 2002) : 201-229. Jstor. Appalachian State Univ. Lib., Boone, NC. 7 Mar. 2009
This work is about US and WB relations and how the US intervention and interests influence the WB and threaten the second pillar of hegemony: belief that the processes and procedures of the dominant system of rule are fair and appropriate and will be enforced on the dominant group as well as the subordinate group. For example, “breaking collectively legitimated rules of for example, personnel selection, research independence”, etc (201). The work looks at the case of Joseph Stiglitz (“the Rebel Within”), fired from the position of Chief economists (although I believe Ellerman took the position that he resigned * double check this*) and the resignation of Ravi Kanbur, director of the World Development Report. It looks at the influence and idea-controlling the US has over these positions within the Bank. It also questions the Bank’s autonomy and addresses current development agendas.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Spring Break Update
So SB is almost over and after a lot of beach going procrastination I am slowly but surely coming along with my bibliography. right now i'm finishing up citations then i'm moving on to the annotations. I've read 1 book so far and several articles... so i just have to get focused and read through some more stuff, and also skim some books to see if they are going to be useful or not. will post everything when its all finished. :)
Monday, March 2, 2009
turning point?
http://www.globalgiving.com/
the above is a website that basically is already doing what i really wanted to do with my website and my take on alternative aid... so i'm wondering if it's even feasible to continue with the website.
If you guys want to visit it, and maybe help me brainstorm how i can do it a little differently that would be helpful.
the above is a website that basically is already doing what i really wanted to do with my website and my take on alternative aid... so i'm wondering if it's even feasible to continue with the website.
If you guys want to visit it, and maybe help me brainstorm how i can do it a little differently that would be helpful.
Topic Proposal:
In my paper I plan to explore how large organizations like the WB and IMF, as well as large scale NGO’s affect the politics and economy of the countries they help and how their involvement affects culture, traditions, and society of people at the bottom, whom these organizations claim to help. I will look at the approach and policies of the organizations, the role of foreign policy and bureaucracy, and the roles of host governments and their bureaucracies. Also will include suggestions for alternatives, as well as looking at what the people want vs. what organizations are doing/giving (and maybe ways to solve fundamental issues at the bottom).
I chose to work on my topic because I’m interested in figuring out how to help people at the bottom. It’s amazing to me that the WB and IMF and other organizations have poured billions of dollars into developing countries for decades and yet they have improved little or are perhaps worse off than before. Obviously there is something wrong with their approaches, it’s clear top-down approaches or trickle down effects aren’t successful nor do they solve the fundamental issues. I’m interested in how throwing money at these countries changes the dynamics of the economy, politics, culture and society as a whole and also how sending in ‘experts’ and groups to do the work affects culture, traditions, and society. This is the same for large NGO’s that claim grassroots approaches, yet also do little to change the fundamental problems at the bottom.
My strategy is very basic right now… I have checked out about 20 books at the library, which is just scraping the surface of books I’ve found that hopefully will be helpful and I’m trying to skim through at least 1 a day to see if they’ll be relevant. While reading through these books I plan on taking good notes and shaping my ideas more and then get started on some solid writing. I’m also particularly looking into the Zapatistas and their political movements and critiques of NGO’s and other outside organizations with the book Uprising of Hope, in hopes of having a more specific concrete example. Next I plan to print off the articles I’ve found through the databases and read through those as well.
I chose to work on my topic because I’m interested in figuring out how to help people at the bottom. It’s amazing to me that the WB and IMF and other organizations have poured billions of dollars into developing countries for decades and yet they have improved little or are perhaps worse off than before. Obviously there is something wrong with their approaches, it’s clear top-down approaches or trickle down effects aren’t successful nor do they solve the fundamental issues. I’m interested in how throwing money at these countries changes the dynamics of the economy, politics, culture and society as a whole and also how sending in ‘experts’ and groups to do the work affects culture, traditions, and society. This is the same for large NGO’s that claim grassroots approaches, yet also do little to change the fundamental problems at the bottom.
My strategy is very basic right now… I have checked out about 20 books at the library, which is just scraping the surface of books I’ve found that hopefully will be helpful and I’m trying to skim through at least 1 a day to see if they’ll be relevant. While reading through these books I plan on taking good notes and shaping my ideas more and then get started on some solid writing. I’m also particularly looking into the Zapatistas and their political movements and critiques of NGO’s and other outside organizations with the book Uprising of Hope, in hopes of having a more specific concrete example. Next I plan to print off the articles I’ve found through the databases and read through those as well.
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