Gender, Power and Knowledge for Development

Gender, Power and Knowledge for Development

Author: Lata Narayanaswamy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-12-08

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 1317812239

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Knowledge-for-development is under-theorised and under-researched within development studies, but as a set of policy objectives it is thriving within development practice. Donors and other agencies are striving to improve the flow of information within and between decision-makers and so-called ‘poor and marginalized groups’ in order to promote economic and social development, including the empowerment of women. Gender, Power and Knowledge for Development questions the assumptions and practice of the knowledge-for-development industry. Using a qualitative, multi-site ethnographical study of a Northern-based gender information service and its ‘beneficiaries’ in India, the book queries the utility of the knowledge paradigm itself and the underlying assumption that a knowledge deficit exists in the Global South. It questions the value of practices designed to address this presumed deficit that seek to increase information without addressing the specific problems of the knowledge systems being targeted for support. After reviewing the evidence, the book recommends that international organisations, governments and practitioners move away from the belief that information intermediaries can employ progressive correctives to ‘tinker at the edges’ and thus resolve the shortcomings of on-going attempts to use knowledge alone as a driver of development. Gender, Power and Knowledge for Development will be of great interest to researchers, students in development studies, gender studies, and communication studies as well as INGOs, donor agencies and groups engaged in information for development (i4D), ICT for development (ICT4D), Tech4Dev, knowledge mobilization and knowledge-for-development (K4D).


The Lab, the Temple, and the Market

The Lab, the Temple, and the Market

Author: Sharon Harper

Publisher: IDRC

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0889369208

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[This book] meshes a discussion of development issues and processes with four different systems of religious beliefs: Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baha'i Faith. The authors - each a scientist as well as a person of faith - show how religious belief and personal faith can be deeply motivational and strikingly fruitful in scientific pursuits. Further, they emphasize how their faith has brought them a profound understanding of interconnectedness and compassion, and thus a wider perspective and greater sense of personal meaning to their research. -- Book jacket.


Can We Know Better?

Can We Know Better?

Author: Robert Chambers

Publisher: Open Access

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781853399442

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This book is intended for all who are committed to human wellbeing and who want to make our world fairer, safer and more fulfilling for everyone, especially those who are 'last'. It argues that to do better we need to know better. It provides evidence that what we believe we know in international development is often distorted or unbalanced by errors, myths, biases and blind spots. Undue weight has been attached to standardised methodologies such as randomized control trials, systematic reviews, and competitive bidding: these are shown to have huge transaction costs which are rarely if ever recognized in their enormity. Robert Chambers contrasts a Newtonian paradigm in which the world is seen and understood as controllable with a paradigm of complexity which recognizes that the real world of social processes and power relations is messy and unpredictable. To confront the challenges of complex and emergent realities requires a revolutionary new professionalism. This is underpinned by a new combination of canons of rigour expressed through eclectic methodological pluralism and participatory approaches which reverse and transform power relations. Promising developments include rapid innovations in participatory ICTs, participatory statistics, and the Reality Check Approach with its up-to-date and rigorously grounded insights. Fundamental to the new professionalism, in every country and context, are reflexivity, facilitation, groundtruthing, and personal mindsets, behaviour, attitudes, empathy and love. Robert Chambers surveys the past world of international development, and his own past views, with an honest and critical eye, and then launches into the world of complexity with a buoyant enthusiasm. He draws on almost six decades of experience in varied roles in Africa, South Asia and elsewhere as practitioner, trainer, manager, teacher, evaluator and field researcher, also working in UNHCR and the Ford Foundation. He is a Research Associate and Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, his base for many years. Can We Know Better? is essential reading for researchers and students of development, for policy makers and evaluators, and for all those working towards the better world of the Sustainable Development Goals.


Language Diversity, School Learning, and Closing Achievement Gaps

Language Diversity, School Learning, and Closing Achievement Gaps

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2010-08-26

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 0309153867

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The Workshop on the Role of Language in School Learning: Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap was held to explore three questions: What is known about the conditions that affect language development? What are the effects of early language development on school achievement? What instructional approaches help students meet school demands for language and reading comprehension? Of particular interest was the degree to which group differences in school achievement might be attributed to language differences, and whether language-related instruction might help to close gaps in achievement by helping students cope with language-intensive subject matter especially after the 3rd grade. The workshop provided a forum for researchers and practitioners to review and discuss relevant research findings from varied perspectives. The disciplines and professions represented included: language development, child development, cognitive psychology, linguistics, reading, educationally disadvantaged student populations, literacy in content areas (math, science, social studies), and teacher education. The aim of the meeting was not to reach consensus or provide recommendations, but rather to offer expert insight into the issues that surround the study of language, academic learning, and achievement gaps, and to gather varied viewpoints on what available research findings might imply for future research and practice. This book summarizes and synthesizes two days of workshop presentations and discussion.


Reflections on Economic Development

Reflections on Economic Development

Author: Michael P. Todaro

Publisher:

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 544

ISBN-13:

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This collection of Todaro's essays focuses on a wide range of topics in economic development, including rural-urban migration, international legal and illegal migration, population growth, technological change, education, the environment and ethics.


Socially Responsible Innovation in Security

Socially Responsible Innovation in Security

Author: J. Peter Burgess

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-05-03

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1351246887

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This book examines the possibility of socially responsible innovation in security, using an interdisciplinary approach. Responsible innovation in security refers to a comprehensive approach that aims to integrate knowledge related to stakeholders operating at both the demand and the supply side of security – technologists, citizens, policymakers and ethicists. Security innovations can only be successful in the long term if all the social, ethical and ecological impacts, and threats and opportunities, both short term and long term, are assessed and prioritized alongside technical and commercial impacts. The first part of this volume focuses on security technology innovation and its perception and acceptance by the public, while the second part delves deeper into the processes of decision-making and democratic control, raising questions about the ethical implications of security ruling. This book will be of much interest to students of critical security studies, sociology, technology studies and IR in general.


Revolutionizing Development

Revolutionizing Development

Author: Andrea Cornwall

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-03-28

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1000606597

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This book tells the story of development studies in practice over the last fifty years through the work of one remarkable individual, Robert Chambers. His work has taken him from being a colonial officer in Kenya through training and managing large rural development projects to a fundamental critique of top-down development and the championing of participatory approaches. The contributors eloquently demonstrate how he has been at the centre of major shifts in development thinking and practice over this period, popularising terms that are now at the centre of the development lexicon such as vulnerability, multi-dimensional poverty, sustainable livelihoods and 'farmer first'. Robert Chambers played a major role in the massive growth in participatory approaches to development, and particularly the application of participatory methods in development research and appraisal. This has led to fundamental challenges to development practice, ranging from approaches to monitoring and evaluation to institutional learning and professional training. There is probably no-one who has had more influence on approaches to development in the past decades. Revolutionizing Development offers a unique overview of these contributions in thirty-two concise chapters from authors who have been intimately involved as collaborators, critics and colleagues of Robert Chambers.


First Principles of Instruction

First Principles of Instruction

Author: M. David Merrill

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-10-06

Total Pages: 588

ISBN-13: 1118235029

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This handy resource describes and illustrates the concepts underlying the “First Principles of Instruction” and illustrates First Principles and their application in a wide variety of instructional products. The book introduces the e3 Course Critique Checklist that can be used to evaluate existing instructional product. It also provides directions for applying this checklist and illustrates its use for a variety of different kinds of courses. The Author has also developed a Pebble-in-the-Pond instructional design model with an accompanying e3 ID Checklist. This checklist enables instructional designers to design and develop instructional products that more adequately implement First Principles of Instruction.


Shifting Practices

Shifting Practices

Author: Giovan Francesco Lanzara

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2016-03-18

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 026203445X

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How disruptions and discontinuities caused by the introduction of new technologies often reveal aspects of practice not previously observed. What happens in an established practice or work setting when a novel artifact or tool for doing work changes the familiar work routines? Any unexpected event, or change, or technological innovation creates a discontinuity; organizations and individuals must reframe taken-for-granted assumptions and practices and reposition themselves. To study innovation as a phenomenon, then, we must search for situations of discontinuity and rupture and explore them in depth. In Shifting Practices, Giovan Francesco Lanzara does just that, and discovers that disruptions and discontinuities caused by the introduction of new technologies often reveal aspects of practice not previously observed. After discussing methodological and research issues, Lanzara presents two in-depth studies focusing on processes of design and innovation in two different practice settings: music education and criminal justice. In the first, he works with the music department of a major American university to develop Music LOGO, a computer system that allows students to explore musical structures with simple, composition-like exercises and experiments. In the second, he works with the Italian court system in the design and use of video technology for criminal trials. In both cases, drawing on anecdotes and examples as well as theory and analysis, he traces the new systems from design through implementation and adoption. Finally, Lanzara considers the researcher's role, and the relationship—encompassing empathy, vulnerability, and temporality—between the reflective researcher and actors in the practice setting.


Reflections on the Right To Development

Reflections on the Right To Development

Author: Arjun Sengupta

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 9780761933700

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The Right to Development (RTD) is a new and highly contested right. Its emergence is linked to the demand for a `new international economic order’ by developing countries. Composite in nature and integrating civil and political rights with economic, social and cultural rights, the RTD approach underscores participation, a fair sharing of benefits, transparency and non-discrimination. The present volume explores the theoretical and practical aspects of RTD as an alternative to existing approaches to development. It brings together the reflections and insights of some of the finest scholars on the specific aspects of RTD.