Dissident Voices: Dev-Blogs
Dissident Voices: Dev-Blogs
Development workers and academics are usually quite vocal people who have opinions about their work field, regarding strategies, happenings, politics, policies and the lot. However they can not always be critical through official channels as their institutions have interests and ideologies to defend. Also, sometimes they just have things to say that do not necessarily feed into development work or thinking, but express their personal interests, dilemmas and insights. For them, the blogosphere offers a whole new world of opportunities.
Being digitally active under a pseudonym or real name, can serve as an outlet for controversial opinions, blegs (bloggers jargon for asking information or assistance, cross between blog and beg’) and hat tips. This type of knowledge is fully controlled by the author, and usually attempts to influence the consciousness, or awareness of the reader, or the more dedicated follower. Sometimes darker powers are at play; blogs can also serve blatant self-promotion, book sales or colleague-bashing. Needless to say it is up to the reader who wanders through digital spaces to be careful and check different sources and form your own opinion. But well-written blogs are a way to produce ‘different’ knowledge, and can counterbalance existing power structures and discourses in ‘Aid-land’.
But where to start? Below the CSB team has gathered some interesting dev-blogs for you that broadcast and represent a myriad of thoughts on development practice. In our search for blogs with a critical stance on development theory and practice, we found that most of these blogs still originate in the North. Is this because the Knowledge Programme has its base in the North, therefore our search was biased? Do we find less dissident aid-voices in the South, as most recipients live in the South and receive donor money from the North? Perhaps because here we read English, and not Chinese or Bahasa Indonesia. It is sure not about a lack of opinions or writing skills. For example, Rosario León (director of a Bolivian research institute) wrote an excellent piece on her experiences with external support to a civil society initiative in Bolivia. However it is to be find on a Northern website, here. Or peek over the fence and take a look at our colleagues’ work from the Digital Natives Knowledge Programme.
If you have suggestions for good blogs from different regions, feel free to email : kieboom@iss.nl