In the Fall 2019 semester I launched a new undergraduate course titled Global Development & Giving (PUP 4931), which was supported by FSU’s Council of Research and Creativity. I have been visiting poor countries, predominantly in South East Asia, once or twice annually since 2014. These countries include Cambodia, Myanmar, Tibet (China), and, foremost, Laos….
Tag: development
The Damaging Impacts of Gentrification on Urban Communities. Is Enough Being Done to Address this Issue?
As cities across the U.S. recovered from the Economic Recession, numerous families and households in urban communities were faced with increasing rent for their homes and local businesses. This was the result of gentrification, which involves increased capital investment in – and the development of – disenfranchised communities. When this investment occurs, the market value…
Oral Democracy
The voices of the poor are often not heard. Governmental systems devised to assist the poor focus on top-down poverty identification through definitions, biometrics, surveys, and measurements, over which people have little say. And programs to assist the poor are administered through opaque and difficult to navigate bureaucracies. Gram sabhas have the potential to change that by facilitating what we have termed “oral democracy”, a political system powered by citizens’ voices, where direct verbal engagement is the modality and narratives are the main currency.
Wicked Problems, Wicked Solutions 