Academic research and policy research are two different things
africanistperspective.com
Academic research and policy research are two different things
A common delusion is that that the region has good policies, but implementation is the problem. In reality, implementation failures reflect poor policies borne of very low domestic policymaking capacity. Too many governments in the region merely act as implementation arms of multilaterals, foreign donors, philanthropies, and other external actors. ... See more
Ken Opalo • Africa in 2024
Lindsay added
The nuance and inherent humility of the social sciences—the realization that development has to do with people, with human and social complexity, with cultural and traditional realities, and their willingness to struggle with the messy and multifaceted aspects of a problem—have no cachet in this metrics-driven, efficiency-seeking, technology-focuse
... See moreAnand Giridharadas • Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World
Any social science that aims to inform (and perform) the function of a complex social organization, like a state or corporation, that enforces even somewhat impartial rules needs to ruthlessly abstract from particularities.
Suresh Naidu • In Praise of Blindspots
Luis Villa added
Ideally, philanthropies ought to have disrupted the “traditional” international development players. The entrepreneurial backgrounds of most philanthropists should have meant greater focus on private sector growth and a much higher appetite for risk taking on project design. Yet the international development “field” completely tamed these impulses,
... See moreLindsay added
The real problem of development, in this view, is not one of figuring out good policies: It is to sort out the political process.
Abhijit V. Banerjee • Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
A further practical issue is that IDA seeks to stay engaged across multiple sectors in client countries over time. E ach country’s financing package typically maintains a minimum of programming resources across agriculture, education, healt h, infrastructure, social protection, and so forth , independent of any specific assessment regarding which m... See more
Homi Kharas • Updating Institutional Technologies: A Purpose-Driven Fund to End Extreme Poverty
Lindsay added
the difficulty with this viewpoint is the extreme passivity it requires of actors in the environment.
John A. McArthur • Digital Proxemics: How Technology Shapes the Ways We Move (Digital Formations Book 110)
Secondly, specialists toil within a singular tradition and apply formulaic solutions to situations that are rarely well-defined. This often results in intellectual acrobatics to justify one’s perspective in the face of conflicting data.
Vikram Mansharamani • All Hail the Generalist
Supritha S added