Comment

Dec 06, 2020PolyWogg rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
BOTTOM-LINE: More rhetoric than real analysis . PLOT OR PREMISE: The academic analysis of recent Canadian international development assistance is long on political economy and light on "realities on the ground". . WHAT I LIKED: The text had a strong opening for its goals, even if the administrative context didn't quite match their estimated / presumed political context. When it came to hard statistical analysis (Chapter 6) and mimicry of other donors, the paper was sound. Chapter 12 on children at risk, and the potential for mainstreaming had potential but was undersold. . WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The book had a lot of rhetoric and assumptions about ethical consensus and normativism (Chapters 1-3), results reporting and power dynamics (Chapter 4,5,10), Corporate Social responsibility (Chapter 7, 15, 16), links to military spending for peacekeeping (Chapter 8, 9, 13,14), and soundbite announcements masquerading as policies (Chapter 11). . DISCLOSURE: I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the editors, but I am friends with an author of one of the chapters.