Significant proportions of aid already flow through the non-governmental sector, but questions are increasingly being asked about the role of NGOs and whether they can deliver on their ambitious claims. This study examines conditionality and mutual commitment between international aid donors and recipient NGOs, North and South. Fieldwork and case study material from Uganda and South Africa are used to support the authors contention that the fast changing aid sector has--in the context of a dynamic policy environment--encouraged the mainstreaming of a managerial approach that does not admit of any analysis of power relations or cultural diversity. This increasing--essentially technical-- definition of the roles of NGOs has worked to limit the extent of the very development that the organizations were initially established to promote.

Caught between their female gender and their aspirations in a public sphere founded on the gender role of men, women face a problem that is more intractable than conventional feminist political analysis has fully recognized. In this book, Jennifer Chapman addresses both the substance of the problem and feminist strategies for change. Male dominance of political elites is virtually universal and yet there is no general theory of recruitment to account for this. Jennifer Chapman uses a rigorous comparative study of political recruitment to show why different models of the process among men produce near-identical results, irrespective of context. She then looks beyond this general pattern to its gender basis, and to strategies for change.

Caught between their female gender and their aspirations in a public sphere founded on the gender role of men, women face a problem that is more intractable than conventional feminist political analysis has fully recognized. In this book, Jennifer Chapman addresses both the substance of the problem and feminist strategies for change.
Male dominance of political elites is virtually universal and yet there is no general theory of recruitment to account for this. Jennifer Chapman uses a rigorous comparative study of political recruitment to show why different models of the process among men produce near-identical results, irrespective of context. She then looks beyond this general pattern to its gender basis, and to strategies for change.

The Aid Chain explores the role of funding conditions in shaping co-operation and resistance as aid moves from donors, to NGOs, to local communities. Significant proportions of aid flow through the non-governmental sector but questions are increasingly being asked about the role of NGOs and whether they can deliver on their ambitious claims. This study examines whether the existing aid processes widely used by donors and NGOs are effective in tackling poverty and exclusion. Findings from fieldwork in Uganda, South Africa and the UK are used to show how the fast changing aid sector has, in the context of a dynamic policy environment, encouraged the mainstreaming of a managerial approach that does not admit of any analysis of power relations or cultural diversity. This increasing definition of the roles of NGOs as essentially technical, limits the extent of the very development that the organizations were initially established to promote. 'This disturbing and dramatically important book has been crying out to be written. It is a stark revelation of uncomfortable realities from which we often try to hide...Anyone working in an aid organization who is serious about achieving the MDGs has to read this book, and to act on its lessons. ' Robert Chambers

Ethnodrama: An Anthology of Reality Theatre contains seven carefully-selected ethnodramas that best illustrate this emerging genre of arts-based research, a burgeoning but evident trend in the field of theatre production itself. In his introduction to ethnodrama and to the plays themselves, Salda-a emphasizes how a credible, vivid, and persuasive rendering of a research participant's story as a theatrical performance creates insights for both researcher and audience not possible through conventional qualitative data analysis. With their focus on the personal, immediate and contextual, these plays about marginalized identities, abortion, street life and oppression manage a unique balance between theoretical research and everyday realism.

A collection of beautifully articulate, honest poems encapsulating the joy and challenges of having a baby. A journey of humour, tears and love that will resonate with any new parent.

A collection of beautifully articulate, honest poems encapsulating the joy and challenges of having a baby. A journey of humour, tears and love that will resonate with any new parent.

They say a woman knows if her husband is having an affair. When we hear of someone in that situation we say things like, 'why does she put up with it?', 'she should just dump him'. So what happens to us when we know but hold back from taking that same advice? Then, when we acknowledge things are over and it is time to move on, why is it so hard. They say a woman knows if her husband is having an affair. When we hear of someone we know in that situation we say things like, 'why does she put up with it?', 'why doesn't she just dump him'. So what happens to us when we know but hold back from taking that same advice? Then, when we finally acknowledge things are over and it is time to move on, why is it so hard. The life we have known for so long has left us on the edge of things, a spectator on the edge of things, unsure of what to do next. The dating game has changed to the point where you wonder who changed the rules. 'The rain was making a racket on the boats, too much to hear if there were any sounds coming from inside them. I started to slow up a bit as I got nearer to Baz's, and realised I felt something like disappointment when I saw that it was in darkness. I must have paused for a moment, perhaps to make sure, I don't know what I was thinking. Then I realised that I was horribly wet and that the rain was getting heavier and faster. I climbed onto Baz's boat and tried the door handle. It wasn't locked. Inside it was pitch black, but I wasn't going to switch on a light even if I could find where it was. 'I pulled the door shut as quietly as I could because I knew I should not be here. I went down the steps and felt for somewhere to sit down until I got used to the darkness. The rain on the roof had a different sound from the one it had made outside, as if it desperately wanted to come in and was angry about being shut out. I started to shiver. Then I closed my eyes and tried to see in my mind's eye how it had been when the men were there. The pitter-patter came again. And then I froze as I heard another sound and the boat rocked...'

The effect of strategy training on working memory inchildren with acquired brain injuries was investigated. Six children between the ages of 8and 14 years completed three pre and postintervention tasks. The children began by completing three memory worksheets, and were thentaught a range of strategies aimed to enhance their working memory recall. This wasfollowed, a few weeks later, with the post intervention task, where the children completed threesimilar worksheets. The children were again asked to report the strategies they used foreach task. The task performances were compared across the two conditions, and thestrategies reported within each condition were also analysed to see if they correlated with any ofthe findings. The results indicated that there was asignificant increase across the two conditions, withthe children scoring higher in their working memorytests in the post intervention task. This finding provides evidence that strategy trainingincreases working memory, supporting much of the previous literature in the field.

Ethnodrama: An Anthology of Reality Theatre contains seven carefully-selected ethnodramas that best illustrate this emerging genre of arts-based research, a burgeoning but evident trend in the field of theatre production itself. In his introduction to ethnodrama and to the plays themselves, Saldana emphasizes how a credible, vivid, and persuasive rendering of a research participant's story as a theatrical performance creates insights for both researcher and audience not possible through conventional qualitative data analysis. With their focus on the personal, immediate and contextual, these plays about marginalized identities, abortion, street life and oppression manage a unique balance between theoretical research and everyday realism.