Just finished a book, Transforming the Frontier: ‘Peace Parks’ and the Politics of Neoliberal Conservation in Southern Africa, by my good friend, Bram Buscher. I strongly recommend this book as a great critical overview of transboundary conservation. This book looks across southern Africa, but it zeroes in on the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Area at greater depth. The book takes a neo-Marxist perspective (is that fair, Bram?) at the intertwining of conservation and development and some of the problems that arise from furthering this agenda.
At the opposite extreme in the political spectrum, I just finished another book on baseball, Men at Work, by the conservative columnist, George Will. I was amazed at how well he knows his baseball, and I was equally amazed at the conservative political agenda that he was able to insert into a casual study of a sport. But regardless of your political predilections, this is a great read – if you like baseball.
Otherwise, I’m immersed in books on Sweden, in preparation for our upcoming trip. And for work, I’m digging into James Scott’s Seeing Like a State, which I’ve been meaning to tackle for some time. Seeing Like a State takes on the international development community and international aid organizations. Given Lyrna’s work with CARE in Ecuador and our time in southern Africa, I’m interested to see his perspective. Also, I’ll be interested in seeing how it compares with the views of Easterly, Robert Guest, and Paul Collier. I’ll let you know.
michaelschoon 