almost 3 months… and no blog post

The last few months or so have been full-on. Work, leisure, learning, illness, love, loss – and now that muddled up feeling of not being sure whether I’m coming or going…

I travelled to a beautiful place with my girlfriend for 10 days;
Some old, old family friends fell out with my parents over some disturbing [...]

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The International Rural Network Conference, Udaipur 2009

I had the privilege last week of co-hosting the International Rural Network 2009 Conference, which, magically, was held in Udaipur this year, about 5 minutes down the road from my house. Initially I was asked whether I would like to present a paper or organise a workshop – but I wasn’t able to get much [...]

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toward liberating patterns of interaction

One of my key areas of interest in understanding organisational learning and change in Seva Mandir is the intersection of power, ideology and identity in the patterns of communicative relating that take place amongst those working here. In particular, I am interested in the way that meaning, patterns of inclusion-exclusion, intentions and actions emerge through [...]

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Digging relational sociology

Since the last post, and before it too, I have been quite intensively burrowing through some material on process sociology, relational sociology and critical realism. Through this I came to discover the links between Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu. I toyed with idea of figurations and fields, came across the idea of institutional entrepreneurs and [...]

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Market, State & Civil Society: a flawed distinction?

For some time I have been pondering the distinction that is routinely made between state, market and civil society. I have increasingly been drawn to the conclusion that while this is a convenient and seemingly self-evident distinction it is also, at some more critical level, a flawed – or perhaps better, a misleading – distinction.
The [...]

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emerging opportunities

It’s been almost a month and a half since I returned to Seva Mandir. I have been writing my experiences and reflections almost fanatically – dedicating substantial chunks of my time every day to this endeavour. When I’m not writing, I’m either reading, engaging in conversations or else observing and trying to pay attention to [...]

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since I’ve been back

It’s now officially more than a week since I’ve been back at Seva Mandir and things are quickly entering what could be called ‘full swing’. I’ve been taking out a lot of time for reflection and reflective writing and I’ve also been very busy having conversations with those around me. A few days after arriving [...]

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getting back on track

After my more than 3 months in England, replete with my first term at IDS and some quality time with my family, I’m now back at Seva Mandir, Udaipur.
Without losing time I’ve pretty much dived into work, trying to make sense of what I might be able to do now that I’m back. So far [...]

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Complexity Power and Learning: Confluences for a Facilitator of Organisational and Social Change

It’s finally done!
My Analytical Paper ‘Complexity, power, learning: confluences for a Facilitator of Organisational and Social Change’ – the one I outlined here – is finally complete and available on-line, here. It has been quite a pleasure to write although I can’t help but feel that the depth I have been seeking just isn’t quite coming [...]

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Rights or Responsibilities

Is the language of responsibilities more powerful than the language of rights? Does it invoke more action on behalf of the would-be ‘right-claimers’? Is the whole ‘rights’ framework a ‘Northern’ construction that is being pushed on the rest of the world (along with so much else, like the modern Nation State) because asking the poor [...]

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