A Reading List for Changemakers

 

 

What you need to know before you buy that family a goat

 

 

The new buzz word in development and social impact circles is ‘changemaker’. Who wouldn’t want to be one? You do good, help others, donate to charity or perhaps even describe yourself (or your business) using words like ‘social enterprise’. You are indeed a changemaker. (Some of you out there might remember when folks referred to themselves as rainmakers: back then we ‘influenced’, now we ‘inspire’.) Nonetheless, I’m all for helping others help themselves, but I propose a bit of back-to-school reading first before you casually drop changemaker into your conversation at the next networking event.

 

Books to Start With

A good entry into the world of changemaking is the French–Algerian psychiatrist, Frantz Fanon. The Wretched of the Earth (1961) will help you understand the human and social costs of the then nascent global decolonization project. Orientalism (1978) by the Harvard economist, Edward Said, will help you gain perspective on how the West romanticizes and fetishizes the ‘exotic other’ people in the world who are not white Anglo-Saxons.

The Nobel prize-winning Indian philosopher and Cambridge economist, Amartya Sen, has spent decades arguing that the ‘capability approach’ is what’s needed for individuals and communities to transform themselves. Read his book Development as Freedom (1999).

Do No Harm (1999) by Mary Anderson, an American economist and development worker, is the godmother of devastating international aid critiques and how good intentions can exacerbate violence and deprivation, and how to avoid that.

The economists do like to wade into the development fracas, don’t they? Reading (or rereading) these classics will provide you with the beginning of a solid foundation in why altruism isn’t—and shouldn’t be—the main ingredient in development. Please do be a changemaker, but you have to do your homework on philanthropy before you buy that ‘poor’ family a goat or help build a school.

These books pave the way for your next essential reads (and yes, sorry, more economists alert).

The Dress Maker of Khair Khana (2011), by American business journalist Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, is the book on how to do it right with women entrepreneurs.

You’ve likely heard of US economists and academics Jeffrey Sachs (The End of Poverty) and William Easterly (The White Man’s Burden). The message of Sachs (more aid!) and Easterly (poverty is complex!) are, to my mind, put to bed by Paul Collier’s The Bottom Billion (more trade and international law!). Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid (2009) is a controversial (no aid!) criticism against paternalism.

Lastly, Stewart Brand is best described as a deep thinker. The Clock of the Long Now (2000) reflects on mankind’s inability to focus on the long term and what changemakers and humanitarians might do instead.

What I’m suggesting is that there might be better ways to approach poverty and social justice rather than things like glossy livestock catalogues to 'lift a family out of poverty' but designed for western consumption. Is there an alternative to feel good narratives coming from the agencies that want to send you and host you (you're paying, remember!) about the incredible impact of you laying brick for a couple of days in the tropics.

Which brings us to the ‘Are-you-really-a-changemaker’ exam. Is that goat really a goat or is it a scapegoat?

 

A+ if you chose the latter.

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This article originally appeared in Word Vietnam magazine and has been adapted. To view the magazine’s online version click here.