Reading List

A shifting, idiosyncratic list of new and overlooked books, films and other works that have the power to change the way we see the world - even how we view change itself. Look for them at your public library, local bookshop or online. Make suggestions.

The Girl Effect (2008-9)

This site (www.girleffect.org) asks you to unleash the latent power of girls in societies worldwide. Can she read? Is her body her own? Does she have access to credit? If so, we can flourish. If not, we don't. This is a model of truthful propaganda, packaging key development ideas effectively, accessibly and cheaply. Written by Jessica Vacek. Video's motion graphics by Matt Smithson, Curious Pictures, for Weiden+Kennedy Portland. Superb.

The World of Mexican Migrants: The Rock and the Hard Place by Judith Adler Hellman (New Press, 2008)

Migrants are exiles, people in between worlds. The latest book by a writer who does her fieldwork turns millions of shadowed abstractions all around us into real people who can't be ignored. She lets their voices through. There's nothing more powerful. And where else will you hear hopes, dreams, nightmares like these?

The Band's Visit, a film by Eran Kourin (DVD, 2007)

An 8-man Egyptian police orchestra gets lost in Israel on its way to play at an Arab cultural center. It arrives in a treeless settlement where, it seems, "There is no Arab culture center. No Israeli culture center. No culture." So, for a night, everyone makes the best of being out of place. Minute enlargements of the heart, mostly unstated, are flawlessly true to life. A great fable about how humans actually change.

New Public Sector Marketing by David Chapman and Theo Cowell (Pitman, 1997)

Marketing is a much-abused term. This UK book uses marketing concepts as practical tools to transform rationing organizations, which is what many public agencies are, into more responsive service organizations. What are the organizational implications of giving beneficiaries a role in designing service "products" and the rest of it? Worth asking. Worth its weight.

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky (Penguin, 2008)

Does the web work? Mr. Shirky points out that you need "a plausible promise, an effective tool, and an acceptable bargain with the users" to web-organize successfully. Of course, that's true for any direct response medium. He also reminds us that mass emails are discounted to zero: to impress, he says, lick a stamp or even send roses. So can easy-come, easy-go Web 2.0 mass gatherings win on an issue if the opposition is better organized and more persistent? Do old rules cover the new tools? Jury's out. See what you think.