How Change Happens
DUNCAN GREEN

An odd but interesting book. Duncan Green, who has worked for development organisations for 35 years, aims to explain how change happens so that activists might be more effective in achieving their objectives. The activists are not defined precisely; Green seems largely to have in mind those in development agencies who campaign for change across the world. There is a general assumption that what they wish for are uncomplicatedly good things; there is no discussion of where their legitimacy comes from.

There is a lot of arrogance in development agencies. They are full of people of good intent who are too easily convinced of their own righteousness. It would do them good to read How Change Happens. It calls for a change from seeing international development as like baking a cake with a clear recipe and a clear outcome to being more like bringing up a child. Green stresses that systems are complex and are constantly changing. Activists need to have more humility, to study the history of the institutions they are trying to change and to be more conscious of their own prejudices and power.