Blog Profile / Chris Blattman's Blog
| URL : | http://chrisblattman.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Academics / Political Science | |
| Posts on Regator: | 2061 | |
| Posts / Week: | 8.2 | |
| Archived Since: | July 25, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
The career incentives of Jihadi clerics (how a glass ceiling generates extremism?)
This paper explains why some Muslim clerics adopt the ideology of militant Jihad while others do not. I argue that clerics strategically adopt or reject Jihadi ideology because of career incentives generated by the structure of cleric educational networks. Well-connected … Continue reading ?
Old economists never die, and they don’t even fade away?
Daniel Hammermesh notes that published articles are in top economics journals are no longer so dominated by young economists. What has changed? I believe the answer lies in the changing nature of technology in the profession, a slowdown in the … Continue reading ?
My PE of development class, Week 6: Independence and the politics of personal rule
Slides are here. As usual, comments and criticisms welcome. The trouble with a course in world development is that any one scholar actually only really knows 5% of the material well. Thankfully I can fake the other 95% as well, but … Continue reading ?
New lessons in state building (or, Was Mamdani wrong?)
Places that had strong precolonial states are more likely to be autocratic that democratic in the late 20th century. It is the colonized that are more democratic today So argues Jacob Hariri in an excellent APSR paper: This article documents that … Continue reading ?
Links I liked
Portlandia does Battlestar (thankfully this happened to me while still a grad student) Elton John sings an oven manual (h/t @AlexTabarrok) 1957 letter from J.D. Salinger explains why “Catcher In The Rye” wouldn’t work as a movie How physicists propose H.P. … Continue reading ?
Babar: tool of colonialist oppression?
A reader asks what Babar the elephant pictures are doing in my lecture slides on colonialism. Bill Foltz at Yale used to start his African politics class off by reading–and reinterpreting–the story. Allow me to burst your bubble in the … Continue reading ?
My PE of Development class, Week 5: Legacies of slavery and colonialism
Forgot to post these last week. The slides are here.
Steps forward in open access research
The Obama Administration is committed to the proposition that citizens deserve easy access to the results of scientific research their tax dollars have paid for. That’s why, in a policy memorandum released today, OSTP Director John Holdren has directed Federal … Continue reading ?
What I’ve been reading
While we are on the topic of the Middle East, I thought I would recommend two novels: Shake Off and Sabra Zoo by Mischa Hiller. The first is a Le Carre-like spy novel, except the protagonist is a young Palestinian exile living in … Continue reading ?
Quote that will make half my audience exult and half angered
Asuming half of you care, of course. From the “Angry Arab News Service” I had a chance to ask John Mearsheimer yesterday at the University of Chicago about his experience since the publication of his article (with Stephen Walt) and … Continue reading ?
Street art
More here.
The Athens effect
We provide evidence that a tradition of village democracy is associated with the presence of national democracy today. We also show that a tradition of local democracy is associated with attitudes that are more supportive of democracy, with better quality … Continue reading ?
3D movies cure stereoblindness?
On 16 February this year, Bridgeman went to the theatre with his wife to see Martin Scorsese’s 3D family adventure. …Bridgeman, a 67-year-old neuroscientist at the University of California in Santa Cruz, grew up nearly stereoblind, that is, without true … Continue reading ?
Demo of Google glass
Goggles that google, among other things. My first thought: Cool, but I expected more. Second thought: The streets of Manhattan are dangerous enough already. We’re going to give drivers and pedestrians more electronic things to look at while they walk/drive?
My favorite Presidential biography
In honor of President’s Day, my somewhat unconventional choice for favorite presidential biography: Truman, by David McCullough. After my (Canadian) high school history classes, I could tell you the recipe for pemmican or arcana about Manitoban rebellions, but I would … Continue reading ?
The Democratic-Republican role reversal in technology
A young GOP leader visits the left’s digital and grassroots organizing conference: The thing I was struck by at RootsCamp was that in many ways, the Democratic technology ecosystem has embraced the free market — whereas the Republican one sort of … Continue reading ?
Links I liked
Someone has designed a full scale 3D Lord of the Rings Middle Earth, Google Earth style, to explore in real time. How can/should universities influence development policy? Nominate the best aid bloggers in the ABBAs (Note: I believe I have … Continue reading ?
We have so much cultural capital there are geniuses on the street
A man of his talents in 1700 would have been celebrated as the prodigy of his province or nation. In 2013 he is scraping by streetside. Even though globalization has brought more wealth and the ability to sell and consume … Continue reading ?
PE of development class, Week 4
This week’s lecture, “Institutions“, where I try to get away from just the usual political economy fare (North, Acemoglu & Robinson, Engerman & Sokoloff) and bring in the comparative historians and political scientists — Barrington Moore, Jeffrey Paige, Charles Tilly, … Continue reading ?
Links I liked
Automatically generate left wing comments for the Guardian blog Netflix ranks speeds of ISPs: Google Fibre by a mile How to bicycle faster than the speed of light How 21st century children pass notes in school