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Michael Powell
Former External Coordinator
Mike Powell was the external co-ordinator of the UNRISD research project on Information Technologies and Social Development between October 2002 and February 2004. He combined an academic interest in the subject with practical work as a consultant specializing in the management and use of information within and between organizations. He had also been active in building and supporting community-based initiatives in the politics of emerging information societies, both in the United Kingdom and internationally.
Prior to specializing in information, Mike worked on relief and development projects in Africa and Brazil, including work on leprosy control and in the management of responses to emergencies. He was a nurse, has a BA in History from Cambridge University and an MA in Information Technology Management from Sheffield University.
At the time of his collaboration with UNRISD, Mike was an editorial adviser for Development in Practice and was on the editorial board of the Review of African Political Economy, for which he worked with Reginald Cline-Cole (Centre for West African Studies, Birmingham University) on an issue devoted to knowledge and the knowledge economy in Africa.
Selected publications
Information Management for Development Organisations, Oxfam, Oxford, 1999 and 2003; "Information management in voluntary and community organisations" (with Paul Ticher), Directory of Social Change, London, 2000; "Knowledge, Culture and the Internet in Africa : A Challenge for Political Economists", Review of African Political Economy, No 88, 2001; "NGOs and the Development Industry" (with David Seddon), Review of African Political Economy No 70, 1997; "Culture: intervention or solidarity?" Development in Practice, 5:3, 1995; "A Tribute to Amilcar Cabral" (with Basil Davidson, Shubi Ishemo and Lars Rudebek), Review of African Political Economy, No 58, 1993.