Book Review: ‘Can we know better? Reflections for development by Robert Chambers’

Abstract

In “Can we know better?” Robert Chambers reflects on a half-century of experience that combines many years working in front-line development programs, with a distinguished academic career. He presents a passionate, but well-documented critique of what he sees as the dominant trends in international development. He spent 15 years writing this work, and brings together many of the themes that inform his earlier works such as “Whose reality counts? Putting the first last” (1997), and “Into the unknown: Explorations in development practice” (2014).