(2015) ‘Promoting gender equality in the changing global landscape of international development cooperation’ in The Routledge Handbook on Gender and Development
(2011) ‘The sociality of international aid’ in (ed) D.Mosse Adventures in Aidland The anthropology of professionals in international development Berghahn Books: 139-160 . I capture the critical connection between policy thought and social relationships in a study of a local donor community that finds an ethnographic voice from within professional spheres of practice.
(2011) ‘Participation in international aid’ in (eds) A.Cornwall and I. Scoones Revolutionising Development. Reflections on the work of Robert Chambers London, Earthscan: 59-66. A critical, historically informed examination of Chambers’ influence in international aid practice and discourse.
(2009) ‘Hovering on the threshold. Challenges and opportunities for critical and reflexive ethnographic research in support of international aid practice in (eds) C.Widmark and S. Hagberg 2009. Ethnographic Practice and Public Aid: Methods and Meanings in Development Cooperation. Studies in Cultural Anthropology 45. University of Uppsala:73-100. This is my principal methodological paper about the challenges of researching aid donors, one that positions the anthropologist as a reflexive auto-ethnographer, retaining empathy for the insider’s position while sufficiently distanced to cultivate a critical faculty.
(2007) ‘Becoming a feminist in Aidland’ in (eds) A. Coles and A.M. Fechter Gender and Family among Transnational Professionals London, Routledge: 149-170
(2007) ‘Battles over booklets. Gender myths in the British aid programme’ in (eds) A. Cornwall, E. Harrison and A. Whitehead Feminisms and Development: Contradictions, Contestations and Challenges, London, Zed Press: 65-78. An actor-oriented approach to the construction of policy text, this is a lively account of a succession of glossy booklets, illuminates the discursive politics of gender mainstreaming inside a development organisation.
(2007) ‘Labelling people for aid’ in (eds) J. Moncrieffe and R. Eyben The Power of Labelling London, Earthscan: 33-47. Introducing into print, Apthorpe’s idea of Aidland, I analyse why labels such as ‘the poor’ matter so much in development practice and identify the special characteristics of aid bureaucracies that reinforce the power of labelling.
(2006) ‘Making relationships matter for aid bureaucracies’ in R.Eyben (ed) 2006 Relationships for Aid London, Earthscan: 43-60.
(2006) with F. Wilson ‘Supporting rights and nurturing networks. The case of DFID in Peru in R.Eyben (ed) 2006 Relationships for Aid London, Earthscan: 111-132
(2005) with Rosario Leon ‘WHOSE AID the case of the Bolivian elections project‘ in (eds) D. Mosse and D. Lewis ‘The Aid Effect’ London, Pluto Press: 106-125. I argue the importance of an insider ethnographic perspective to highlight the political contradictions and challenges in the aid relationship making innovative use of two voices – my own (the principal author) and Leon’s to tell the story from different perspectives, a methodology I was thereafter to use experimentally in my work with the DAC that I analyse in a forthcoming publication. .
(2005) ‘Donors, rights-based approaches and implications for global citizenship: a case study from Peru’ in Kabeer, N. (ed) Inclusive Citizenship, London: Zed Books: 251-268. Through a case study of DFID’s programme in Peru, problematizes the pursuit of rights- based approaches by foreign governments in aid recipient countries, identifying paradoxes, dilemmas and possible ways forward.
(2004) ‘Linking power and poverty reduction’ in (eds) R.Alsop and A. Norton Power,Rights,and Poverty: Concepts and Connections Washington DC,World Bank : 15-28. Introduces positionality and reflexivity into concepts of power and empowerment and develops thesis of donors as political actors.
(2004) with Clare Ferguson ‘How can donors be more accountable to poor people?’ in (eds) R.Hinton & L. Groves Inclusive Aid, London, Earthscan:163-180. This chapter is popular on university reading lists and was innovative in introducing a discussion of multiple accountabilities that I subsequently developed in my working paper on mutual accountability (2008).
(2004) ‘Who owns a poverty reduction strategy? A case of power, instruments and relationships in Bolivia’ in (eds) R.Hinton & L. Groves Inclusive Aid, London, Earthscan: 57-75. Written while still in Bolivia it represents my early thinking in the development of a relational approach to aid operations.