Village gone viral : understanding the spread of policy models in a digital age /

This thoughtful study is a distinctive addition to the theoretically complex literature on the anthropology of policy. It critically explores and evaluates the generation and diffusion of models derived from fieldwork in specific situations that are then advocated as transferable policy solutions in transnational development. The titular village is Awra Amba, an Ethiopian community with an atypical social structure that fosters gender equality, which became widely known through a 2001 documentary as a national model village. Østebø (Univ. of Florida) extends the familiar concept of "going viral" to assess "why certain policies, ideas, or innovations spread, while others do not" (p. 5). He does so by combining the dynamics of how a biological virus spreads with the assemblage theory construct used to analyze social complexity to create the analytical term viral assemblage. Chapters 5 and 6 ("Modes of Transmission" and "Going Viral," respectively) look at the emergence of Awra Amba as a "travelling model." Village Gone Viral gains depth and relevancy by acknowledging the importance of recognizing actions of inequality, exclusion, and injustice as evidence of flaws in an ideal social model, which can detrimentally impact any international application. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through graduate students. --Robert B. Ridinger, Northern Illinois University