Postgraduate Course: Global Development Challenges (Distance Learning) (PGSP11326)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Postgrad (School of Social and Political Studies) |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | Globalisation, rapid technological change and constantly changing political and economic systems are linking the world together in hitherto unimagined ways. These new connections are symptomatic of, but also drivers, of emerging sets of global challenges that we need to think about in new ways if we are to deal with them. Environmental change, climatic change, new health challenges, clashing beliefs and concurrent economic overconsumption and stagnation require new ways of thinking about governance, priority setting and meaningful ways to affect change. This course will examine these issues, of global challenges, and the implications, for decision-making, for society, and for future trajectories of global development. In doing so students will be equipped to analyse complex problems in context, and debate possible solutions, and constraints, to the ways in which global governance works. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Delivery period: 2013/14 Semester 1, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Learn enabled: No |
Quota: None |
|
Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Course Start Date |
16/09/2013 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
|
| Additional Notes |
|
| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1. By the end of the course, it is expected that students will be able to:
¿ Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of major global issues and pressures, their genesis and drivers
¿ Engage with complex, interdisciplinary knowledge sets and evaluate them
¿ Understand, critique and analyse key governance strategies, regimes and approaches
¿ Analyse and evaluate the implications and impacts of select global issues and how ways of attempting to govern them
2. By the end of the course students will have gained familiarity with the major issues with respect to the problems of developing holistic, integrated systems of governance. They will have an understanding of the key challenges we face and the global and local drivers that shape their form and function. Students will have learnt how to engage critically with the complex social, political and economic contexts in which governance takes place, as well as be able to apply that understanding to thinking about key global issues that face us today and in the future. |
Assessment Information
Assessment will be based on three pieces of work:
Contributions to online discussion forums and reflections (30%)
Final synthetic written work (policy essay, 2500 words)(70%) |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
1. Introduction: Issues, Concepts, Principles, Theories
2. Inequality and Poverty
3. Cities
4. Migration
5. Conflict, Belief, Risk
6. Societal Vulnerability
7. Globalisation
8. Human Rights
9. Governance Systems
10. Synthesis: Future Perspectives, Solutions |
| Transferable skills |
Students will develop analytical approaches to complex, integrated analysis. They will develop an ability to sift complex information and generation conclusions. |
| Reading list |
Indicative literature:
Collier, P. (2010) The Plundered Planet: How to Reconcile Prosperity with Nature, Allen Lane, London.
Crisp, N. (2010) Turning the World Upside Down: The Search for Global Health in the 21st Century, RSM, London.
Easterly, W. (2007) White Man¿s Burden, OUP, Oxford.
Lomberg, B. (2001) The Skeptical Environmentalist, CUP, Cambridge.
Rist, G. (1997, 2002, 2008) The History of Development: from Western Origins to Global Faith
Schanbacher, W. (2010) The Politics of Food, Praeger, New York.
Smith, J. (2010) Biofuels and the Globalization of Risk, Zed, London.
Staples, A. (2006) The Birth of Development, Kent USP, Kent.
Wilkinson, R. (2005) The Global Governance Reader, Routledge, London. |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Online distance education. To be delivered through short, segmented lectures, interactive online activities (self-taught), and interactive online fora (group work). The online content will be the equivalent of 20 contact hours. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Samuel Spiegel
Tel:
Email: sam.spiegel@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Fraser Maxwell
Tel: (0131 6)51 5066
Email: Fraser.Maxwell@ed.ac.uk |
|
© Copyright 2013 The University of Edinburgh - 13 January 2014 4:56 am
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