Undergraduate Course: International Development, Aid and Humanitarianism (AFRI08001)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | African Studies |
Other subject area | Social Anthropology |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course aims to allow undergraduate students to develop an understanding of social science engagements with international development, aid and humanitarianism whilst focusing their attention on the global challenges of poverty, inequality, human rights, the environment, gender, urbanization, public health, and migration.
The course will explore the histories, impacts and legacies of international development planning and policy, introducing students to foundational issues in development studies and offering them the opportunity to conduct a modest research project on a specific theme. The course will explore the relationships between economic growth and inequality, structures of aid and trade, relationships of power and dependency, conflict, urbanisation and migration as well as approaches to sustainable development.
At the end of the course, students will be able to discuss and analyse key debates in the theory and practice of international development and will have a firm grounding in the historical and political contexts that continue to frame development at both the local and global level.
A class prize, the Global Development Academy Undergraduate Essay Prize, will be awarded for the best overall performance.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2014/15 Semester 2, Available to all students (SV1)
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Learn enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
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Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Course Start Date |
12/01/2015 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 11,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
163 )
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| Additional Notes |
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| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Written Exam
45 %,
Coursework
55 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Students will gain:
-A critically informed overview of contemporary international development, policy making and political economy, locating policy agendas historically and within a global context.
-An ability to apply the skills and knowledge acquired in social science disciplines to global challenges.
-A critical understanding of and engagement with key issues, themes and arenas of policy making and intervention in the arena of international development.
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Assessment Information
The Degree Examination mark for the course will be based on a combination of
1)45% Research Report: Students will be expected to produce a 1500-2000 word policy brief by the end of Week 7 on a key development issue. This constitutes a formative feedback event.
2)45% Exam: A one-paper exam sat at the end of the Semester.
3)10%: Tutorial Participation: Awarded based upon presence in tutorials and evidence of key readings
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Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Wk1: Crisis And The Everyday: From Disaster Relief To Chronic Poverty
This week introduces students to key ideas, concepts and case studies by offering a broad survey of development policy interventions, the architecture of aid and development practice in times of crisis and in the everyday. The first lecture will examine development in crisis settings (both conflict and disaster), looking first at humanitarian responses to crisis and the connections between humanitarian and development activities, before considering the role of development actors in responding to natural disaster, protracted conflicts and in early recovery/peace building. The second lecture will focus on the key aim of current mainstream development practices: poverty reduction. What does poverty reduction mean and how can it be achieved? How is the success of poverty-reduction programmes assessed? And what are the cultural and political values that frame approaches to development?
Indicative Reading
Easterly W., 2006. The White Man¿s Burden: Why The West¿s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done so Much Ill and So Little Good. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Collier P., 2007. The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Sachs, Wolfgang (2010). The Development Dictionary. London: Zed Books
United Nations Development Programme. Human Development Report
Wk2: Trajectories and End Points
This week of the course will offer an introduction to the idea of planned social and economic development as a historical phenomenon, examine the modern historical roots of international development institutions and the field of development studies. The week will explore the emergence of Bretton Woods institutions after WWII, introducing key questions and debates about the end-goals of development and the scale of development (local/global). Readings will examine the ideas that shaped the emergence of international development as an area of policy, including the ¿3Cs¿, Colonialism, Christianity and Capitalism.
Indicative Reading
Ferguson, James. 1999. The Expectations of Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wk3: The Architecture of Aid
This week will map key international organisations involved in delivering development assistance in the present day, and consider the relationships between different actors and the networks and systems that have been built in order to co-ordinate the ¿international development industry¿. This week will explain the mechanisms through which aid is distributed and explore the conditionalities that have been imposed upon the recipients of development loans. The lectures and classes will examine issues of power and dependency, focusing on the activities of international financial institutions (the World Bank), multi-lateral donors (like the UNDP and UNHCR) as well as the political economy of bilateral aid from governments (USAID, DFID, BRIC countries).
Indicative Reading
Mosse, David, and David Lewis. 2005. The Aid Effect: Giving and Governing in International Development. London: Pluto Press.
Wk4: Non Governmental Organisations: The Rise of Civil Society
These lectures will turn to focus on the role that civil society and non-state actors play in shaping development policy and practice. The role of other ¿non-traditional¿ development actors will be highlighted, including community based NGOS, religious organisations and diasporic NGOS.
Indicative Reading
Fehrer, M. (ed) 2007. Nongovernmental Politics. New York: Zone Books.
Wk5: Trade Not Aid
This week focuses on market oriented approaches to development, exploring the role of business and the private sector sector as development actors. This week will also be spent considering the arguments for and against market liberalisation policies, and explore the role of trade in development, with a particular focus on fair trade.
Indicative Reading
Sen, A.K., 1999. Development As Freedom. Oxford, Oxford University Press
WK6: Spaces of Development: Rural Development and Urbanisation
This week of the course will considers the different and changing spaces in which development actors work and how these influence understandings of what ¿development¿ is. The week will begin by looking at the (historically dominant) focus on agriculture, agrarian reform and rural development programmes, as well as the importance of the ¿village¿, before continuing to consider the impacts of urbanisation on development, and the role of urban spaces, from slums to favellas. What does the growth of cities mean for development?
Indicative Reading
Chambers, Robert. 1983. Rural Development: Putting the Last First. London: Routledge
WK7: Gender and Youth: The Languages of Empowerment
This week will turn to look at particular groups who are targeted by development actors, considering the extent to which gender and generation play a role in shaping development, as well as ideas and discourses of empowerment. The readings will focus in particular upon the ways in which women have been incorporated ¿ or excluded ¿ from development processes, as well as considering feminist critiques of development. The course will then continue to consider responses to youth within a development context, and in particular the role of education actors in framing development
Indicative Readings
Jeffrey, Craig. 2010. Youth, Class and the Politics of Waiting in India. Stanford UP
Nussbaum, M. C., 2001. Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
WK8: Public Health, Healthy Publics
This week of the course will look at health and development, considering why health has become so central in recent years to understandings of development. The course will consider the particular salience of global health challenges, how anxieties over security have pushed health up the development agenda, and how public health campaigns - from clean hands to anti-malaria drives - produce global publics.
Indicative Readings
Farmer, Paul, and Amartya Sen. Pathologies of power: Health, human rights, and the new war on the poor. Vol. 444. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
WK9: Environments of Development
This penultimate week of the course will consider how environmental challenges are shaping new understandings of sustainable development. The lectures will first look at the synergies and the tensions between conservation and development., with particular reference to mining extractions and large-scale infrastructure projects (e.g. hydroelectric plants), and explore the potential impacts of climate change on development policy and practice will also be assessed.
Indicative Readings
Baviskar, Amita. 2004. In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada Valley. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crate, Susan A., and Nuttall Mark, ed. ¿Anthropology and Climate Change: From Encounters to Actions.¿
Gardner, Katy. 2012. Discordant Development: Global Capitalism and the Struggle for Connection in Bangladesh. London: Pluto Press.
WK10. Infrastructures and Technologies of Development:
This week of the course will explore how material infrastructures (roads, factories, dams) and technologies (mobile phones, solar lanterns) come to be invested with the promise of development, exploring how infrastructures and technologies have shaped the way in which development is located and practised, and how they present particular opportunities and challenges. The course will end by posing the question what will ¿development¿ look like in the future.
Indicative Readings
Arnold, D. 2013. Machines and the Making of India¿s Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cross, Jamie. 2014. Dream Zones: Anticipating Capitalism and Development in India. London: Pluto Press
Smith, James. 2009. Technology for Development. London: Zed Books.
Week 11: Conclusion & revision |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jamie Cross
Tel:
Email: Jamie.Cross@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Ewen Miller
Tel: (0131 6)50 3925
Email: Ewen.Miller@ed.ac.uk |
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