Postgraduate Course: Displacement and Development (PGSP11369)
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 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 | This course examines some of the key questions that displacement raises for those concerned with development. How should the international community respond to refugee crises? Can transnational diaspora help build peace - or ferment war? Should we distinguish between migrants from poverty, those fleeing conflict or other civilians trapped in crisis? Do labels like  "refugee"  "IDP" and  "asylum seeker" serve to provide humanitarian protection - or legitimise political containment? 
 
Development and Displacement will provide students with the necessary tools to frame their own critical answers to such questions, through examining theory and a number of case studies including (but not limited to) Afghanistan, Somalia, Uganda, Rwanda, Kosovo, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Syria.  Examining key issues in Forced Migration studies - with a particular focus on movements in conflict and crisis - the course will allow students to analyse not only the dynamics of acute displacement crises, but also the policy responses that have helped to shape the longer-term politics of "migration management". | 
 
 
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? | No | 
 
 
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |   
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes 
At the end of the course students will be able to: 
-Critically examine the complex causes and policy categorisations of displacement 
- Assess the scope of international laws and conventions governing the protection of the displacement  
-Analyse and critique humanitarian and development responses to displacement 
-Critically assess the relationship between "migration" and "displacement" and policy implications of this framework 
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Assessment Information 
| Students will deliver a 4000 word coursework essay |  
 
Special Arrangements 
| None |   
 
Additional Information 
| Academic description | 
Not entered | 
 
| Syllabus | 
Week 1:  What is forced migration? Labels, categories and "the refugee problem" 
 
Week 2:  Legal approaches: Conventions, soft law and humanitarian protection 
 
Week 3: The dynamics of displacement: causes and consequences  
 
Week 4: The journey: choices in flight (smuggling, trafficking) 
 
Week 5: From emergency to everydaylife: from the camp to the city 
 
Week 6: Innovative learning week 
 
Week 7: From humanitarianism to development: unlocking protracted displacement? 
 
Week 8: Towards durable solutions: Resettlement and experiences of displacement in the West 
 
Week 9: Local integration 
 
Week 10: Repatriation and peace-building 
 
Week 11: Migration as a solution? 
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| Transferable skills | 
Not entered | 
 
| Reading list | 
Betts, A. (2009), Forced Migration and Global Politics, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 
 
Gibney, M. (2004) The Ethics and Politics of Asylum: Liberal Democracy and the Response to Refugees, Cambridge University Press 
 
Goodwin-Gill, G. and McAdam, J. (2007) The Refugee in International Law, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press 
 
Harrell-Bond, B., (1986) Imposing Aid. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
 
Loescher, G. (2001). The UNHCR and world politics: A perilous path. Oxford: Oxford University Press 
 
Loescher, G., Betts, A. and Milner. J., The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR): the politics and practice of refugee protection into the 21st century. Routledge, 2012 (2nd edition). 
 
Long, K., The Point of No Return: Refugees, Rights and Repatriation, Oxford: Oxford University Press 
 
Malkki, L.H. (1995) Purity and Exile: Violence, Memory and National Cosmology Among Hutu Refugees in Tanzania, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 
 
Price, M. (2009) Rethinking Asylum: History, Purpose, Limits. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 
 
Zolberg, A., Suhrke, A and Aguayo, S. (1989) Escape From Violence: Conflict and the Refugee Crisis in the Developing World. Oxford University Press: New York 
 
Many working papers and other resources are free online (often earlier versions of the same papers!): 
 
New Issues in Refugee Research (UNHCR) - http://bit.ly/gWteM8 
Refugee Studies Centre Working Papers, University of Oxford ¬¬- http://bit.ly/QTrohH 
Forced Migration Online Digital Library ¬- http://bit.ly/1bpTszr 
 
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| Study Abroad | 
Not entered | 
 
| Study Pattern | 
Not entered | 
 
| Keywords | Not entered | 
 
 
Contacts 
| Course organiser | Dr Catherine Long 
Tel:  
Email: Katy.Long@ed.ac.uk | 
Course secretary | Mr Fraser Maxwell 
Tel: (0131 6)51 5066 
Email: Fraser.Maxwell@ed.ac.uk | 
   
 
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