Postgraduate Course: Global Development Challenges (Distance Learning) (PGSP11326)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | 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. |
| Course description |
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.
By the end of the course, it is expected that students will be able to:
Demonstrate knowledge of major global issues and pressures, their genesis and drivers
Demonstrate knowledge of key governance strategies, regimes and approaches
Be able to analyse approaches to governance in relation to development
Be able to analyse and evaluate the implications and impacts of select global issues and how ways of attempting to govern them
Key course modules:
1. Approaches to Development: Poverty, Social Progress and Happiness (2 weeks)
2. Land Relations, Property Rights and Development (2 weeks)
3. Migration, Livelihoods and Development
4. Global Governance in Action
5. Failed States, Governance and 'Criminal' Networks (2 weeks)
6. The State as Object and Agent of Development
7. Multiple Scales of Power and Formalisation Debates in Developing Countries
Student Learning Experience
The course is delivered asynchronously through a mix of short video lectures that will draw upon expertise from across the university and a range of interactive online activities such as blogs, fora, online quizzes etc.
Moodle is the core learning management system, it is what is more widely known as a 'virtual learning environment' (VLE). The VLE is a web space which enables the course tutor to deliver all of the course materials, readings and communicative tools needed to teach online. Access to the VLE is via a standard web browser.
The course is designed to equip people already working in development or people wishing to work in development, with the tools, knowledge and skills to engage with complex problems and relationships between politics, economics, society, culture and environment.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2016/17, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
| Course Start Date |
19/09/2016 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
70% of the course assessment will be based on a final essay (3000 words)
Contributions to online discussion forums and reflections:
20% of the course assessment will be based a student selected example of their best submission to the online discussion forum for the course of 700 -1000 words and one reply on the discussion forum of 300 - 500 words.
10% based on participation in weekly discussion forum. |
| Feedback |
Students receive feedback on an essay plan within 10 days of submission. Students are required to reflect upon their feedback in order to improve their final coursework. Students also have the opportunity to discuss their ideas in a group skype seminar session prior to the final submission date for their summative assessment.
There may be some overlap in the issues that you focus on in the various courses, so you should pay careful attention to the topics you select. It is important that you do not duplicate your work. Students will have the opportunity to select a pre-written essay question or come up with their own essay topics in some cases; essays on self-selected topics need to be previously agreed with the Programme Director. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- show in-depth knowledge of the major global development issues and the actors within this field
- understand the complex social, political and economic contexts in which global governance takes place
- critique and analyse key governance strategies, regimes and approaches in global development
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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. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students will develop analytical approaches to complex, integrated analysis. They will develop an ability to sift complex information and generation conclusions. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Hazel Gray
Tel: (0131 6)50 3879
Email: Hazel.Gray@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Nicole Develing-Bogdan
Tel: (0131 6)51 5067
Email: v1ndeve2@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
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