Postgraduate Course: Deconstructing Development: Technology and Development Policy (PGSP11397)
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) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course seeks to draw on theory and practice from science and technology studies and development studies in understanding the role scientific and technological knowledge and technologies play in shaping development, and vice versa, in less-developed regions of the world. The course will first take a historical perspective to answer questions concerning how western science spread around the world so effectively and how did colonial governments made use of scientific knowledge and technology. Further we will explore how colonised peoples reacted to, and contribute to scientific research and technological development. We will consider the role of science and technology in transitions to independent governance and the 'postcolonial'. Throughout the course we will be asking what the potential is for science and technology to make sustainable contributions to global development today. |
| Course description |
Indicative Weekly Themes
1. Definitions of Development
2. The role of ¿Western Science and Technology¿ in Development
3. The New International Development Agencies
4. Science and Technology, Technocracy and Development
5. The role of users, their cultural practices and the introduction of a new technology
6. Technology Transfer/Knowledge Impasse- The case-study of M-Pesa
7. Global and Local Biofuel Networks
8. The trajectory of the Green Revolution ¿ rethinking the
development trajectory
9. Risks of Socio-technical development initiatives
10. The open market/free market regulation and its impact on technology
and development (or) Science, Health and Development (or) Gender and
Science in Development
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course students will:
- Develop an advanced knowledge and understanding of the principal theories, principles and concepts of science and technology studies and development studies;
- Be able to offer their own analyses of the practices of international development using these theories principles and concepts;
- Gain experience in dealing with primary and secondary source materials and learn to critically review and assess these materials;
- Develop the ability to use these materials and methods to critically examine the role of science and technology in development policy and offer their own analyses;
- Be able to demonstrate a critical awareness of current issues in science, technology and international development;
- Develop their skills in essay-writing and oral presentation
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Reading List
Adas, M. (1989) Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
- Agrawal, A. (1995) Dismantling the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge, Development and Change, 26(3), 413-429.
- Anker, P. (2001) Imperial Ecology: Environmental Order in the British Empire, 1895-1945, Cambridge.
- Beinart, W., and J. McGregor, eds. (2003) Social History and African Environments, Oxford: James Currey.
- Drayton, R. (2000) Nature's Government: Science, Imperial Britain, and the 'Improvement' of the World, Yale University Press.
- Dubow, S., ed. (2000) Science and Society in Southern Africa, Manchester.
- Ferguson, J. (1999) Expectations of Modernity: Myths and Meanings of Urban Life in the Zambian Copperbelt, University of California Press, Los Angeles.
- Grove, R. (1995) Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism, Cambridge.
- Headrick, D. (1988) The Tentacles of Progress: Technology Transfer in the Age of Imperialism, Oxford University Press.
- Hodge, J. (2007) Triumph of the Expert: Agrarian Doctrines of Development and the Legacies of British Colonialism, Ohio University Press.
- Kumar, D. (1994) Science and the Raj, 1857-1905 Oxford University Press.
- Leach, M. and Scoones, I. (2006) The Slow Race: Making Technology Work for the Poor, Demos, London
- Livingstone, David N. Putting Science in its Place: Geographies of Scientific Knowledge, (Chicago: 2003)
- Mackenzie, J., ed. (1990) Imperialism and the Natural World, Manchester.
- MacLeod, R. and D. Kumar, eds. (1995) Technology and the Raj: Western Technology and Technical Transfers to India, 1700-1947 Sage.
- Sismondo, S. (2009) An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies, 2nd edition. Blackwell, Oxford.
- Smith, J. (2009) Science, Technology and Development, Zed Books, London.
- Staples, A. (2006) The Birth of Development: How the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization, and World Health Organization Changed the World, 1945-1965, Kent State University Press, Kent.
- UNESCO (2010) Engineering: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities for Development, UNESCO Publishing
- UNESCO (2010) UNESCO Science Report 2010: The Current Status of Science around the World, UNECO Publishing
- Yearley, S. (2005) Making Sense of Science: Understanding the Social Study of Science, Sage, London.
- special issues of journals
Social Studies of Science 32:5-6 (2002): 'Postcolonial Technoscience'.
- Isis 96:1 (2005): Focus on 'Colonial Science'.
- Osiris 15 (2000): 'Nature and Empire: Science and the Colonial Enterprise'.
- Osiris 21 (2006): 'Global Power Knowledge: Science and Technology in International Affairs' |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Lawrence Dritsas
Tel: (0131 6)50 4011
Email: L.Dritsas@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Jade Birkin
Tel: (0131 6)51 1659
Email: Jade.Birkin@ed.ac.uk |
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