Postgraduate Course: Development: Principles and Practices (PGGE11211)
Course Outline
School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
Summary | Principles (OED): A scientific theorem or natural law that explains why something happens or how it works.
Practices (OED): The actual doing of something rather than theories about it.This course aims to introduce students to the field of development by offering an overview its theoretical underpinnings, historical linkages, its inherently contested and ideological nature and how it pans out in contemporary practice. We start by appreciating the ways in which different ideologies have shaped understandings of development theories to glean the deeply political nature of various theoretical foundations underpinning development. It is intended to offer a working knowledge of how development has been shaped, where it is going, and why it remains complex and contradictory,and hence its practices contingent. |
Course description |
The overwhelming objective of this course is not about how to do development but rather what it means to do development, as the latter helps appreciate the intersection between social justice and current preoccupations with development sans social justice. The course is structured to appreciate the academic endeavours around development theories and practices rather than as a vocational training unit on doing development.
Topic Overview:
1. Theories of Development (I)
2. Theories of Development (II)
3. Development and Disparity
4. Tackling Infectious Diseases to Benefit Africa (TIBA)
5. Gender and refugee self-reliance: Humanitarian livelihood support for Syrian refugees
6. Environmental Governance, Gender and Marine Conservation
7. Group Presentations
8. Neo-liberalism's Ascendency: China in Africa
9. Volcanology in Montserrat and the Caribbean
10. 'Doing the "Dirty" Work: Gender, Domestic Work, and Globalisation'
11. Conclusion: Development. Which way now?
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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 2019/20, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 40 |
Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
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Lecture Hours 30,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
166 )
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Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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Additional Information (Assessment) |
There are two components of assessment within this course unit; one which is a group presentation and another which is an individual essay from a set of essay topics linked to the themes covered within the course. The group presentation will assess current approaches to development and is worth 40%, while the essay of 3000 words is worth 60%.
Key Assessment Dates:
Week 6: Essay plan
Week 7: Group presentations
Week 10: Essay due
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Feedback |
Not entered |
No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Acquire advanced knowledge for developing a reasoned arguments by evaluating, interpreting and providing a critique of complex evidence;
- Understand the relationship between theory and practice, both in a 'development' context and in the formulation and conduct of academic research;
- Begin to develop an appropriate academic writing style and method;
- Learn to critique and comment on scholarship on development and its contemporary practices, through written word and via debate, dialogue and conversation
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Reading List
Suggested Texts:
Brooks, Andrew (2017) The End of Development: A Global History of Poverty and Prosperity London: Zed Books
Chang, Ha-Joon (2014) Economics: The User¿s Guide London: Pelican (an imprint of Penguin)
Willis, Katie (2005) Theories and Practices of Development London and New York: Routledge [Suitable for those of you new to development theory and as a simple introductory text]
Suggested Reading(s):
Escobar, Arturo (1995) Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ.
Murray-Li, Tania (2014) Land¿s End: Capitalist Relations on an Indigenous Frontier Duke University Press: Durham & London
Rai, Shirin (2008) The Gender Politics of Development London: Zed Books
Sanyal, Kalyan (2007) Rethinking Capitalist Development: Primitive Accumulation, Governmentality and Post-Colonial Capitalism London: Routledge
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Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
Keywords | Development theories,debates,practices and international challenges. |
Contacts
Course organiser | Dr Helen Cross
Tel:
Email: hcross@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Paula Escobar
Tel: (0131 6)50 2543
Email: paula.escobar@ed.ac.uk |
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