Undergraduate Course: African Studies: Topics & Themes (AFRI10007)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | African Studies: Topics & Themes takes a recent topic, one emerging in the news or in the academic literature, and provides students with the tools to situate it within the larger academic literature on contemporary Africa, the political context, and methods of analysis. |
| Course description |
The learning aims of this course are to develop a wide and deep understanding of contemporary Africa, drawing on the multi-disciplinary approach of African Studies. Students will learn about the historical roots of modern phenomenon on the continent and situate these within a wider global context. Students will develop expertise about particular countries and regions as well as on particular themes, depending on the focus of the course for the year.
In this academic year, the course focuses on Money & Finance in Africa. Moving beyond merely asking questions about why some parts of the world are rich and others are poor, this course asks what exactly is money? Is credit always a good thing? Is debt necessarily a bad thing? How does finance work, actually? How have financial systems been made historically and how might they be remade today?
We draw on anthropological, historical, and political economy perspectives to look at the role of money and finance in making an unequal but interconnected world. While African case studies predominate, the course foregrounds connections to the wider world and develops an approach to money & finance from the global South.
Indicative topics we may cover include:
1. Digital finance, FinTech (i.e. financial technology), and the possibility of a cashless economy
2. Colonialism and taxation
3. 'Informal' economies and the social life of money
4. International financial institutions, sovereign borrowing, and climate finance
5. Central banking, 'high finance', banking and microfinance
Students will learn substantive information about the topic itself but perhaps more importantly they will acquire the generic skills to analyse social phenomena in contemporary Africa: how to place it within a larger context, where to look for information about context, the types of variables (whether social, economic, cultural, or political) to consider when analysing the phenomenon, how to identify wider theories and concepts to analyse the phenomenon and how to acquire evidence that would support one theoretical interpretation over another.
|
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 4 Social Sciences courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate comprehensive understanding of contemporary debates on African politics, economics, and society, from both a theoretical and empirical perspective.
- apply specialist in-depth knowledge of specific areas and issues in relation to contemporary African politics, economics, and society.
- critically engage with key explanatory African studies theories, concepts, and issues.
- deploy effective communications skills to provide clear and concise analysis on topics concerning contemporary Africa.
- engage in critical thinking, reflection and debate about African contexts.
|
Reading List
Kevin Gallagher and Richard Kozul-Wright, The Case for a New Bretton Woods (Polity Press 2021)
Jane Guyer, 'Money in the Future of Africans', in African Futures: Essays on Crisis, Emergence, and Possibility (University of Chicago Press 2017)
Deborah James, Money from Nothing: Indebtedness and Aspiration in South Africa (Stanford University Press 2014)
Leonce Ndikumana and James Boyce, Africa's Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent (Zed Books 2011)
Ndongo Samba Sylla and Fanny Pigeaud, African's Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story (Pluto Press 2021) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Critical thinking and analysis
Team work
Effective written and verbal communication
Effective research and analytical skills |
| Keywords | Africa,money,finance,development,economy,politics |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Kevin Donovan
Tel:
Email: kevin.donovan@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
|
|
University Homepage