Entry requirements

Development Studies basic level or equivalent education.

Learning outcomes

After completion of Development Studies B the students are expected to:

• have deepened their empirical, theoretical, and methodological knowledge and skill within the field, especially regarding:
• an understanding of feminist interventions in development debates and how gender shapes development and how development practice shapes local gendered realities
• be familiar with the most important contributions within the social movement field and gained a good grasp over the debate
• through practical assignments get first hand experience of all different methods and types of information used in development research
• independently formulate a researchable hypothesis or theory built on previous research in development

Content

1. (En)Gendering International Development 7.5 credits

Objectives of the course

- To understand how contemporary development processes are shaped by historical processes of imperialism and colonialism.

- To achieve a critical understanding of dominant paradigms of development theory, practice and implementation.

- To achieve an understanding of feminist interventions in development debates.

- To understand how gender shapes development and how development practice shapes local gendered realities.

Learning outcomes from the lectures

By the end of the course, students should have achieved the following

- Develop a critical approach towards the theory and practice of development.

- Identify the tensions between gender and development.

- Ability to apply their conceptual knowledge to understand empirical case studies in historical and contemporary development contexts.

- Familiarity with different methodological tools for researching and analysing development issues.

Seminars: The 'Experts' Model

The seminar sessions will introduce the 'experts' model, which creates a learning environment with the following objectives.

- Seminars will be student-led.

- The seminars will create a learning structure where students actively learn, participate and lead discussions with fellow-scholars. Students will be responsible not just for presentation of key ideas and texts but for the smooth running of the seminar as a whole, including leading discussion and close reading of texts, encouraging participation, and providing intellectual closure at the end of the seminar.

At the start of the course, you will all be asked to sign up to facilitate a given week (in line with lectures). You facilitate as an 'expert' for a specific week/ topic of your choice. There can be two or three 'experts' facilitating each seminar, and you will need to set aside time to meet with your co-facilitators to prepare well in advance of the seminar itself. Attendance of seminars is mandatory, but will not be formally assessed.

Guidelines

1. All those who will facilitate the seminar should meet up with each other to discuss running the seminar at least a week before the seminar.

2. They should divide the tasks of conducting the seminar among themselves so that all get an opportunity to participate in the discussion.

3. The content and format of the seminar will be the responsibility of the team though you can approach the tutor and discuss your ideas before the seminar.

4. The success of the seminar depends on creativity, using different formats and engagement.

An example of the 'Expert' model.

1. You can choose an article (s) or a book chapter and present the central arguments in the piece through the author's voice. 2. Your team then evaluates this piece in relation to other existing literature. 3. You then critically present your own ideas; where you agree with the text and areas where you disagree. Your own critical insights can frame the research question for the class or you might want to critically assess a theoretical approach (through a video-clip, newspaper cutting or a documentary).

Learning outcomes and transferable skills from seminars

- Synthesis and critical presentation of other people's arguments

- Development of critical thinking

- Management of time in a learning environment.

- Independence of thought and confidence in managing student-cohorts.

- Experience of working in a team

Content of the Course

The unit introduces students to the theoretical and conceptual approaches to development theory and its implementation. It critically engages with how gender shapes development theory and how development practice impacts on gender relations and gendered realities. Focusing primarily on the global south, the unit will draw empirical examples from Africa, the Middle East, South/South East Asia and Latin America. The unit will commence with an overview of the institutionalisation of imperialism globally and how it shaped debates on development in colonial and post-colonial contexts. We will examine how feminist theoretical models have challenged ma(le)instream development debates and the 'male bias' inherent in these.

Structural Adjustment programmes were the key development tool of financial giants such as IMF and World Bank, with the aim to bring developing societies 'on track' with the developed world. But things went wrong? Why? In addition, one of the requirements of these programmes was to control 'population explosion' in the developing world but which came at a huge cost to individual lives and created gender-imbalances in societies.

The current explosion of ethic and civil conflicts have historical roots but which are never understood in terms of lack of development but in terms of innate barbarity and backwardness of nation-states. Is this entirely true?

The course will end by looking at how development processes, despite their inherent weaknesses, have created pockets of empowerment, which are self-sufficient and self-sustaining and have enabled many societies to recover from debt-led growth.

Teaching

The teaching consists of lectures and seminars. The course is taught in English.

Examination

Students will be examined through a written exam. In order to pass the course, the students need to pass the written exam. Grades are awarded according the scale, 'failed', 'pass' or 'pass with distinction'. In addition, grades will be given according to European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), that is using a seven-step scale. If seminar attendance is unsatisfactory, you will be expected to attempt an extra exam question.

2. Development models, justice and social movements 7.5 credits

Course aims

After completion of the course, students are expected to have acquired the following:

- be familiar with the most important contributions within the social movement field and gained a good grasp over the debate

- understand, summarise, and critically analyse this body of research

- identify new important and interesting research questions within the social movement field

Content of the course

Who participates in social movements around the world? What issues are important for activists in different countries? How are these issues framed? What's the interaction between social movements and political institutions? Do political protests have any effect?

This course aims at giving a good overview of the social movements field. We study the key contributions within this research field (defined as work that other researchers take as their point of departure), learn about different social movements in Latin America, Africa, Middle East, and Asia, and also about transnational activism. We begin the course by looking at the development model (poverty reduction) that international monetary organisations strongly recommend developing countries to adopt, and contrast it with the development model (structural adjustment programmes) so dominant in the 1980s. We analyse the World Bank's relation with China as a way to illustrate the relationship between the two development models. The edited book by McAdam, McCarthy and Zald gives a good overview of the main theoretical trends within this field, including theories and concepts such as resource mobilisation, political opportunity structures, and framing. Then we will read about empirical descriptions of social movements around the world. Established theories are all almost exclusively based on protest movements in the U.S. and Western Europe and we will compare and discuss these empirical cases with existing theories with regard to, for example, who participates, which issues are important, how ae these issues framed, political institutions and impact. Lastly, we compare the national social movements with the transnational activism that has received much attention in the media lately, and examine if this new phenomena can be encompassed within the existing theoretical framework on social movements.

Teaching

The teaching consists of lectures and seminars (possibly also a visit to a Non-governmental organisation who works with aid in Stockholm). The course is taught in Swedish.

Examination

Examination will be through a written exam. Preparations before, and active participation in seminars is required. Grades are awarded according to the scale "failed", "pass" or "pass with distinction". In addition, grades will be given according to European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), that is using a seven-step scale.

3. Studying problems in Development 15 credits

Instruction

The teaching consists of lectures, seminars, video films, and study visits.

Assessment

The first two parts of the course are examined by means of a written test and assignments. The third part is examined by means of assignment and active participation in the seminars. An opportunity for a re-test is given ca 3-4 weeks after the first exam. The time and place for the written tests is announced in the schedule on the net. Grades are awarded according the scale "failed", "pass" or "pass with distinction". In addition, grades will be given according to European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), that is using a seven-step scale. To get the grade "pass with distinction" for the whole course that grade is needed for at least 15 points of the totally 30 points.

Course level in relation to degree requirements

The students will develop their ability to critically analyse, understand and deal with, both orally and in writing, some relatively advanced texts from the central research fields of political science. The course gives the students an opportunity to reflect upon the requirements of a scientific discussion. Special attention is thereby given to the art of conveying the thoughts of others in an analytically meaningful way; the need for a concept formation of one's own "an instrument of analysis" for the characterisation and comparison of different ideas, and the importance of dealing with relevant critique in order to support one's own thesis. The student is expected to contribute actively with his own views, and there will be practice in oral presentations of the acquired knowledge.

On completion of the course the student is expected to have obtained the necessary knowledge and competence to define research problems as well as carrying out and assessing empirical studies of a simple but yet qualitative kind. The course thereby provides the student with the knowledge and understanding of some basic methodological questions in the field of social science. The skills practiced include the competence to identify, formulate and seek answers to political science problems; the ability to define and carry out an assignment within given time limits; the ability to present and discuss information, problems and solutions, orally as well as in the written form; the ability to work independently with research problems and various project assignments.