General provisions

AUTUMN SEMESTER 2008

Entry requirements

Development Studies basic level or equivalent education.

Learning outcomes

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

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.

Instruction

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

Assessment

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'. If seminar attendance is unsatisfactory, you will be expected to attempt an extra exam question. Additional information is also given in the form of a seven-point grading system (ECTS).