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

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

- 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.

- Gained good knowledge on how development processes, both, alleviate suffering and impoverish livelihoods.

- To develop in-depth understanding on how structural processes impact on everyday lives of people.

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

This unit introduces students to the theoretical and conceptual approaches in 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 how 'orientalism' serves as an effective discourse for the justification and institutionalisation of (neo)-imperialism globally and the ways in which it shapes debates on development in colonial and post-colonial contexts. We will move on to analyse the collusions and contestations between colonialism and nationalism and the important but often neglected role of 'domesticity' as an anti-colonial strategy.

We will then investigate how feminist theoretical models have challenged ma(le)instream development debates and the inherent 'male bias'. 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 purpose of these programmes was to control 'population explosion' in the developing world but which came at a huge cost to individual livelihoods and created gender-imbalances in societies.

As well as considering substantive development issues, the course allows the opportunity to look at the changing role of the state in relation to war and violence. The current explosion of ethnic and civil conflicts are not understood in terms of lack of development, but, problematically, in terms of innate barbarity and backwardness of nation-states. Is this entirely true?

The course will conclude 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. Each question carries 50 points and you have to attempt 2 questions only to make a total of 100 points. Each answer should not exceed 1000 words.

In order to pass the course, the students need to pass the written exam. The maximum number of points is 100. To pass you need 50. To get Väl godkänt you need 75.

For exchange students only:

In addition, grades will be given according to European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), that is using a seven-step scale. For the ECTS grades you need: A:90-100, B:75-89, C:61-74, D:55-60, E:50-54 p.

Seminar attendance is mandatory. If seminar attendance is unsatisfactory, you will be expected to attempt an extra exam question.

Core texts and readings for the entire course

You are expected to use the core texts which are seminal for understanding the debates on gender and development and which will also be used throughout the course. The books marked with a * can be bought and those marked as ^ are available as an e-book.

It is mandatory to do two readings per week from the selection of readings provided for each week. This will also enable you to follow the lectures and participate in the seminars.

Note-

Due to copyright legislation the department cannot provide any copies of the book-chapters.

2. Social movements and political change in developing countries 7.5 credits

Learning outcomes

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

- be able to understand, summarise, and critically analyse a few central contributions in the literature on social movements

- be familiar with different types of social movements in developing countries

- analyse how social movements in developing countries differ from, or are similar to, social movements in developed countries, and thereby be able to identify new important and interesting research questions within the field

Content of the course

Social movements is today an important channel to influence politics through participation, and some scholars are talking about a 'social movement society' because of its institutionalisation. The literature on social movements is to a large extent based on movements in the West (U.S in particular and, to some degree, Europe) and therefore also on movements in developed countries and democracies. Different types of social movements are however widespread also in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and have informed theoretical discussions. By including the experiences and analysis from countries in the South, and thereby also developing countries and authoritarian regimes, there are large potential for theory development within the field.

This course aims to understand and analyse social movements in developing countries through different perspectives. We discuss, among other things, identity formation within different movements, how different groups chose to frame their claims, the political context and the political opportunities within systems, and if political protests lead anywhere. The global discourse on human rights has influenced how local groups around the world chose to frame their demands for change. Transnational networks between movements play an increasing role: international organisations (often with headquarters in the North) can influence national governments (often in the South) to give in to demands which local groups could not have pressed on their own.

What do social movements mean for politics in developing countries? Can protests initiate political change? Can marginalised groups influence policy-making? Many groups protest against the neo-liberal model that has been dominant in the past decades while at the same time they adopt a rights perspective, which can be seen as part of the neo-liberal model, and herein lies a paradox. This paradox will be a main theme throughout the course. One question we pose is whether the focus on identity politics, and the right to be different with regard to ethnicity, gender or sex in the past decades overshadow, and even undermine, previous demands for redistribution of resources.

Teaching

The teaching consists of lectures, seminars and a study visit to a Swedish organisation which works together with local groups in developing countries. The course is taught in Swedish.

Examination

Examination will be through a written home exam. Preparations before, and active participation in seminars is required. Grades are awarded according to the scale "failed", "pass" or "pass with distinction".

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". 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.