General provisions

AUTUMN SEMESTER 2009

Entry requirements

Development Studies basic level or equivalent education.

Learning outcomes

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE

- To understand how contemporary development interventions 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 theory and practice.

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

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

LEARNING OUTCOMES FROM THE LECTURES

By the end of the course, students should have achieved the following (Efter genomgången föreläsningar studenten kunna)

- 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 and techniques for researching and appraising development issues.

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

LEARNING OUTCOMES AND TRANSFERABLE SKILLS FROM SEMINARS

- Synthesis and presentation of arguments from key texts.

- Development of critical thinking

- Management of time in a learning environment.

- Independence of thought in designing research activity and managing student-cohorts.

- Experience of working in a team

Content

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.

Instruction

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

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).

Assessment

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:

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.

Other regulations

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.