General provisions

AUTUMN SEMESTER 2010

Entry requirements

Development Studies basic level or equivalent education.

Learning outcomes

- 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

- 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.

LEALEARNING 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

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.

Assessment

Kursen examineras genom en skriven tentamen samt aktivt deltagande i seminarier. Om deltagandet i seminarier inte är tillfredsställande får man besvara en extra fråga på tentan. Den tregradiga betygsskalan Underkänd, Godkänd, Väl godkänd tillämpas.

Students will be examined through a written exam. Each question carries 50 points and you have to attempt 2 questions to make a total of 100 points. Each answer should not exceed 500 words. In order to be eligible for the written exam you should have successfully completed the oral presentation assigned to you during the seminars. The oral presentation does not carry a grade but participation is compulsory. If you fail to give an oral presentation, you will not be eligible for the scheduled written exam. Moreover, there will also be a 5% deduction from your final exam grade and you will have to wait till the re-sit exam takes place.

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.

Seminar attendance is mandatory

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. It is mandatory to do three 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.