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Development and Social Change

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Course Type Course Code No. Of Credits
Discipline Core SHE2ED102 4

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The course will seek answers to some key questions about the world we live in: What is ‘development’, and how can it be measured? What is ‘underdevelopment’? Have these ideas and concepts changed over time? Why are some countries or regions so rich, and others so poor? What is the role of the state, the market and civil society in achieving ‘development’? What are the new challenges of development in the 21st century?

In doing so, the course aims to integrate the concepts and perspectives of a range of social science disciplines to demonstrate how they can usefully be combined to further understanding of problems of development and social change.

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course, students will

  • have a well-rounded understanding of key theories that have informed the idea of development
  • be informed about the diverse experiences of development in different parts of the world
  • Understand of some of the most significant debates about sustainable development in the era of globalization
  • Be able to develop a critical understanding of the concept of development in the context of increased precarity in contemporary times
  • Be able to critically evaluate alternative models of development for the 21st century

 

COURSE CONTENT

S. No.

Module

Unit I

Looking back: The history of development

1

What is development – Issues of definition and measurement

2

Colonial, capitalism and development

3

Industrialization and nationalist growth

4

Development and rural change

5

Trade, aid and development

6

Globalization and the International debt crisis

7

Neoliberal reforms and the Global financial crisis

Unit II

Looking ahead: Reimagining development in the Anthropocene

8

Disharmonies of Globalization

9

Resisting development: Environmentalism of the poor

10

Rethinking development: Precarity and the capitalocene

11

Reimagining development: Degrowth and return to human scale

12

Reconfiguring development: Redistributive politics

INDICATIVE READING LIST

Core Text Book

  • McMichael, Philip (2007). Development and Social Change. Pine Forge Press.

Key Readings

  • Chang, Ha Joon (ed.) Rethinking Development Economics London: Anthem Press.
  • Dwivedi, Ranjit (2001). “Environmental Movements in the Global South: Issues of livelihood and beyond”, International Sociology Vol.16(1):11-31.
  • Escobar, Arturo (2010). Planning. In Sachs, Wolfgang (ed.) (2010). The Development Dictionary: A guide to knowledge and power. London, Zed Books.
  • Esteva, G (2010). Development. In W. Sachs (ed.) The Development Dictionary.
  • Gardner, K. And D. Lewis (2015) Anthropology and Development: Challenges for the twenty first century Pluto Press.
  • Jason W. Moore (2017): The Capitalocene, Part I: on the nature and origins of our ecological crisis, The Journal of Peasant Studies, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2016.1235036
  • Li, Tania Murray. “After Development: Surplus Population and the Politics of Entitlement.” Development and Change 48, no. 6 (2017): 1247–1261. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12344.
  • Ravallion, Martin. “Guaranteed Employment or Guaranteed Income?” World Development 115 (2019): 209–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.11.013.
  • Rist, Gilbert (2007) Development as a buzzword, Development in Practice,17:4-5, 485-491, DOI: 10.1080/09614520701469328
  • Rodrik, Dani. 2006. ―Goodbye Washington Consensus, Hello Washington Confusion? A Review of the World Bank‘s Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of Reform”. Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XLIV (December 2006), pp. 973–987.
  • Rodrik, Dani. The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy. W.W. Norton, New York and London, 2011.Chapter 3.
  • Sachs, Wolfgang (ed.) (2010). The Development Dictionary: A guide to knowledge and power. London, Zed Books.
  • Teresita Cruz-Del Rosario & Jonathan Rigg (2019) Living in an Age of Precarity in 21st Century Asia, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 49:4, 517-527, DOI:10.1080/00472336.2019.1581832

 

Additional Readings

  • Chari, Sharad and Stuart Corbridge (ed.) 2008. The Development Reader. Routledge
  • Ferguson, James. 2006. The Anti-Politics Machine. In Aradhana Sharma and Akhil Gupta (Eds.). The Anthropology of the State: A Reader, London: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 270—286.
  • Horner, R. and Hulme, D. (2019), From International to Global Development: New Geographies of 21st Century Development. Development and Change, 50: 347-378. doi:10.1111/dech.12379
  • Hoshour, K. and Kalafut, J. (2010) A Growing Global Crisis: Development-Induced Displacement & Resettlement. Issue Paper International Accountability Project, San Francisco
  • Kiely, Ray. “Assessing Conservative Populism: A New Double Movement or Neoliberal Populism?” Development and Change 51, no. 2 (March 2020): 398–417. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12567.
  • Kothari, Ashish. “Radical Ecological Democracy: A Path Forward for India and Beyond.” Development 57, no. 1 (2014): 36–45. https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2014.43.
  • Scott, Jim. “Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance”. Journal of Peasant Studies 13, no. 2 (January 1986): 5–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066158608438289.
  • Stiglitz, Joseph (2002). Globalization and its Discontents. W.W. Norton & Co. Chapter 9.
  • Vira, B. (2015), Taking Natural Limits Seriously: Implications for Development Studies and the Environment. Development and Change, 46: 762-776. doi:10.1111/dech.12175

 

ASSESSMENT

This course consists of five hours of face-to-face interactions each week, including 4 hours of classroom lectures/ guided readings, and one hour of group work/ tutorials per week. Lectures will be interactive and will allow for intensive class participation and discussion. Core as well as additional study material will be posted to students on Google Classroom. A variety of journal papers, films, blogs and other online resource material will be made available on Google Classroom for each module during the course transaction.

The assessment structure will be as follows:

Assessment

Weight

Description

Date

1

25% 

Test

September

2

35%

Essay + Viva

October

3

40%

Presentation + Viva

December

 

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