Intro to Development Studies

I regularly teach ID 125 - Tales from the Far Side. ID 125 is a core course for the undergraduate major and is equivalent to an Introduction of Development Studies course.

Course description: Geo-politics and international relations invariably refer to the problems of Third World under-development. This course introduces studies to key histories, concepts and debates in international development through critical and analytical engagements with relevant literature on the subject. We will examine development as a project that involves power relation s and regimes of rule. We will witness how development is historically and culturally situated and explore the ways in which people/communities mobilize, make history, and envision alternative futures that ultimately can change how we all live with one another, encounter and define what ‘development’ means, and perhaps more importantly, as defined by whom.

The course will not provide definitive answers to the above questions. Rather, the goal is to present students with a range of viewpoints on different issues and to create opportunities to further strengthen their critical thinking and writing skills. By the end of the course, you should be able to knowledgeably discuss the following the topics:

1) The history and political economy of “development” as a post-WWII project;

2) Key debates concerning development, under-development, globalization, neoliberalism, and the role of the state in social and economic development;

3) The rise of international financial institutions and development agencies as well as the role non-governmental organizations, social movements, and other “civil society” actors have played in this complicated process;

4) Some of the key concepts and practices within the development industry (e.g. humanitarian assistance, accountability, gender equality, environmental sustainability, and volunteer / voluntourism).

If you take this class with me, here is a sample of what you might read.

Books

1. Halder, Baby. 2008. A life less ordinary: A memoir. New York: Harper Perennial

2. Kincaid, Jamaica. 1988 (2000). A Small Place. Penguin Books.

3. Smirl, Lisa. 2015. Spaces of Aid: How cars, compounds, and hotels shape humanitarianism. London: Zed Books.

4. Patel, Raj and Jason W. Moore. 2017. History of the World in 7 Cheap Things. University of California Press

5. Rademacher, Anne. 2018. Building Green: Environmental Architects and the Struggle for Sustainability in Mumbai. University of California Press

Articles and Book Chapters

Menon, G.A. 2010. “Recoveries of Space and Subjectivity in the Shadow of Violence: The Clandestine Politics of Pavement Dwellers in Mumbai.” In: McMichael, P (ed). Contesting Development: Critical Struggles for Social Change. Routledge: New York and London. Pp. 151-164.

Guttentag, Daniel. 2009. The Possible Negative Impacts of Volunteer Tourism International Journal of Tourism Research 11: 537-551.

Vogelstein, R. 2013. Ending Child Marriage: How elevating the status of girls advances US Foreign Policy Objectives. New York. Council on Foreign Relations. 31 pp

Chun, J. 2005. Public Dramas and the Politics of Justice: Comparison of Janitors' Union Struggles in South Korea and the United States. Work and Occupations 32(4): 486-503.

Peluso, Nancy Lee. 1995. “Whose Woods are These? Counter Mapping Forest Territories in Kalimantan, Indonesia.” Antipode 27(4): 383-406.

Radjawali, I., O. Pye, and M. Flitner. 2017. “Recognition through reconnaissance? Using drones for counter-mapping in Indonesia” Journal of Peasant Studies 44(4): 817-833