Critical Development Studies

Content

Development is more than development. While the improvement of people’s livelihoods, economic growth, technological advancement, and institutional predictability and justice are central to ideas of development, these challenges are often seen as technical, and the goals as inherently benign. Development has been one of the cornerstones of the post-World War II world order and its global institutions such as the World Bank, the UN and the IMF. However, the very idea of development, of mankind’s capacity to change its conditions, reaches back to European Enlightenment and Modernity, and is far from monochromatic. Development is integral to both liberalism and Marxism, and in many ways, development is understood as a path one must take to reach the promised land of modernity. However, development is notoriously difficult to define and measure. Development experts regularly insist that development has changed the world for the better. They point to improved global health, higher literacy rates, and statistical correlations between development and peace. However, critics argue that development has failed to address many of the greatest problems facing the planet today, and some argue that development is even complicit in these problems. 

In this course we will critically analyze development as a political imaginary and practice by engaging a series of themes. Each theme will be taught specialists and consists of a series of teaching sessions (typically 4 over two weeks) to ensure a satisfactory depth. Moreover, the course will contain a methodological component, which revolves around the craft of writing essays.