73342 - Geography And Policies Of Development

Course contents

The course will analyze and discuss the concept of development in history and politics of developing countries. Theories and debate about development will be presented, as well as strategies and practices of development, and the debate about their effectiveness. A part of the course will be devoted to the question of rural development in developing countries.

Important notice

In order to enhance students' participation and interaction, students attending classes must read preliminarily the following books:

R. Potter et al., Geographies of development: an introduction to development studies, Pearson Prentice Hall, Harlow, 2008

V. Desai, R. B. Potter, The companion to development studies, Hodder Education, London, 2008

Moreover students are requested to attend classes regularly and to be present during the first weeks when all information about the programme will be provided. All students attending classes, divided into groups, are requested either to present and discuss the papers recommended for the seminars' weeks or to write an essay for the final group workshop.

 

The course will be organized as follows:

FIRST PART

Introductory information about the course. Analysis of the concept of development within the field of development studies. Development in history and in international relations: from colonial empires to third world to developing countries; modernisation and development; from Washington to post Washington consensus. Analysis of the notion of development in social sciences in an historical and political perspective: idioms, concepts, debate. Human rights and development. Democratic transitions and the issues of governance, citizenship, ethnicity.

Recommendend readings:

A. Sumner, M. Tribe, International Development Studies. Theories and Methods in Research and Practice, Sage, London, 2008

A. Payne, N. Phillips, Development, Polity Press, Cambridge 2009

A. Pallotti, M. Zamponi, Le parole dello sviluppo, Carocci, Roma, 2014

 

SECOND PART

Ideas, assumptions and debate about notion and practices of aid effectiveness within the framework of international aid and cooperation will be discussed.

Reading list:

G. Hyden, After the Paris Declaration: Taking on the Issue of Power, in Development Policy Review, 26, 3, 2008

E. Mawdsley, L. Savage, Sung-Mi Kim, A ‘post-aid world'? Paradigm shift in foreign aid and development cooperation at the 2011 Busan High Level Forum, in The Geographical Journal, 2013

R. Eyben, L. Savage, Emerging and Submerging Powers: Imagined Geographies in the New Development  Partnership at the Busan Fourth High Level Forum, in Journal of Development Studies, 49, 4, 2013

 

THIRD PART

Analysis of the processes of political and social development in the rural areas of developing countries: access to land, citizenship, land reform and policies of rural development in an historical perspective. The relation between agriculture, development and poverty reduction will be discussed in the context of international development. Analysis of land reform programmes launched since the ‘90s in developing countries and of “land grabbing”. Case studies from different countries of developing countries will be discussed. This section will include some seminar activities.

Recommended readings:

H. Bernstein, Class dynamics of agrarian change, Kumarian Press; Sterling, VA, Halifax; Winnipeg Fernwood

 

Seminars on land reform and land grabbing, reading list:

C. Lund, Fragmented sovereignty: land reform and dispossession in Laos, in Journal of Peasant studies, 4, 1, 2011

C. Upton, Living off the land: Nature and nomadism in Mongolia, in Geoforum 41, 2010 

S. Granovsky-Larsen, Between the bullet and the bank: agrarian conflict and access to land in neoliberal Guatemala, in Journal of Peasant Studies, 40, 2, 2013 

P. Bottazzi, S. Rist, Changing Land Rights Means Changing Society: The Sociopolitical Effects of Agrarian Reforms under the Government of Evo Morales, in Journal of Agrarian Change, 12, 4, 2012 

Peter Jacobs, Whither agrarian reform in South Africa?, in Review of African Political Economy, 39, 131, 2012 

S. Moyo, Three decades of agrarian reform in Zimbabwe, in Journal of Peasant Studies, 38, 3, 2011

T. Lavers, Land grab' as development strategy? The political economy of agricultural investment in Ethiopia, in Journal of Peasant Studies, 39, 1, 2012 

R. Smalley, E. Corbera, Large-scale land deals from the inside out: findings from Kenya's Tana Delta, in Journal of Peasant Studies, 39, 3–4, 2012 

M. Kenney-Lazar. Plantation rubber, land grabbing and social-property transformation in southern Laos, Journal of Peasant Studies, 39, 3–4, 2012 

C. J. Fortin, The Biofuel Boom and Indonesia's Oil Palm Industry: The Twin Processes of Peasant Dispossession and Adverse Incorporation in West Kalimantan, Paper presented at the International Conference on Global Land Grabbing, 6-8 April 2011, http://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/slavery/docs/palm/Biofuel-Boom-Indonesia_Claude-Fortin_Final-2011.pdf

S. M. Borras Jr., J. C. Franco, S. Gómez, C. Kay, M. Spoor, Land grabbing in Latin America and the Caribbean in Journal of Peasant Studies, 39, 3–4, 2012

D. Ojeda, Green pretexts: Ecotourism, neoliberal conservation and land grabbing in Tayrona National Natural Park, Colombia, in Journal of Peasant Studies, 39, 2, 2012

 

FOURTH PART

Group works. Students divided in groups will be asked to present during classes the paper prepared following indications given at the beginning of the course

 

Programme for students attending classes

Students attending classes must study the following texts

A. Pallotti, M. Zamponi, Le parole dello sviluppo, Carocci, Roma 2014

Henry Bernstein, Class dynamics of agrarian change, Kumarian Press; Sterling, VA, Halifax; Winnipeg, Fernwood

A book on choice between:

A. Sumner, M. Tribe, International Development Studies. Theories and Methods in Research and Practice, Sage, London, 2008

A. Payne, N. Phillips, Development, Polity Press, Cambridge 2009

And moreover: one article on choice for the second part and one article for seminar activities.

Seminars and group activities will be assessed for the final examination

 

Programme for students not attending classes

A. Summer, M. Tribe, International Development Studies. Theories and Methods in Research and Practice, Sage, London, 2008

A. Pallotti, M. Zamponi, Le parole dello sviluppo, Carocci, Roma, 2014

Henry Bernstein, Class dynamics of agrarian change, Kumarian press; Sterling, VA, Halifax; Winnipeg Fernwood

A. Payne, N. Phillips, Development, Polity Press, Cambridge 2009

D. Craig, D. Porter, Development Beyond Liberalism. Governance, Poverty Reduction and Political Economy, Routledge, Abingdon 2006 (introduction and chapters of Part I)

 

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliographical references are indicated jointly with the syllabus.

Teaching methods

Lectures, analysis and discussion of papers and bibliographical references. Some of the lectures will be organized as seminars with discussion of some of the readings indicated in the programme. Students are requested to present and to discuss the readings they have choosen under the teacher supervision. The discussion during classes will be evaluated for the final examination.

Assessment methods

The assessment of students, both for students attending and not attending classes, takes place through an oral examination aiming to evaluate the capacity of analysis and students' knowledge on concepts and debate about development issues in a political and historical perspective and about the main processes of transformation and of political and economic reforms in developing countries discussed during the course.

Teaching tools

Transparencies, maps, newspapers, documents and reports of international organisations.

Power point presentations will be available on the service AMS Campus - Alma DL of the University of Bologna

Office hours

See the website of Mario Zamponi