Development Alternatives Fall 2013

Special Topics in International Development: Development Alternatives

Prof. Cuz Potter
Graduate School of International Studies
Korea University
Fall 2013

1 Introduction

Solutions are dictated by the way problems are framed. Similarly, in development, the theories we use to explain the world dictate the types of policy solutions we propose. This course seeks primarily to explore less familiar frameworks for understanding the global context within which development unfolds and the types of solutions those frameworks imply. In particular, the course will explore how changing development practices have reflected the evolution of systems theory into resilience theory. Our inquiry will concentrate on environmental challenges and examples will be drawn from Africa, South America, and the Himalayas.

2 Objectives

By the end of this course, students will be knowledgeable on:

1. Several frameworks for understanding ecosystems.
2. A selection of historical and contemporary alternative approaches to development.
3. The complex interaction between localized cultures, environmental practices, and economic organization within the development process.

3 Course Requirements

• A one-page Reaction Paper (RP) is due electronically by 9am THURSDAY morning each week for 7 out of the 11 weeks for which there are readings. This allows you to choose which weeks to write a reflection paper. The papers will not be graded with a letter grade, but will be allocated from zero to three points depending on how actively your paper engages the material. The paper should usually be 350–500 words (about one page single-spaced). These brief papers are intended to facilitate class discussion in seminar. You can use the Reaction Paper (RP) to ask for clarification about any aspect of the readings you did not fully understand and/or to express an opinion about one or more of the readings. In general, I would advise you to focus the RP on only one of the readings assigned for each week. RPs should be clearly written, spell-checked, and grammatically correct.
• One individual research paper is required. You are free to choose your own topic, but it must be closely related to the material and approved by the professor. These papers must explicitly draw on the assigned readings and class discussions. The paper must be 3500–5000 words long (not including cover pages and bibliographies). Late papers will lose ten points (one letter grade) per day.
• There will no examinations.

4 Grading

5 Plagiarism

Plagiarism is unacceptable. If plagiarism is detected, you will receive a zero for the given assignment. Please note that plagiarism is much broader than many students realize. You are encouraged to look at the excellent descriptions of plagiarism from Indiana University (http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml), Harvard University (http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k70847&pageid=icb.page342054), and the University of Wisconsin (http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QuotingSources.html), and you will be held to their standards.

6 Required texts

The following books are available through Kyobo Books or 공문화사. They will also be on reserve at the central library (in both Korean and English if available).

• Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows. Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. Earthscan, London, 2004.
• Walter Rodney. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Howard University Press, Washington, DC, 1982.
• Julius K. Nyerere. Ujamaa: Essays on Socialism. Oxford University Press, London, 1968.
• Brian Walker and David Salt. Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World. Island Press, London, 2006.
• Arturo Escobar. Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes. Duke University Press, Durham, 2008.
• Helena Norberg-Hodge. Ancient Futures: Lessons from Ladakh for a Globalizing World. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 2009.

All other materials will be available electronically through the class website.

7 Schedule of Topics and Reading

Module 1: Systems theory and development

Week 1 (September 5): Introduction

Week 2 (September 12): Systems theory I

1. Limits to Growth, chapters 1–3.

Week 3 (September 19): No class.

Week 4 (September 26): Systems theory II

1. Limits to Growth, chapters 4–8.

Week 5 (October 3): No class.

Week 6 (October 10): Underdevelopment of Africa I

1. Rodney, chapters 1–4.

Week 7 (October 17): Underdevelopment of Africa II

1. Rodney, chapters 5–6.

Week 8 (October 24—Exam week)

Week 9 (October 31): Ujaama

1. Nyerere, chapters 1–2 and 4–7.
2. James C. Scott. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, chapter Compulsory Villagization in Tanzania: Aesthetics and Miniaturization, pages 223–261. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1998.

Module 2: Resilience, localization, and development

Week 10 (November 7): Complexity theory and the environment

1. Walker and Salt (entire book).

Week 11 (November 14): Post-development I

1. Escobar, chapters 1–3.

Week 12 (November 21): Post-development II (Paper topic due)

1. Escobar, chapters 4–conclusion.

Week 13 (November 30): Sumak kawsay

1. Rafael Correa. Ecuador’s “Buen Vivir” revolution. New Perspectives Quarterly, 28(2):70–72, 2011.
2. Catherine Walsh. Development as buen vivir: Institutional arrangments and (de)colonial entanglements. Development, 53(1):15–21, 2010.
3. Bob Thomson. Pachakuti: Indiginous perspectives, buen vivir, sumaq kawsay and degrowth. Development, 54(4):448–454, 2011.
4. Sarah A. Radcliffe. Development for a postneoliberal era? Sumak kawsay, living well and the limits to decolonisation in Ecuador. Geoforum, 43:240–249, 2012.
5. Murat Arsel. Between ‘Marx and markets’? the state, the ‘left turn’ and nature in Ecuador. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 103(2):150–163, 2012.

Week 14 (December 5): Localization I

1. Norberg-Hodge, chapters 1–14.

Week 15 (December 12): Localization II

1. Norberg-Hodge, chapters 15–end.

Week 16 (December 20): Final exams week. (Paper due by 5pm.)