Postgraduate - UnitAPG4090 - Contemporary issues in development practice

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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12 points, SCA Band 1, 0.250 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Offered	Clayton First semester 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Samanthi Gunawardana

Synopsis

This foundation unit introduces students to key contemporary debates in the multi-disciplinary field of development from a practice based perspective. Drawing on a series of empirically-rich case studies, the unit highlights the actions of government, NGO, and community stakeholders in addressing economic and social vulnerability, resilience-building and recovery in developing and newly-industrialized economies. Students will develop capacity to analyse and negotiate the complex geopolitical, economic, cultural and ethical issues surrounding current development policies and processes including management of complex humanitarian emergencies.

Outcomes

On completion of the unit, students will be able to:

Understand key concepts and debates influencing current economic and social vulnerability, post-emergency recovery and resilience-building in developing and newly-industrialized economies.
Critically analyse the economic and social implications of diverse policy approaches to development practice including complex humanitarian emergency management, prevention and recovery;
Understand the global networks of government agencies, inter-governmental institutions, policy think-tanks, research centres, NGOs, advocacy and activist organizations related to development;
Identify the essential processes of on-the-ground action in the work of development and other agencies addressing economic and social vulnerability, post-emergency recovery and resilience-building in developing and newly-industrialized economies;
Prepare critically informed oral and written work appropriate for studies at postgraduate level and appropriate for professional engagement in the development sector.