AZA2378 - Development and the developing world - 2019

This unit takes an anthropological approach to critiquing international development and understanding the developing world and the 'global south.' The unit shows how ethnography can improve our understanding of the development process. It also provides a historical contextualisation and understanding relationships between the 'north' and 'south' in contemporary globalisation from an African viewpoint. The unit uses anthropology to help understand social and economic patterns of change; how development policy is imagined, produced, and received (or resisted) across multiple cultural contexts; and how development is imagined and defined through specific case studies (including African case studies) of approaches, institutions and practitioners in the field.

Students can expect to develop:

1. An understanding of global inequalities and how these impact on different groups of people, especially in the African context;
2. An understanding of development theories and models;
3. An awareness of the culture of development organisations, institutions and practitioners;
4. An understanding of how development has affected particular cultures and places, with an emphasis on the continent of Africa;
5. The analytical skills to evaluate approaches to development from an anthropological perspective and the associate problems/concerns;
6. An appreciation of the history, philosophy and practice of qualitative social research;
7. An understanding qualitative social research and the range of methods used;
8. An understanding of the of the practice of qualitative research, and the role of ethics in conducting that research.

Within semester assessment: 100%

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

See also Unit timetable information

Development studies - South Africa

Geography and environmental science - South Africa

International studies - South Africa

Political studies - South Africa