Admission requirements
Required course(s):
None.
Description
Prosperity, as part of global development, is a concept widely used across different spectrums of society. Over a period, the intention of development has changed in focus from material wealth, human development (UNDP, 1990), happiness index (Layard, 2006), and strengthening institutions (Easterly, 2006). Development is considered necessary for the ‘other’ – the Global South and other communities (Escobar, 1995; Chari & Corbridge, 2008). Development was capitalized and turned into something intentional than change alone. Development cooperation, and its political economy, over half a century has made the rich richer and the poor poorer, consolidated neoliberalism while degrading the environment and made the global south aid-dependent (Chari & Corbridge, 2008; Mosse, 2013; Ramalingam, 2013). This is combined with rising economic inequalities and occurrences of civil wars, local conflict and forced displacements. These global patterns are intimately interconnected: the growing climate emergency, the global pandemic, the protests systemic and structural injustices, and the rise in global inequalities. A fundamental rethinking of development has never been more urgent, timely and salient.
The challenge is to consider a fundamental transformation of policies, practices, mindsets, and behaviors, one based not solely on technological and scientific innovations but founded on cultural, intellectual, and artistic creativity and inspiration. We need to consider a variety of data, evidence, and research to identify key challenges and to develop new concepts, methods, and policies.
The objective of this course, Global Challenges: Prosperity, is to be able to critically examine different theoretical perspectives and possible alternatives to these global dilemmas. Collectively, the course demonstrates that global development challenges are becoming increasingly complex and multi-faceted and are to be found in the Global ‘North’ as much as the ‘South’. It draws attention to structural inequality and disadvantage alongside possibilities for positive change.
The course is broken up into three parts. The first part interrogates the ‘state of the field’ by examining some of the ongoing debates around the contours of global (international development), including new ways of thinking that help us to transcend the mainstream (and colonial) historiography, theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the field. Part two delves into a selection of theoretical and topical perspectives that can be used to examine some of the issues in the field. Namely, sustainability and the environment (i.e. indigenous rights, new technology and environment), inequality and inequitable development (e.g. land grabbing and extraction), game changers of global development (e.g. health, illness, and children). The last part of the course focuses on a discussion of ways forward on how to address complex challenges for a positive change. Each plenary lecture will be followed by an interdisciplinary scholarly debate with the instructors (and potential guest lecturers).
This course encourages students for new thinking, and to read development through lenses of sustainability and social justice among others. Students are strongly encouraged to pursue critical engagement across disciplinary boundaries alongside a process of ‘unlearning’ as it is important as learning. We want our students to look beyond the traditional (predominantly Western) theories and models that have dominated thinking and practice in the field of international – and now global – development and prosperity.
Course Objectives
Define key concepts and understand scholarly debates and genealogies around concepts such as development; sustainability; decolonial and Indigenous rights; inequality; inequity
Apply these concepts to current international political economic situation, as well as to the domestic clashes within ‘Western Democracies’ and ‘low middle income Countries’
Develop writing and research skills such as crafting an argument, theoretically framing claims, and using scholarly works to provide evidence.
Unpack prosperity as a contested set of health, cultural, political, economic and historical processes and relations
Appraise how prosperity (i.e. development) ‘problems and ‘solutions’ are understood according to different conceptual approaches to development
Reflect critically on one’s own understanding of and encounters with prosperity (i.e. development)
Work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary and multicultural context to communicate ideas about the making of development visually, orally and in writing.
Timetable
Timetables for courses offered at Leiden University College in 2022-2023 will be published on this page of the e-Prospectus.
Mode of instruction
Lectures – discussion-based seminars
Panel discussions
Student led case study presentations
Video clips
Podcasts
Interview clips
Assessment Method
Scrapbook (20%)
Group Graphic Story Project (40%)
Take Home Final Essay (40%)
Reading list
- The Routledge Handbook of Global Development Sims, Kearrin ; Banks, Nicola ; Engel, Susan ; Hodge, Paul ; Makuwira, Jonathan ; Nakamura, Naohiro ; Rigg, Jonathan ; Salamanca, Albert ; Yeophantong, Pichamon Abingdon, Oxon: Taylor and Francis 2022 (available in Leiden Library Open Access)
Registration
Courses offered at Leiden University College (LUC) are usually only open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Leiden University students who participate in one of the university’s Honours tracks or programmes may register for one LUC course, if availability permits. Registration is coordinated by the Education Coordinator, course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.
Contact
Dr. Jyothi Thrivikraman, j.k.thrivikraman@luc.leidenuniv.nl
Dr. Davina Osei, d.osei@luc.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
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