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Cursus: GEO4-3505
GEO4-3505
Development theories
Cursus informatie
CursuscodeGEO4-3505
Studiepunten (EC)7,5
Cursusdoelen

Students should have an overview of, and be able to identify, the major theoretical approaches in development studies of the last several decades and at present. Students should be able to indicate the relevance and validity of respective development theories in different historical and geographical contexts. In this way, students should have acquired the instruments for analyzing and understanding development issues within their contexts and be able to bridge the gap between theoretical reflections and their applications to real-world situations. Finally, the course should inspire students to critically examine the assumptions underlying theories and representations of development issues, and find new roads or viable alternatives in conceptualizing development issues.

Inhoud

This module critically examines the major approaches and theories that dominate thinking about development at present, and have done so in the past several decades. The course adopts a multidisciplinary approach, discussing contributions by geographers as well as those by other development-oriented scholars. In reviewing different theoretical paradigms, the basic understanding is that each theory is embedded in a particular historical and societal context that inspires useful insights but also imposes certain limitations. No theoretical school has a definitive answer to the problems of development, while on the other hand several key ideas persist or recur in different guises as newly formulated theoretical insights.
The following schools of development thinking will be discussed:
• dualism, orientalism and the persistence of dichotomies in development thinking;
• modernization theories viewing development as a unilinear process;
• the dependencia school and political-economy;
• neoliberalism and globalization as a development paradigm;
• (new) institutional approaches to development and the role of the state;
• postmodernism, post-development and actor-oriented approaches;
• Sen’s capabilities approach and the purpose of development;
• sustainable development and its critics;
• social theories of development and the rule of culture.
• ethical approaches in development
• complexity theory and development

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