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Paris, France - Course Descriptions - Topics: A Critical History of "Development": Knowledge, Theory, Politics

Course Information

Subject: History (HIST)
Number: 391B
Language of Instruction: English

Contact Hours and Credits

Semester Session: 45 contact hours, 3 semester credits, 4 quarter credits

Availability

The specific availability for this course is not currently known. If you would like to know if this course will be offered during your session, please contact us.

Full Description

In this upper level course we will approach the concepts and politics of "development" from a historical standpoint that emphasizes the cultural study of political economy. The thematic questions will include the following. What are the practical and theoretical origins of "development" as it is understood today? How should we characterize the complex relationship between the social sciences and the politics of "development"? How can we account for the enduringly Eurocentric and modernizing approach to "development" embraced by many of the leading practitioner institutions? We will tackle these questions each week, in the context of a lecture and discussion session. Against a backdrop spanning the twentieth century we will examine different case studies, from the South African copper belt to Kathmandu, and different theorists, from Karl Polyani to Samir Amin and Timothy Mitchell, in order to interrogate the evolving dialectic between the theory and practice of "development", its institutional elaboration and the succeeding critiques it has provoked.

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Topics: A Critical History of "Development": Knowledge, Theory, Politics

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