University of Cambridge
Department of Geography
Part IB Paper 3: Development
Co-ordinator: Dr Liz WatsonContributors: Dr Emma Mawdsley (EEM); Dr Bhaskar Vira (BV); Dr Liz Watson (EEW)
Supervisor | Teaching Assistant: Matthew Wilburn King
This course begins with an examination of the history of ideas that have shaped
development thinking. It explores the way in which key theories have been converted into development interventions and evaluates their outcomes. The course discusses theories of development and economic growth, and modernisation of institutions, technologies and individuals. It then examines the shift that has taken place in development thinking, from "top-down" to "bottom-up" development projects, built around notions of social capital, civil society, indigenous agriculture and participation. The course illustrates these shifts through a study of important subject areas for contemporary development. These include famine and hunger; the role of aid and donors; structural adjustment and debt; good governance, and gender, to name only some of the topics. It also addresses key
contemporary issues and theories for example, democracy; the role of government and the state; and participatory development. It also examines 'post-development' and the capability approaches to development as freedom.
An Introduction to Development Theory 1 What is Development? (EEM)
2 Development and modernization (EEM) 3 Socialist Alternatives (EEM)
4 Neo-Liberal revolutions (EEM)
Themes in the Political Economy of Development 5 Capital and Development (BV)
6 The Debt Crisis and Debt Relief (BV) 7 Aid and Conditionality (BV)
8 Governance, Democracy and Development (BV)
Themes in Social Development
9 Famine and Entitlement (EEW) 10 Gender and Development (EEW)
11 Anti-Development and Post-Development (EEW) 12 'New' social movements (EEW)
14 Indigenous Knowledge (EEW) 15 Participation 1: Theory (EEW) 16 Participation 2: Practice (EEW)
Key readings
• Cooke, B. and Khothari, U., 2001, Participation: A New Tyranny? London: Zed books
• Desai, V. and Potter, R.B., 2002, eds., The Companion to Development Studies. London: Arnold
• Kabeer, N., 1994, Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought. London: Verso
• Leftwich, A. ed., 1996, Democracy and Development: Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Polity Press
• Power, M. 2003. Rethinking Development Geographies. London: Routledge
• Schech, S. and Haggis, J., 2000, Culture and Development. Oxford: Blackwell Publisher
• Todaro, M.P., 2000, Economic Development. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison Wesley. (esp. chapters 1, 2 and 5)
• World Bank, 1998, Assessing Aid: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why, New
York, Oxford University Press. On-line at
http://www.worldbank.org/research/aid/aidtoc.htm
• World Bank, 1998-2005, World Development Reports. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (have a look at one or two of these - the themes vary across years - in libraries and also available at http://econ.worldbank.org/wdr/)
Timetabling
Dr Emma Mawdsley (4 lectures Michaelmas Term weeks 1-4);
Dr Bhaskar Vira (4 lectures Michaelmas Term weeks 5-8)
Dr Liz Watson (8 lectures Lent Term weeks 1-8)
Mode of assessment
Paper 3 will consist of three unseen examination questions
Field trips / practicals
Supervisions / seminars
The number of supervisions for this course will depend on the number of students taking the paper. Information will be emailed to Directors of Studies during the first week of the Michaelmas Term.
Websites
As well as the readings above, the following websites are full of information and debates about development issues, and can provide useful background/extra reading:
World Bank: www.worldbank.org
(see for eg: http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/voices/index.htm)
DFID (Department for International Development): www.dfid.gov.uk ELDIS ('the gateway to development information') http://nt1.ids.ac.uk/eldis id21 www.id21.org
Third World Network www.twnside.org.sg/ Oneworld.net www.oneworld.net
GEOGRAPHICAL TRIPOS PART 1B 2006-7
PAPER 3
DEVELOPMENT
TOPICS FOR SUPERVISIONS
Attached are eight supervision topics that will be used by supervisors for this paper. It is suggested that you do around four of these topics over the year, but you do not have to do the topics in any particular order (i.e. you do not need to start with supervision 1).
You have already been allocated a supervisor. If you are not sure already who is supervising you, please consult your DOS or see the lists on the supervisors’ noticeboards.
Students are advised to sign up for supervisions as soon as possible. They should also ensure that they are doing the same topic as other people in their group.
Supervision 1: Capital and Development
How useful is the Department for International Development’s ‘capital framework’ for fostering development policies that deal with society at large rather than limiting themselves solely to an economistic perspective? [TRIPOS 2006]
Economic Development (general background reading)
P. P. Streeten Thinking about Development, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Michael P. Todaro Economic Development (Fifth Edition), New York and London, Longman, 1994. Chapters 1, 3 and 4.
World Bank World Development Report 1999, New York, Oxford University Press, 1999. Especially “Introduction: New Directions in Development Thinking.” On the web at http://www.worldbank.org/wdr
Human Capital and Human Development
Keith B. Griffin and John Knight (eds.) Human Development and the International Development Strategy for the 1990s, London, Macmillan, 1989.
P. Streeten “Human Development: Means and Ends,” American Economic Review, 1994, 84, 232-7.
Amartya Sen “Editorial: Human Capital and Human Capability,” World Development, 1997, 25(12), 1959-61.
UNDP Human Development Reports, 1990-99. UNDP Human Development Report Office Web Site: http://www.undp.org/hdro/
Natural Capital and Sustainability
R. Costanza and H. Daly “Natural Capital and Sustainable Development,” Conservation Biology, 1992, 6, 37-46.
M. Jacobs “Sustainable Development, Capital Substitution and Economic Humility: A Response to Beckerman” Environmental Values, 1995, 4 (1), 57-68.
Friends of the Earth web site - http://www.foe.co.uk/progress/
Social Capital
C. Grootaert et al The Role of Social Capital in Development: An Empirical Assessment, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
B. Fine “The Developmental State is Dead - Long Live Social Capital?” Development and Change, 1999, 30 (1), 1-19.
Supervision 1: Capital and Development (contd.)
M. Molyneux “Gender and the silences of social capital: Lessons from Latin America,” Development and Change, 2002, 33(2), 167–188.
F. Cleaver “The Inequality of Social Capital and the Reproduction of Chronic Poverty”, World Development, 2005, 33(6), 893-906.
World Bank pages on social capital –
http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/scapital/index.htm
DFID’s Livelihood/Assets/Capitals Framework and its applications to poverty
DFID Sustainable Livelihoods: Building on Strengths, London: DFID, n.d. On the internet at http://www.livelihoods.org/info/docs/SL_BoS.pdf
Carol Moser “The Asset Vulnerability Framework: Reassessing Urban Poverty Reduction Strategies” World Development, 1998, 26 (1), 1-19.
Anthony Bebbington “Capitals and Capacities: A Framework for Analyzing Peasant Viability, Rural Livelihoods and Poverty,” World Development, 1999, 27(12), 2021-44.
D Carney ‘Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches: Progress and Possibilities for Change’. London: DFID, 2002. On the internet at
http://www.livelihoods.org/info/docs/SLA_Progress.pdf
Supervision 2: Debt Relief and Poverty
Critically assess Sachs’ (2005) claim that “It is time for the debts of the highly indebted poor countries to be cancelled outright”.
Jeffrey Sachs The End of Poverty, Penguin Press, 2005.
Susan George A Fate Worse than Debt, Penguin, 1988.
Stuart Corbridge Debt and Development, Oxford, Blackwell, 1993.
Huw Evans (1999) “Debt Relief for the Poorest Countries: Why did it Take so Long?” Development Policy Review, 17, 267-79.
Ann Pettifor (2000) “Tackling Debt,” Development, 2000, 43(2), 26-30.
Ann Pettifor and Romilly Greenhill (2002) “Debt Relief and the Millennium Development Goals”, Background paper by the New Economics Foundation for the UNDP Human Development Report 2003, online at
http://stone.undp.org/hdr/docs/publications/background_papers/2003/HDR2003_Pettif or_Greenhill.pdf
M Coleman (2002) “Thinking about the World Bank’s “accordion” geography of financial globalization”, Political Geography, 21(4), 495-524.
John Roberts (2005) “Millennium Development Goals: are international targets now more credible?”, Journal of International Development, 17(1), 113-129.
D Kitabire (2005) “Implications of substantially increased development aid: the case of Uganda”, IDS Bulletin, 36(3).
Make Poverty History website: http://www.makepovertyhistory.org
World Bank debt website: http://www.worldbank.org/debt
Supervision 3: Structural Adjustment
What can be learnt from the cases of Ghana and/or Mozambique about the experience of adjustment and development in Africa?
Hutchful, Eboe 2002 Ghana's Adjustment Experience: The Paradox of Reform. Greenwood Press.
Lall, S. 1995. ‘Structural Adjustment and African Industry’ World Development 23 (12) 2019-2031.
Konadu-Agyemang, K. 2000. ‘The Best of Times and the Worst of Times: Structural Adjustment Programs and Uneven Development in Africa: The Case of Ghana’. Professional Geographer 52 (3): 469-483.
Khor, M. with Hormeku, T. 2006. ‘The Impact of Globalisation and Liberalisation on Agriculture and Small Farmers in Developing Countries: The Experience of Ghana’ Third World Network
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/par/Ghana_study_for_IFAD_project_FULL_PAPER_re v1apr06.doc
Hanlon, J. 1996. Peace without profit: how the IMF blocks rebuilding in Mozambique. Oxford: James Currey.
Arndt, C, Tarp Jensen, H, and Tarp, F., Stabilization and structural adjustment in Mozambique: an appraisal. Journal of International Development, 2000 (12): 3, 299-323.
Toye, J. 1993 (second edition) Dilemmas of Development: Reflections on the Counter-revolution in Development Economics
World Bank (1998) Assessing Aid: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why, New York, Oxford University Press. On-line at http://www.worldbank.org/research/aid/aidtoc.htm
Todaro, M, and Smith, S. (2003 Economic Development. (8th Edition). Reading, Massachusetts:
Addison-Wesley. (or Todaro, 2000 edition)
Brian F Crisp and Michael J Kelly (1999) “The Socioeconomic Impacts of Structural Adjustment,” International Studies Quarterly, 43, 533-52.
A Adedeji (1999) “Structural Adjustment Policies in Africa,” International Social Science Journal, 51(4), 521-9.
Paul Mosley et al (1995) “Assessing “Adjustment in Africa”” World Development, 23(9), 1459-73.
O E G Johnson (1994) “Managing Adjustment Costs, Political Authority, and the
Supervision 4: Aid/Democracy
To what extent have post cold war political reforms contributed to the deepening of democracy in the developing world? [TRIPOS 2006]
UNDP (2002) Human Development Report 2002 Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World, online at http://hdr.undp.org/
IDS Bulletin Volume 36, No. 3, September 2005, Special Issue edited by James Manor.
World Bank (1998) Assessing Aid: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why, New York, Oxford University Press. On-line at http://www.worldbank.org/research/aid/aidtoc.htm
Adrian Leftwich (1994) “Governance, the State and the Politics of Development,” Development and Change, 25(2), 363-386.
Y. K. Museveni (1994) “Democracy and Good Governance in Africa: An African Perspective,” Mediterranean Quarterly, 5(4), 1-8.
Adrian Leftwich (ed.) (1996) Democracy and Development: Theory and Practice, Cambridge, Polity.
D. Moore (1996) “Reading Americans on Democracy in Africa: From the CIA to ‘Good Governance’,” European Journal of Development Research, 8(1), 123-148.
Niraja Gopal Jayal (1997) “The Governance Agenda: Making Democratic Development Dispensable,” Economic and Political Weekly, 32(8), 407-412.
Patrick Chabal (1998) “A Few Considerations on Democracy in Africa,” International Affairs, 74(2), 289-303.
Jan P. Pronk (2001) “Aid as a Catalyst”, Development and Change, 32 (4), 611-29.
Graham Harrison (2001) “Post-Conditionality Politics and Administrative Reform: Reflections on the Cases of Uganda and Tanzania” Development and Change, 32 (4), 657-79.
Niels Hermes and Robert Lensink (2001) “Changing the Conditions for Development Aid: A New Paradigm?”, Journal of Development Studies, 37 (6), 1-16.
Supervision 5: Famine
‘War, the last bastion of famine.’ Discuss. {TRIPOS 2006]
De Waal, A. 1989. Famine that Kills: Darfur, Sudan, 1984-1985.Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Sen, A. 1981. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Crow, B. (2000) "Understanding Hunger and Famine" in Allen, T. and Thomas, A. Poverty and Development Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Luka Biong Deng, 2002, The Sudan famine of 1998: unfolding of the global dimension IDS Bulletin, Vol 33 No 4.
Devereux, S. ed. 2002. The New Famines. IDS Bulletin, Vol 33 No 4.
Young, H., Osman, A.M, Aklilu, Y., Dale, R., Badri, B. and Fuddle, A.J.A. 2005. Darfur: Livelihoods Under Siege. Feinstein International Famine Centre. Tufts University, Medford,
MA, USA. (available at
http://nutrition.tufts.edu/pdf/research/famine/darfur_livelihoods_under_seige.pdf)
De Waal, A. 1997. Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa. London: James Currey.
De Waal, A. 2005. 'Briefing: Darfur, Sudan: Prospects for Peace'. African Affairs, 104/414, 127-135. (see offprint collection).
Jaspars, S. with Leader, N. 2000. 'Solidarity and Soup Kitchens: A Review of Principles and Practice for Food Distribution in Conflict' ODI HPG Report 7, pp1-40 (available at
http://www.odi.org.uk/hpg/papers/hpgreport7.pdf).
Also of interest are various media reports on the current situation in Darfur, Sudan.
Conversations between Alex De Waal and Stephen Devereux 'Same difference? - Comparing Sudan's famines' may also be of interest. This can be found at
http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/news/Archive/deWaal.html
Supervision 6: Gender and Development
Critically consider the validity of the statement that ‘feminist approaches to development are misconceived and outdated.’
Schech, S. and Haggis, J. 2000. Culture and Development: Blackwell Publishers.
N. Kabeer (1994) Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought. London: Verso.
Cleaver, F. ed. 2002. Masculinities Matter! Men, Gender and Development. London: Zed books.
Jackson, C. and Pearson, R. 1998. Feminist Visions of Development: Gender Analysis and Policy. London: Routledge.
Cornwall, A., Harrison, E. and Whitehead, A. eds. 2004. Repositioning Feminisms in Development. IDS Bulletin, 35 (4).
Cornwall, A. and White S. 2000. ‘Men, Masculinities and Development: Politics, Policies and Practice’. Special Issue, IDS Bulletin. (This is a useful summary: have a look at the
introduction and then dip into subsequent chapters to see examples).
Hirschman, M. (1995) ‘Women in Development: A critique’ in Marianne H. Marchand and Jane L. Parpart (eds) Feminism/postmodernism/development. London: Routledge, 1995
Jackson, C. (1999) ‘Men’s Work, Masculinities and Gender Divisions of Labour’, Journal of Development Studies, 36(10): 89-108.
Crewe, E. and Harrison, E. 1999, Whose Development?: An ethnography of aid.
Supervision 7: Participation
Assess the argument that ‘far from being a transformative process in which local people are able to exert control over decision-making, participation becomes a well-honed tool for engineering consent to projects and programmes whose framework has already been determined’ (N. HILDYARD et al., 2002).
Chambers, R. 1997. Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last. London: IT Press.
Chambers, R. (1995) ‘Paradigm Shifts and the Practice of Participatory Research and
Development’ in Nelson, N. and Wright, S. eds. Power and Participatory Development: Theory and Practice. London: IT Press, pp 30-42.
Cleaver, F. 1999. 'Paradoxes of Participation: Questioning Participatory Approaches to Development' Journal of International Development. 11(4): 597-612.
*Cooke, B. and Khothari, U. 2001. Participation: A New Tyranny? London: Zed Books.
Hickey, S. and Mohan, G. 2005. Relocating participation within a radical politics of development. Development and Change, 36 (2): 237-262.
*Hickey, S. and Mohan, G. (Eds). 2004. Participation: From Tyranny to Transformation? Exploring New Approaches to Participation in Development. London: Zed Books.
*Mosse, D. 1994. "Authority, Gender and Knowledge: Theoretical Reflections on the Practice of Participatory Rural Appraisal". Development and Change 25: 497-526.
Nelson, N. and Wright, S. (1995) ‘Introduction: Participation and Power’ in Nelson, N. and Wright, S. eds. Power and Participatory Development: Theory and Practice. London: IT Press, pp 1- 18.
Pottier, J. 1997. 'Towards an Ethnography of Participatory Appraisal and Research' in Grillo, R.D. and Stirrat, R.L. eds. Discourses of Development: Anthropological Perspectives.
Rahnema, M. (1992) ‘Participation’ in Sachs, W. ed. The Development Dictionary. London: Zed books, pp116-131.
Supervision 8: Post-Development
‘Proponents of post-development trade in unhelpful binaries, in wobbly romanticism, or in implausible politics’ (S. CORBRIDGE, 1998). Discuss.
A. Escobar (1995) Encountering Development: The Making and the Unmaking of the Third World, Princeton, Princeton University Press. Especially chapters 1, 2 and 6.
Power, M. 2003. Rethinking Development Geographies. London: Routledge.
Ferguson, J. 1990. The Anti-Politics Machine: "Development", depoliticization and bureaucratic power in Lesotho. Cambridge: CUP.
Ferguson, J. 1999. 'Global Disconnect: Abjection and the Aftermath of Modernism' in J. Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity: Myths and Meanings of Urban Life on the Zambian Copperbelt. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 234-254.
Rahnema, M. and Bawtree, V. eds. 1997. The Post-Development Reader. London: Zed Press.
Corbridge, S. (1999) 'Development, post-development and the global political economy' in Cloke, P. Crang, P. and Goodwin, M. eds. Introducing Human Geographies.
G. Esteva (1992) “Development” in W. Sachs (ed.) The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power, London, Zed Books.
Breckenridge, C. A. and van der Veer, P. 1993. "Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament" in C.A. Breckenridfge and P. van der Veer eds. Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Cowen M. and Shenton, R. 1995. "The Invention of Development" in J. Crush ed. Power of Development. London: Routledge.
Radcliffe, S.A. 2005. Development and geography: towards a postcolonlial development geography? Progress In Human Geography.
Fanon, F. 1967. The Wretched of the Earth. Middlesex: Penguin. Said, E. 1978. Orientalism. New York: Vintage.
L. Yapa (1996) “What Causes Poverty?: A Postmodern View” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 86, 707-728.
