Decolonising Development (983N1)

15 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

Contemporary development structures, discourses and practices are deeply linked to the colonial project, which took place over hundreds of years in the Global South and other parts of the world. Since the 1940s, many postcolonial nations have striven to decolonize development. Yet these efforts remain incomplete, and coloniality continues to cast a shadow on the future of postcolonial societies. This module will introduce you to the ongoing process of decolonizing development, focussing on efforts in the Global South.

Providing an introduction to historically-developed structures of coloniality, the module will examine decolonizing transformations for sustainability and equality, with a particular focus on gender, race and intersectionality. Relations and knowledges, constitutive of coloniality in development and of decolonizing transformations, will serve as cross-cutting themes.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 44 hours of contact time and about 106 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.