Ideas in Development and Policy, Evidence and Practice

15 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This course introduces you to the main ideas within development and to current thinking in relation to key issues. Topics covered will include historical perspectives on development; rights-based approaches; globalisation; politics and development; and empowerment and participation. Throughout the course, you will address theoretical perspectives on development in relation to practical implementation of policy processes.

Professional Skills for Development

0 credits
Autumn & spring teaching, year 1

This course consists of a series of short workshops and training sessions giving you practical and applied skills in introductory economics, project management, negotiating skills, budgets, organisational development, leadership, monitoring and evaluation, the logical framework, quantitative skills, group facilitation, participatory research methods, training skills, reflective practice, gendered approaches to research, research communication, knowledge management, consultancy skills, report writing, career development, interview skills, and other tools and methods.

You will also partake in sessions focussed upon study skills, including referencing, how to incorporate evidence in written work, and report and essay writing.

Dissertation Development Studies

45 credits
Summer teaching, year 1

This course gives you the opportunity to undertake supervised work on a 10,000-word dissertation on a topic of your choice agreed with your supervisor.

Empowering Society

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This course is concerned with the relationship between society and the state and, in particular, the ways in which people can participate in and make their voices heard in public decision-making and governance. In the first half of the course you will explore concepts and methods of participation and empowerment, including different ways of understanding power, approaches to empowerment, learning and communication for social change, the nature of civil society and role of civil society organisations in processes of democratisation, and concepts of rights and 'deepening democracy'. In the second half of the course you will examine a variety of channels through which citizens can participate in, and influence, the affairs of the state and corporate responsibility. Drawing from both these case studies and your personal and professional experiences, the course looks at forms of participation in local government (including participatory budgeting), the role and limitations of political parties, and the nature and role of donors and NGOs. Some attention is also given to experiences of global civil society, and citizen participation in relation to the private sector and corporations.

Introduction to Development Economics

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This cours provides you with the tools and methods of analysis used in the economic analysis of developing countries. Topics used as case studies and examples will include poverty, growth, trade, agriculture, industry, education, migration and population. By the end of the course you should have acquired the analytical skills to allow you to understand economics-based articles in journals such as World Development, Journal of African Economies and others.

Sociology, Anthropology and the Development Conundrum

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This course covers a range of topics which together form a detailed framework for an analysis and understanding of sociological and anthropological approaches to development. Following an introduction which addresses some key principles and issues, the course then addresses topics which are likely to include: culture and society; postmodernism and discourses of development; issues of difference in development; power and empowerment; resistance and protest; space and dislocation; sexuality; households; markets; and institutions.

Action Research and Particpatory Methods

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Aid and Poverty: the Political Economy of International Development Assistance

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

International development assistance (aid) has apparently strong theoretical justification, and rich countries are increasing their aidflows to unprecedented levels in pursuit of poverty reduction. But the political economy of aid is becoming more polarised as global security concerns and global trade reform influence the purposes and practice of aid. Critics are many and anthropological, economic and political science analyses the dominant aid paradigm.

This course provides you with a historically-grounded assessment of international development assistance and its potential to reduce poverty through detailed treatment of the arguments for and against aid. There will be a strong emphasis on the new aid architecture as well as the special circumstances of 'fragile' states and the role of aid.

Analysing Poverty, Vulnerability and Inequality

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This course consists of a mixture of lectures and workshops, most computer based. Topics covered on the course include: the theory and practice of poverty analysis; measuring vulnerability; poverty dynamics and economic mobility; life histories and livelihood trajectories; and policy simulation. Each week of the course begins with a lecture, in which the topic is introduced, relevant concepts and terminology are defined, and key theories and tools of analysis will be introduced. At the end of this lecture, an assignment will be handed out, usually involving household survey data, which you are encouraged to work on in pairs or small groups over the next three or four days. The solutions to these assignments will be reviewed in detail during a workshop held toward the end of each week, which will then broaden out into a discussion of recent developments/studies of the topic.

Climate Change and Development

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This course provides you with an understanding of the science, politics and developmental implications of climate change and disasters, focusing on the perspectives of poor households, communities and developing countries. You will assess the overlaps between disasters, climate change and poverty, focusing on climate change adaptation and disaster risk-reduction approaches, critically analysing options to reduce negative effects and harness opportunities.  You will also examine the social, political and economic drivers of vulnerability, considering how policy processes at different scales influence risk management activities and local coping strategies.

Competing in the Global Economy

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

China's rapid rise has transformed the spaces for competing in the global economy. Some new opportunities have arisen and many new challenges now need to be faced by countries all over the world. We will examine in particular the implications for countries in the rest of Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Key questions include whether they keep their position in global value chains, how can they upgrade this position, and how can they escape the race to the bottom? Do national chains offer better learning opportunities than global chains? And what are the policy options at the global, national and local level?

This course will provide you with an understanding of the new challenges (and opportunities) posed by China and the East Asian production system; give you knowledge of the strengths and limitations of global value chain analysis, the industrial cluster approach and enterprise-level capability approach; and provide you with the analytical tools to identify appropriate lessons for policy.

Decentralisation and local government

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Decentralisation of political, fiscal and administrative systems is one of the key areas of the contemporary governance agenda. Policy advocates from both neo-liberal and radical democratic perspectives argue that decentralisation is an essential element in improving the quality of governance, especially in terms of increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery and reducing poverty and increasing democratisation.

The course addresses these issues through an examination of the record of recent examples of decentralised governance, using case study material from various parts of the world. The course examines five main themes: the politics of decentralisation; decentralisation and democratisation; decentralisation and service delivery; legal and administrative aspects of decentralisation; and fiscal and financial aspects of decentralisation. The course includes field visits to local governments in the Brighton and East Sussex area.

Democracy and Development

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This course directly addresses several thematic and theoretical sub-fields in development studies. The first part is mainly theoreticaly oriented, and discusses theories of democracy from classical to contemporary perspectives, mapping their core concepts and establishing clear analytical relations between the broad frameworks on democracy and their histories and historical contexts. This emphasises three conceptual approaches: the structural conditions of democracy; alternative approaches to understanding democracy, including those based on ideas, institutions and incentives; and thirdly deliberative democracy as an emerging conceptualisation. In this part there is also a substantial discussion that links democracy, theories of citizenship and forms of rights.
The second part of the course seeks to associate theoretical discussions with empirical concerns and case studies around the notion of development and social change. Sessions in this part cover the economic requirements of democracies (and dictatorships), and new challenges to democratisation brought by globalisation, changing perspectives to democracy including gender, security, participation and citizens' movements. A final session discusses the future of democracy and its dilemmas in contemporary times.

Doing Gender and Development

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This course has an applied focus and considers a range of gender planning and policy analysis frameworks, and project design tools such as the logical framework. You will undertake a project of up to 3,000 words aimed at bringing together your practical skills with the substantive issues covered in the programme.

Emerging Powers and International Development

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

China's growth has maintained an unprecedented average rate of around nine per cent for over two decades. Both sides of the cost-benefit equation are visible: the benefits for those included, and the inequities and exclusion of those left out. Increasingly, scholars are focused on the implications of China's 'peaceful rise'.

Key questions considered in this course include: where does China as a developing country fit within the field of development studies? What can we explain and understand by 'development' as it is understood and practiced within China? What are the economic, social and political costs and benefits associated with the various development processes? What is the role of the state, party, and civil society in China's development? Where does China as a growing power, investor, consumer and donor fit within specific regional and global development regimes? This course seeks to develop a sound understanding of the domestic and international development issues central to the rise of China. It explores China's high-speed growth; implications for labour, employment and migration; and evaluates the impact uponsocial development. The course also assesses the impact upon trade and investment and China's emergence as a leading international donor.

Global Governance

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This course takes a sympathetic look at the actors, issues and practices that are involved in defining and implementing global public policy relevant to debates about governance and development. These include both state and non-state actors. You will address a range of issue-areas, including Human Rights, peace and security and economic relations.

Emphasis will be placed on considering not just how international institutions and actors impact upon the developing world, but also how changes in the domestic and international environment in turn shape these institutions and actors. Different analytical and policy approaches to global governance are compared and evaluated.

Governance of Violent Conflict and (In)security

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This course will consider fundamental questions raised by armed conflicts and political violence about the role and relevance of the state and about the topic of governance. You will evaluate alternative approaches to the explanation of conflicts, together with their incorporation in the conflict-assessment frameworks used by policy-makers. Particular attention will be paid to the different ways in which development is 'securitised'. 

Important policy issues examined will include the role and limits of external interventions in preventing and managing violent conflict; the problems of governance in unstable and insecure political environments; post-conflict reconstruction and the legitimacy and capacities of the state; the control and reform of security institutions; and the 'design' of political institutions to facilitate the management of conflict. The course is designed not only to develop your analytical skills in analysing the governance and security issues stemming from violent conflicts, but also to help you apply these skills and policy issues. You will follow a comparative approach, based on detailed analysis of a small number of national cases. The course will also be participatory, with small groups sharing responsibility for analysing national cases chosen for study.

Health and Development

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Despite 20th-century medical and technological advances, health status is desperately low in many parts of the world and millions of people lack access to basic services. This course examines health systems in the face of the major developmental and organisational challenges of the 21st century. The course takes a fresh approach to the political economy of health care, examining health systems as 'knowledge economies' - ways of organising access to expert knowledge or expertise, embodied in both people and products - and focuses on how health systems could better benefit the poor.

Impact Evaluation

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Law, Rights and Development

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Management of Public Finance

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

States in developing countries frequently lack the resources, administrative capacity and legitimacy needed to reproduce themselves and pursue their goals and the goals of society. This course explores the behaviour of states through the lens of public finance. How do states manage international capital flows, including FDI, debt, and aid? What domestic sources are available without excessively burdening economic actors or coercing popular sectors? How do states prioritise and allocate their resources in ways that deepen democracy, manage macroeconomic balances, pursue efficiency, and improve distribution?

We will address these questions by considering the following four broad themes: capital flows (including FDI, debt, and aid); revenues (rents and tax); budgeting; and the political economy of public finance.

Nutrition

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Politics of Implementing Gender and Development

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This course examines women's political representation and the biases in formal political institutions and systems. You will explore the role and history of women's movements in civil society and the nature of their relationship with the state. Following this, you will review theories of the state and of organisational change in relation to development institutions, to identify effective strategies for, and constraints to, institutionalising gender-sensitive approaches to development policy.

Poverty Policy and Programmes: Issues in Social Policy

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Poverty, Violence and Conflict

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This course will assess conflict shocks and examine their differences relative to other socio-economic shocks. This will draw on both existing literature on conflict and the history of conflict analysis within different social sciences. You will examine the difficulties or research in conflict areas, including measurement, ethical concerns, and security concerns, and assess where we stand in terms of empirical knowledge. You will critically review the latest research on micro-level analysis of conflict, going on to examine the impact of conflict shocks on households and individuals, drawing on insurance and risk theory, and assess the impact of conflict on education, health and poverty. You will then examine preventive policies including the potential role of social protection in preventing conflict and post-conflict situations. The course, finally, will turn to an assessment of the role of international institutions, NGO's and community-driven initiatives in the context of conflict-affected 'fragile' states.

Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This course gives you a practical introduction to research methods and methodologies. This emphasises the relationship between concepts and theory on the one hand, and measurement and data collection on the other. You will examine these components or research methods accross quantitative, qualitative, and interpretive approaches in the social sciences. In each case a general discussion to concept formation and theory building is followed by an examination of tools for casual analysis and, finally, data collection strategies.

This course helps you aquire both a familiarity with distinct research methods and the ability to identify which combinations of methods are most suited to explore particular research questions and most suited for specific social contexts.

Qualitative and Ethnographic Research Methods

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Reflective Practice and Social Change

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This course explores the growing field of reflective practice as a vital form of professional development for individuals and organisations involved in social change. You will explore traditions of reflective practice within action research and organisational learning, and practice methods of personal and cooperative inquiry. You will also consider reflective writing, journaling, auto-ethnography, drama and storytelling are as methods for to better understand nd position ourselves as change agents, and for deepening self-awareness of our identity, values, behaviour and belief systems.

Sexuality and Masculinity in Gender and Development

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

SOUR - unruly politics

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Sustainability and Policy Processes: Issues in Agriculture, Environement and Health

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Delivered jointly with SPRU, this course provides you with an in-depth analysis of the relationship between knowledge, power and policy processes. Initially you will examine the historical and philosophical roots of key environmental, science and policy debates. A case study approach explores real-life examples from forestry, pastoral development, health service delivery, vaccines, occupational disease, agricultural biotechnology, water resources and biodiversity conservation. In exploring the cases, the focus is on the interrelationships between local contexts, community involvement and wider national and international policy processes influencing livelihood outcomes.