85488 - Political Power Beyond State Boundaries: Migration, Development and Human Rights

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to analyze from a historical-political point the impact phenomena such as migration, international legislation on human rights and foreign aid policies, commonly known as development cooperation policies, have had on the traditional conceptualization(s) of political power. The course will address and discuss the main traditional doctrines and models of citizenship and human rights, State sovereignty and international relations together with the more recent critical approaches to them. Particular attention will be paid to the investigation of cross-cutting issues such as the relationship between universalism and cultural differences, order and justice, exclusion and inclusion, political and humanitarian spaces and actors. At the end of the course the student knows the main theoretical approaches to citizenship and human rights, State sovereignty and international relations and he/she is able to critically discuss their assumptions and limitations in relation to global issues such as migration, foreign aid policies and human rights.

Course contents

The course will address the following main topics:

• the Western genealogy of the concept of development and the development discourse;
• the different doctrines and theories of development, from Rostow’s theory of Modernization, to the more recent concept of human sustainable development, together with the main critical approaches to development;
• the contemporary history of foreign aid practices, programs and policies, including the comparison with their colonial predecessors, the scrutiny of the ways in which they contribute to construct recipient States and groups of people, in particular women, and to include/exclude them, and the analysis of the recent developments on the matter (e.g., the Sustainable Development Goals);
• the impact of foreign aid regime on the concept(s) and theoretical and political construction of sovereignty, security, social justice and global dis/order;
• the Western history of human rights norms and conceptions, together with the main traditional and contemporary criticisms concerning, among others, their theoretical status, ethnocentrism, gender-biased and/or gender-blind nature, inherent weaknesses and paternalism;
• the possible alternatives to human rights discourse (e.g., human needs, human capabilities);
• migration as a res politica and the figure of the migrant as a political figure;
• the impact of migrations, and of migrants’ actions and movements, on the conceptions of mobility, citizenship and security;
• the different theories of migration, including the discussion of a moral approach to migration;
• the role of emotions and humanitarian discourse and tradition in the government of migration;
• the situation of unaccompanied minors and migrant women, particularly care workers, in Italy;

The detailed syllabus of the course will be distributed at the beginning of the class.

Readings/Bibliography

The bibliography for attending students is composed of the books, chapters and essays listed under letters A and B.

 The materials listed under letter B will be the object of class discussions. Depending on the number of attending students, and thus to the discussion methods that will be adopted (see Teaching methods section), the materials listed under letter B might be slightly amended. The definitive B list will thus be disseminated at the beginning of the courses.

The bibliography for non-attending students is composed of the books, chapters and essays listed under letters A and B. For full details on the content of their exam, non-attending students are kindly requested to contact the lecturer in due time.

 A.

1.  A. Furia, The Foreign Aid Regime. Gift-giving, States and Global Dis/Order, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
2. G. Rist, The History of Development. From Western Origins to Global Faith, 3^rd edition, Zed Books, 2008 (selected chapters).
3. S. Benhabib, The Rights of Others. Aliens, Residents, and Citizens, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
4. J. Huysmans, The Politics of Insecurity. Fear, migration and asylum in the EU, Routledge, 2006 (selected chapters).

B.

1. P. Alston and M. Robinson (ed. by), Human Rights and Development. Towards Mutual Reinforcement, Oxford University Press, 2005 (selected parts).
2. Ataç, K. Rygiel & Maurice Stierl, “Introduction: The Contentious Politics of Refugee and Migrant Protest and Solidarity Movements: Remaking Citizenship from the Margins”, in Citizenship Studies, vol. 20, no. 5, 2016, 527-544.
3. E. Balibar, We, the people of Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship, Translation/Transnation, 2004 (selected parts).
4. J. Bhabha, “Arendt’s Children: Do Today’s Migrant Children Have a Right to Have Rights?”, in Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 2, 2009, 410-451.
5. A. Escobar, Encountering Development: the Making and Unmaking of the Third World. With a new preface by the author, Princeton University Press, 2011 (selected parts).
6. G.C. Spivak, “Righting Wrongs”, in The South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 103, no. 2/3, 2004, 523-581.
7. H. Morgenthau, "A Political Theory of Foreign Aid”, in The American Political Science Review, vol. 56, no. 2, 1962, 301-309.
8. Human Development Report 1990: Concept and measurement of Human Development (selected parts) (available on-line).
9. U. Kothari, “From colonial administration to development studies: a post-colonial critique of the history of development studies”, in A radical history of development studies: individuals, institutions and ideologies, edited by U. Kothari, Zed Books, 2005, 47-65.
10. R. King, “Theories and Typologies of Migration: An Overview and a Primer”, in Willy Brandt Series of Working Papers in International Migration and Ethnic Relations, no. 3, 2012 (available on-line).
11. S. Latouche, The Westernization of the World. Significance, Scope and Limits of the Drive Towards Global Uniformity, Polity Press, 1996 (selected parts).
12. S. Moller Okin, “Feminism, Women’s Human Rights, and Cultural Differences”, in Hypatia, vol. 13, no. 2, 1998, 32-52.
13. J. Tronto, “Care as the Work of Citizens: A Modest Proposal”, in Women and Citizenship, edited by M. Friedman, Oxford University Press, 2005, 130-145.
14. S. Žižek, “Against Human Rights”, in New Left Review, no. 34, July-August 2005, 115-131.
15. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Trasforming our world (A/RES/70/1) (available on-line).
16. The 1975 Dag Hammarskjöld Report: What now? (selected parts) (available on-line).
17. V. Pupavac, “A Critical of Children’s Rights in Context” (paper available on-line).
18. W. Sachs (ed. by), The Development Dictionary. A guide to knowledge as power, 2^nd edition, Zed Books, 2010 (selected parts).
19. World Bank Report 2017: Governance and the Law (selected parts) (available on-line).

 

Teaching methods

The course will be based on both lectures and lessons dedicated to class discussions (around 30% of the total number of hours).

The aim of the methodology adopted is to activate the informed critical discussion of topics among students and to facilitate the interaction between lecturer and students.

Lectures will include collective readings of texts, seminars by external experts, projection of materials and documentaries.

The methodology adopted for class discussions (group discussion, whole class discussion, presentations, etc.), together with the rubric for assessing students’ participation, will be defined at the beginning of the course taking into consideration the number of attending students.

Assessment methods

The exam consists of an oral examination on the entire syllabus. The aim of the interview is to assess the methodological and critical skills acquired by the student.

Given the importance of class attendance for an appropriate learning process, two distinct grading scales are employed: one for attending students and the other for non-attending ones.

Attending students

Attendance and active participation count as 30% of the final grade. The rubric adopted for assessing participation in class discussions will be defined at the beginning of the course depending on the methodology adopted (see teaching methods section).

Attendance and active participation combined with a consistent comprehension of the topics, the adoption of an informed and well-argued critical approach and an adequate language will be considered and evaluated with the maximum grade (A = 27-30 con lode).

Attendance, if combined with a predominantly mnemonic acquisition of the course's contents and a not-fully-adequate language and logical skills will be assessed based on a grading scale ranging from good (B = 24-26) to satisfactory (C = 21-23).

Attendance combined with a minimum level of comprehension of the course contents, knowledge gaps or inadequate language and logical skills, will result in a ‘barely passing' grade (D = 18-20).

The absence of a minimum level of knowledge of the course's contents, combined with an inadequate language and logical skills will result in a fail (E) grade, also in spite of an assiduous attendance.

Non-attending students

Non-attending students will be assessed primarily on the ability to use the bibliographical resources to properly expose the contents of the course. This ability combined with a consistent comprehension of the topics, the adoption of an informed and well-argued critical approach and an adequate language will be considered and evaluated with the maximum grade (A = 27-30 con lode).

A predominantly mnemonic acquisition of the course's contents and a not-fully-adequate language and logical skills will be assessed based on a grading scale ranging from good (B = 24-26) to satisfactory (C = 21-23).

A minimum level of comprehension of the course contents, knowledge gaps or inadequate language and logical skills, will result in a ‘barely passing' grade (D = 18-20).

The absence of a minimum level of knowledge of the course's contents, combined with an inadequate language and logical skills will result in a fail (E) grade.

Office hours

See the website of Annalisa Furia