98840 - Development Geography (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will have acquired specific knowledge on the theoretical and territorial aspects of development and on the connections between poverty, politics and the environment at different scales, with a focus on the unequal geographies designed by the access to resources and by the global production and consumption models.

Course contents

The course deals with the theory and practice of development from a geographical point of view. At the end of the course the student knows the various theories of development, its models and main concepts and will be able to apply this knowledge on a series of issues central to the current development aid architecture. The course includes a dynamic and reflective approach including joint readings, written texts and class discussions.

Readings/Bibliography

ITALIAN MONOGRAPHIES (ONLY FOR SUPPORT - NO EXAM MATERIAL):

Bignanti, E. et al. (2014) Geografie dello sviluppo. Una prospettiva critica e globale, Torino: UTET

Scarpocchi, C. et al. (2008) Geografia e cooperazione allo sviluppo. Temi e prospettive per un approccio territoriale, Milano: FrancoAngeli

Hodder. R. (2001) Geografia dello sviluppo, DeAgostini

 

Non-attending students are required to study

1. all the main texts listed in the course bibliography:
2. choose one of the monographic texts listed below, based on the student's interest:
Duffield, M. (2013) Postmodern Wars. Humanitarian aid as a political technique of control, Bologna: Il ponte editrice.
Fassin, D. (2018) Humanitarian Reason. A moral history of the present, Rome: DeriveApprodi
Foradori, P., Giacomello, G. eds. (2014), Global Security: The new threats, Bologna: Il Mulino
Olivier de Sardan, J-P. (2008) Anthropology and development: essay on social change: Raffaello Cortina Editore
Latouche (2021) A brief history of degrowth. Origin, objectives, misunderstandings and future, Turin: Bollati Bolingheri.

It is possible to agree on other texts with the teacher

ATTENDING STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO READ ALL COMPULSORY READINGS IN PREPARATION FOR EACH SESSION 

Introduction (session 1-2)

Main texts (EXAM MATERIAL)

Hodder. R. (2001) Geografia dello sviluppo, DeAgostini (capitoli 1)

Bignanti, E. et al. (2014) Geografie dello sviluppo. Una prospettiva critica e globale, Torino: UTET (capitolo 1)

Supplementary texts

Hart, G. (2010) D/Developments after the Meltdown, in: Antipode, 41/1: 117-141

Lawson, V. (2007) Making Development Geography, London: Routledge (chapter one).

Massey, D. (2002) Globalisation: What does it mean for geography? Geography Vol. 87, No. 4 (October), pp. 293-296

Power, M. (2019) Geopolitics and Development, London: Routledge (chapter 1).

Potter, R. et al. (2017) Geographies of Development : An Introduction to Development Studies, London: Routledge (chapter 2)

1 Liberalism (session 3-4)

Main texts

Bignanti, E. et al. (2014) Geografie dello sviluppo. Una prospettiva critica e globale, Torino: UTET(capitolo 2)

Supplementary texts

Crewe , E. and Harrison, E. (1998) Whose Development? An Ethnography of Aid, New York: Bloomsbury (chapter one)

Escobar, A. (2011, 2nd ed.) Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, Princeton: Princeton University Press (preface and chapter one).

Ferguson, J. (1994) The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho, Baltimore: University of Minnesota Press (chapter 9).

Li, T.M. (2007) The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics, Durham, N.C: Duke University Press (introduction).

Malighetti, R. (2005) Oltre lo sviluppo. Le prospettive dell'antropologia, Milano: Melthemi (capitolo 3)

Case studies

Dickie, J. (1999) Darkest Italy: The Nation and Stereotypes of the Mezzogiorno, 1860–1900, Palgrave McMillan.

Mbembe, A. (2019) Critica della ragione negra, Como: Ibis

Mudimbe, V. Y. (1988) The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, And The Order Of Knowledge, Minneapolis: Indiana University Press.

Mignolo , W. (2013) L'idea di America Latina. Geostoria di una teoria decoloniale, Milano: Mimesis

2 Sustainable Development (session 5-6)

Main texts

Sen, A. (2020) Lo sviluppo e’ liberta’, Milano: Mondadori (capitolo 1-2)

Collinson, S. (2003) Power, livelihoods and conflict: case studies in political economy analysis for humanitarian action, Brighton: ODI (capitolo 1)

Supplementary texts

Nussbaum, M.C. (2012) Creare capacità. Liberarsi dalla dittatura del Pil, Bologna: Il Mulino

Nussbaum, M.C., Sen, A. (1993) The quality of life: Oxford Univesity Press.

Vlassenroot, K. and Raeymaekers, T., eds. (2004) Conflict and Social Transformation in Eastern DR Congo, Gent, Academia Press (disponibile in inglese e francese)

4 Post-Development (session 7)

Main texts

Olivier de Sardan: antropologia e sviluppo: saggio sul cambiamento sociale: Raffaello Cortina Editore (capitolo 1-2)

Escobar, A. (2011, 2nd ed.) Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, Princeton: Princeton University Press (preface and chapter one).

Supplementary texts

De Sousa-Santos, B. (2007) Beyond abyssal thinking: From global lines to ecologies of knowledges, Eurozine (http://www.eurozine.com/beyond-abyssal-thinking/)

Gibson-Graham, J.K. (2014) Rethinking the Economy with Thick Description and Weak Theory, Current Anthropology, 55/9: 147-153

Kothari, A. et al. (2019) Pluriverso: dizionario del post-sviluppo, Napoli-Salerno: Orthotes (introduzione)

Meagher, K., De Herdt, T. and Titeca, K. (2014) Unravelling public authority: paths of hybrid governance in Africa, IS Academy research brief.

Radcliffe, S.A. And Radhuber, I.M (2020) The political geographies of D/decolonization: Variegation and decolonial challenges of /in geography, Political Geography 78 (2020): 102-128

5 Degrowth (session 8)

Main texts

Latouche (2021), Breve storia della decrescita. Origine, obiettivi, malintesi e future, Torino: Bollati Bolingheri (introduzione)

Supplementary texts

Ilich, I. (1974) La convivialità, Milano: Mondadari.

Graeber, D. (2006) Frammenti di antropologia anarchica, Elèuthera.

Pallante, M. (2011) La decrescita felice: la qualità della vita non dipende dal PIL, Edizioni per la decrescita felice.

Sahlins, M. (2010) Un grosso sbaglio. L'idea occidentale di natura umana, Elèuthera.

SESSION 9: WRITING LABORATORY (FIRST ESSAY)

6 Development and Security (sessions 10-12)

Main texts

Kaldor, M. (2001) Le nuove guerre: la violenza organizzata nell'età globale, Carocci (intro e conclusione)

Duffield, M. (2013) Guerre postmoderne. L'aiuto umanitario come tecnica politica di controllo, Bologna: Il ponte editrice (introduzione).

Supplementary texts

Foradori, P., Giacomello, G. eds. (2014), Sicurezza globale: Le nuove minacce, Bologna: Il Mulino (capitolo 6)

Gregory (2011) The everywhere war, in: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 177, No. 3, September, pp. 238–250.

Kalyvas, S. (2001) “New” and “Old” Civil Wars: A Valid Distinction? In: World Politics 54 (October), pp. 99–118.

Kaplan, R.D. (1994) The Coming Anarchy. How Scarcity, Crime, Overpopulation, Tribalism, and Disease are Rapidly Destroying the Social Fabric of our Planet, The Atlantic Monthly, February (online).

Koopman, S. (2011) Alter-geopolitics: Other securities are happening, in: Geoforum, 42, pp. 274284.

Korf, Benedikt , Engeler, Michelle and Hagmann, Tobias (2010) The Geography of Warscape, in: Third World Quarterly, 31: 3, 385-399.

Loughlin John O’, and Raleigh, C.A. (2008) Spatial analysis of civil war violence, in K. Cox, M. Low and J. Robinson (eds) A Handbook of Political Geography, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage, pp. 493-508

Schlichte, K. (2009) In the shadow of violence, Frankfurt, Campus Verlag.

6 development and the State (session 13-14)

Main texts

Foradori, P., Giacomello, G. eds. (2014), Sicurezza globale: Le nuove minacce, Bologna: Il Mulino (capitolo 1)

Supplementary texts

Boege, V., A. Brown, K. Clements and A. Nolan (2008) ‘On Hybrid Political Orders and Emerging States: State Formation in the Context of “Fragility”’. Berlin: Berghof Research Centre for Constructive Conflict Management.

Jessop, Bob, Brenner, Neil, and Martin Jones. 2008. ‘Theorizing Sociospatial Relations’. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 26 (3): 389– 401

Korf, Benedikt; Raeymaekers, Timothy; Schetter, Conrad; Watts, Michael J (2018). Geographies of limited statehood. In: Draude, Anke; Börzel, Tanja A; Risse, Thomas. The Oxford Handbook of Governance and Limited Statehood. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Leander, A. (2004) ‘War and the Un-Making of States: Taking Tilly Seriously inthe Contemporary

World’, in S. Guzzini and D. Jung (eds) Copenhagen Peace Research: ConceptualInnovation and Contemporary Security Analysis, pp. 69–80. London: Routledge.

Menkhaus, K. (2003) State Collapse in Somalia: Second Thoughts, in: Review of African Political Economy, Vol. 30, No. 97, (Sep.,2003), pp. 405-422.

SESSION 15: ESSAY WRITING LAB

Teaching methods

Students are not passive recipients but an active part of the learning process. The course stimulates personal reflection, argumentation and communication skills. Students attending students are required to attend at least 75% of the lessons in presence.

Assessment methods

ASSESSMENT
ATTENDING STUDENTS

 
Study of the main texts (The texts in Italian are indicated in bold)

Participation in the educational activities that will take place during the lessons (the slides will serve as a support but are not considered exam material)

Writing of two short essays (max. 1500 words) on two chosen topics that will be introduced during the course

THE ESSAYS MUST BE SENT TO THE TEACHER'S ELECTRONIC ADDRESS MAXIMUM 5 WORKING DAYS BEFORE THE CALL FOR THE ORAL EXAM IN MICROSOFT WORD ANOTHER WRITING PROGRAM (NOT PDF) IN THE FOLLOWING MODE: Surname_essay 1 / surname_essay 2

NON ATTENDING STUDENTS
Non-attending students are required to study
1. all the main texts listed in the course bibliography:
2. one of the monographic texts listed below, based on the student's interest:

Duffield, M. (2013) Postmodern Wars. Humanitarian aid as a political control technique, Bologna: Il ponte editoria.

Fassin, D. (2018) Humanitarian Reason. A moral history of the present, Rome: DeriveApprodi.

Foradori, P., Giacomello, G. eds. (2014), Global security: The new threats, Bologna: Il Mulino

Olivier de Sardan, J-P. (2008) Anthropology and development: essay on social change: Raffaello Cortina Editore

Latouche (2021) Brief history of degrowth. Origin, objectives, misunderstandings and futures, Turin: Bollati Bolingheri.

It is possible to choose other texts in accordance with the teacher.

ASSESSMENT MODE
ATTENDING STUDENTS
The course will be evaluated as follows:
Two written texts: 75%
Exam: 25%

The exam involves an oral test to be held at the Geography office on the established dates. Enrollments are made on AlmaEsami.
The evaluation is aimed at verifying the understanding of the geographical, social and cultural phenomena described during the lessons, introduced both through the teacher's lectures and through the works carried out and presented directly by the students and discussed in class.
Structurally, each essay consists of the following parts: (1) an abstract detailing the research question and thesis statement (hypothetical answer), (2) a body of text in which you address the question point-by-point in a conceptual way (ie addressing the main concepts and briefly evoking one or more examples); (3) a conclusion that links the argument back to the initial question.

THE ESSAYS MUST BE SENT TO THE TEACHER'S ELECTRONIC ADDRESS MAXIMUM 5 WORKING DAYS BEFORE THE CALL FOR THE ORAL EXAM IN MICROSOFT WORD ANOTHER WRITING PROGRAM (NOT PDF) IN THE FOLLOWING MODE: Surname_essay 1 / surname_essay 2

ESSAY GUIDING QUESTIONS

 

How does the idea of development remain intertwined with the paradigm of modernity?
 
How does our possibility of subsisting depend on the institutional context?

What are the geographical cornerstones of a pluriverse ecological approach?

ESSAY 2

What can a more explicit spatial perspective teach us about contemporary armed conflicts?

“War is nothing more than a continuation of the economy by other means” (David Keen). He explains from a geographical point of view.

More than the states themselves, the idea of a single and universal model of the nation-state seems to be collapsing. True or false?

NON ATTENDING STUDENTS
For non-attending students, the exam is aimed at verifying the understanding of the geographical, social and cultural phenomena studied exclusively in the exam texts. During the exam the student will be invited to propose his own reflections on the geographical facts inherent in the course, also through the use of examples aimed at explaining the theoretical aspects studied. Furthermore, the evaluation cannot fail to take into account the student's communication skills, who are required not only to have an appropriate knowledge of the course contents but also to have the appropriateness of language necessary to demonstrate that they have understood and internalized the subjects of the discipline.

Teaching tools

The powerpoint presentations used during the frontal lessons will be made available among the teaching materials but are not considered exam material.

Office hours

See the website of Timothy Raeymaekers