Introduction to International Inequality & Development (POLS1701)

Week 1: Introduction to Development

Welcome, Overview of the course, Introduction to Development

No tutorial this week.

In Week 1, we begin the process of getting to know each other and what we’ll be studying in POLS1701, including tips on how to pass the course and administrative matters. The second part of Week 1 will give a short introduction to “What is development?” The lecture will explore some key ideas about “The Great Divergence”, temporal and spatial rupture, and periods of economic history (Meyer, 2012; Pomeranz, 2000; Rai, 2011; Wolf, 1997). In week one, we start to ask the question that orients POLS1701: What is development and why does it look the way it does today? 

Week 2: Theory: Mainstream Ideas of Development

Theory I: Mainstream Ideas of Development

Week Two is the first of two sessions on theory and starts by guiding students through some easy ways to think about theory in social sciences. The heart of the lecture explores and critiques mainstream ideas of development through the work of Rostow (1990); a classic text that promoted a standardised approach to measuring and conceptualising development (Rai, Brown, & Ruwanpura, 2019). The “modernization” approach to development was cemented in the rise of the ‘Development Project’ after World War II, and tended to focus on the Global South as the object of development. Despite some lofty aims, the rise of mainstream development was not neutral, and heavily influenced by the Cold War and anti-colonial struggles (Berger, 2003). The Cold War was about two competing political ideologies of development, although both, at a foundational level, held modernization and economic growth to be fundamental to. It is in this context that Modernization Theory emerged and has been highly influential in the design and implementation of national development strategies and international development practice. 

Week 2: Tutorial

Week 2 tutorial on Mainstream Ideas of Development

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS

1.      What are the stages of economic growth in Modernization Theory (Rostow, 1990; Willis, 2021)?

2.      Describe the US historical path of development. Look for examples presented in Meyer (2012). Does this model hold for all countries? Why/Why not?

3.      What was the significance of Modernization Theory in the context of the Cold War? You can look for  examples from Berger (2003).

4.      Is Modernization Theory still relevant? Draw on examples to support your argument.

Week 3: Theory: Critical Ideas in Development

Theory: Critical Ideas in Development

This second topic on theory explores the counter arguments to mainstream theory, looking at critical ideas of development. We look at different ways of understanding and measuring the economy and economic development, including Marxist and Feminist ideas about production, social reproduction, labour, and value (Bakker, 2007; Rai, 2011; Sahlins, 1972). Week Three sets up a debate between mainstream modernisation theory and dependency theory (Amin, 1972; Frank, 1966; Wallerstein, 1974). The key points of disagreements are (1) the origins of the lack of development in the Global South and (2) on the means to get there. 

Week 3 Tutorial

Week 3 Tutorial on Theory: Critical Ideas in Development

1.      What are some differences between Modernisation and Dependency Theory?

2.      What does social reproduction mean? Provide examples from Laslett and Brenner (1989) and your own life.

3.      What are some of the implications of thinking about social reproduction for development?

4.      What does Frank mean when he talks about the “development of underdevelopment”?

5.      The film by Bishop & Bishop (1997) on Himalayan Herders is an ethnographic film that seeks to describe one village’s life world – their economy, kin system, rituals and religion – over a period of time. Watch the section between minutes 07:00 and 19:42 and describe and discuss. What is the mode of production? How many different kinds of work are described or shown in that clip? Who is doing the work? What is the sex division of labour? 

Week 4: History: Colonial Period

History : Colonial Period: Profits, Violence, Civilisation

This is our first week looking at history and examines colonial interactions and see how they set the stage for the rise of development in the contemporary era (Amin, 1972). The mechanisms of colonial economic and political domination are explored this week in a case study of Indonesia (Hägerdal, 2020; Ricklefs, 1981). The drive for profit, goods, markets and labour shapes the aims of the Dutch East Indies company (and the Dutch state) in their colonisation of Indonesia but these processes and their outcomes change with different forms of colonialism from 1500 to 1900 (Booth, 1998; Phillips & Sharman, 2020). The twentieth century saw the dawn of development (called the “The Ethical Policy”) in the Dutch East Indies / Indonesia, but as students will see, this was largely a technique of rule, rather than ethically motivated. 

Week 4 Tutorial

Week 4 Tutorial. Essay 1 Writing in Class Component (must hand in work)

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS:

1.      What is the value of a critical historical approach in the study of development? Provide examples from  and O'Brien and Williams (2004) Chapter 4.

2.      In the video clip “the plantation labour problem”, there is a distinct reason given for the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade. What is it, and do you find it convincing?  

3.      Amin talks about the “periphery of the periphery” with regards to regional hinterlands in African polities. How does this concept fit with the dependency framework? 

4.      What role does violence play in colonialism? Discuss with reference to the Dutch East Indies company discussed in The Dollop, episode #404 Jan Pieterszoon Coon

5.      What are the differences and similarities between contemporary global capitalism and nineteenth century colonialism?

6.      What reasons do O'Brien and Williams (2004) give for the surprising fact that women and children initially comprised the majority of factory workers in Britain? 

Week 5: History: Post Colonial Development

History: Post Colonial Development: Education, Manufacturing and Infrastructure

This is our second week looking at history, this time at how development plays out in postcolonial states after the 1940s. After nationalist struggles for independence from colonial powers, post-colonial governments had different ideas about development (Carroll, 2020). Moreover, development projects in education, manufacturing and infrastructure became key to how these states were built (Freire, 2021; Patel, 1992). We explore how mainstream and critical ideas of development feature in several postcolonial statebuilding projects in the Global South including examples from Ethiopia, Brazil, Indonesia, Egypt, Tunisia and Ghana. 

Week 5 Tutorial

Week 5 Tutorial on History: Post Colonial Development

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS

1.      What are the similarities and differences between modernization theory and dependency theory?

2.      What role does education have in social change? (Freire, 2021; Serra & Gerits, 2019)

3.      What are the similarities and differences between Import Substitution Industrialisation and Export Orientated Industrialisation?

4.      Describe some of the features of the Developmental State (see, for instance, (Stubbs, 2009)

Week 6: Gender and Development

No Lectures or Tutorials this week

Week 7: Neoliberal Development

Neoliberal Development

This week looks at the issue of health and welfare in development during the neoliberal era. Neoliberalism was a period in the history of economic development, as well as being an ideological framework for governing (Dados & Connell, 2018). This week we see how both mainstream and critical development projects in the global south fared during the ill-famed structural adjustment policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the 1980s (McMichael & Weber, 2022). Debt is an old and powerful instrument of economic statecraft and still used today in various forms of conditionality (Johnston, 2020; Kentikelenis, Stubbs, & King, 2016).We look at how debt has been crucial to various development projects and forms of rule, such as in Jamaica and Bolivia in the 1970s and 1980s (Weber, 2004). We use these ideas to examine emerging debt crisis in low and middle-income countries, the flow on effects on social spending, and the crucial question of where the money for financing development is going to come from (Fischer & Storm, 2023). Debts, austerity and hollowing out the state’s provision of health and welfare were major features of the neoliberal era, although new efforts at inclusive development sought to make austerity policies more palatable  (Carroll, 2010; Elyachar, 2005; Mosley, Chiripanhura, Grugel, & Thirkelll-White, 2012). 

Week 7 Tutorial

Week 7 tutorial on Neoliberal Development

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS

1.      What was neoliberalism?

2.      What kinds of measures does Milton Friedman advocate for?

3.      Why do Dados and Connell argue that the power of the post-colonial state is one of the key conditions of the global neoliberal regime?

4.      What is “conditionality” and how is related to structural adjustment policies? (Babb & Carruthers, 2008)

5.      Discuss the case of structural adjustment in Jamaica using examples from the film, Life and Debt, and from Box 2.3 in Willis (2021)

Week 8 : Development and Finance

Development and Finance

In this lecture, we will critically explore a key assumption in contemporary global development agendas: that access to private finance is the solution to overcoming major development challenges, at both the macro and micro levels. We will examine global initiatives like the World Bank’s Maximising Finance for Development, which argue for partnering with private financial actors—such as pension funds, hedge funds, and asset managers—to help “plug” the “financing gap” standing in the way of the Sustainable Development Goals (Mawdsley, 2018). This agenda is called the “Wall Street Consensus” by Daniela Gabor (2021), for how it tries to align development projects in the global South with financial investors in the global North. Additionally, we will discuss financial inclusion initiatives, ranging from microcredit to more sophisticated financial products, that aim to unlock the entrepreneurial potential of the global poor and help them escape poverty (Bernards, 2022). By exploring debt crises, policy failures, and the uneven flow of money across the world market, we will question the underlying narrative that private finance is a “win-win” solution, benefiting private investors and developing countries and communities. 

Week 8 Tutorial

Week 8 tutorial on Development and Finance

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS

1.      Why turn to the private sector as a source of development finance?

2.      What is the “financing gap”? How do development actors propose to address it?

3.      Do you see problems with the narrative of the “financing gap”? What does the win-win narrative obfuscate?

4.      What are the “Washington Consensus” and the “Wall Street Consensus”?

5.      What role does the Wall Street Consensus prescribe for the state in developing countries? What is the “de-risking state”? Outline its key features.

6.      What is the “financial inclusion” agenda, who pushes for it, and what does it prescribe?

7.      How is access to sophisticated financial products supposed to empower the poor?

8.      What critiques have been levelled against the (digital) financial inclusion agenda?

9.      Is the (digital) financial inclusion good or bad for existing patterns of gendered and racial inequalities? How so? 

MIDSEMESTER BREAK

No Lectures or Tutorials this week

PAUSE WEEK

Use the free time to speak to the course coordinator or your tutor about the second essay :)

Week 10: Extractive Industries, Indigenous Peoples and Development

This week looks at the relationship between extractive industries (like mining, oil, forestry) and indigenous peoples and development (Langton & Mazel, 2008). We’ll explore the paradox of “poverty amidst plenty” or the question of why countries (or populations) rich in natural resources often seem beset by a “resource curse”  (Elbra, 2017; Sinclair, 2020), and how this impacts indigenous peoples in particular (O'Faircheallaigh, 2013). Using a case study of iron ore mining in the Pilbara Western Australia, we look at how and why the mining industries have produced Australia’s richest man, while indigenous peoples like the Yindjibarndi continue to face poverty and under-development (Cleary, 2021; Woodley, 2019).

Week 10 Tutorial

Tutorial on Extractive Industries, Indigenous People and Development.

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS:

1.      What is the paradox of poverty amidst plenty? Can you think of other examples of rich extractive industries existing alongside poverty?

2.      Outline the institutional barriers to indigenous peoples’ like the Yindjibarndi seeking access to resources produced on their land. What are the biggest barriers?

3.      Is colonialism relevant to thinking about the resource curse affecting parts of indigenous Australia? Why or why not? 

Week 11 Measuring Development and Multi-Dimensional Poverty Measures

Gendered Development

Although gender is mainstreamed throughout POLS1701, Week Eight zones in on women, gender and development. We first re-examine some key aspects of feminist theory and development, including social reproduction (Laslett & Brenner, 1989) and look at gender and poverty measurement.  We will hear in depth from an expert in multi-dimensional poverty measures. Second, we look at feminism and gender in postcolonial nationalist projects in select cases from Tunisia, China and Indonesia . Third, we look at transnational feminism and development projects covering the UN decade for women, gender mainstreaming and “Gender-wash” (Rai, 2011). Fourth, we look at how gendered development can feature both liberation and co-optation looking at the example of women workers in manufacturing and global value chains (Elias, 2013). 

Week 12: Development in War

Development in War: Conflicts, Crises, and Challenges

This week looks at the issue of Development in War. In the decades since September 11, development has increasingly focussed on security: conflict traps, the securitisation of aid, failed states, humanitarian intervention and human security (Brahimi, 2000; Ghani & Lockhart, 2008). Many countries facing the hardest development challenges today are those affected by wars. For development organisations and actors, doing work in these areas is not only physically risky and logistically difficult, but poses unique political challenges (Bjarnegård, 2020). Development organisations have significant resources, and their work carries moral and normative weight. Governments and citizens in places affected by conflict often desperately need help. However, military forces are often in power, preventing or allowing safe access to provide development aid. This provokes hard choices about who to work with, who to provide resources for, and under what conditions (Dolan-Evans, 2023). This week draws on case studies of Myanmar and Timor-Leste to demonstrate how complex development in conflict affected contexts (Johnston, 2023; Johnston & Lingham, 2020; Woods, 2011). 

Week 12 Tutorial

Week 12 Tutorial on Essay 2 Writing in Class (must hand in work)

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS

1.      Why does conflict affect development outcomes? Provide examples

2.      How does the post war cash transfer system in Timor-Leste perpetuate inequality?

3.      How did political and economic liberalization play into conflict dynamics in Myanmar prior to the 2021 Coup?

4.      Reading the 2020 article from Bjanegard, what factors could have played a role in the military seizing power in the 2021 Coup?

5.      How does conflict change women’s work?

6.      Use a gender lens to analyse postwar economic development in a country case. . 

Week 13 Revision Lecture

Final Lecture - Revision and overview

Week 13 Tutorial

Revision of the course to prepare for the exam

TUTORIAL QUESTIONS

1.      What era of capitalism are we in? Neoliberalism as it always was? Technofeudalism? Platform capitalism? Accumulation crisis?

2.      If you were setting the definitions part of the exam, what terms in POLS1701 would you set for students?

3.      What are the most important aspects of writing an essay for an exam?

4.      Who are the major authors you are going to study up on to write your exam essay, do you think?