Development Studies

This is an advanced course that is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. There are three versions of this course; this course, “GEOGRAPHY OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES,” UCEAP Course Number 177B and Bologna course number 95931, is associated with the LM in Local and Global Development degree programme. One of the other versions, “GEOGRAPHIES OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES,” UCEAP Course Number 177A and Bologna course number 81952, is associated with the LM in History and Oriental Studies degree programme. The final version “GEOGRAPHY OF DEVELOPMENT,” UCEAP Course Number 176 and Bologna course number 19695, is associated with the LM in Local and Global Development degree programme.
Climate change offers the opportunity for a multidisciplinary analysis. The course discusses various aspects of the topic through a primarily geographical approach. The course is structured into three parts. Part one introduces climate change as a global phenomenon, with its natural and anthropogenic root causes. Students discuss and reflect on the socio-spatial inequalities inherent in the climate crisis. Part two analyzes climate governance, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Post Kyoto adaptation and mitigation strategies. In addition to the policy-making process, the course critically examines theoretical frameworks of adaptation, notions of climate justice, and intersectional approaches to addressing the climate crisis and its colonial roots. Part three concerns climate change and mobility. The course examines the complex interconnections between climate change and (im)mobility. Empirical examples are drawn from the #ClimateOfChange [https://climateofchange.info/publications-press/] interdisciplinary research project to contextualize the climate crisis as it is manifested, resisted, and understood from diverse locations across the globe. At the end of the course students show understanding of some of the global challenges the population of the planet has been facing since the second half of the twentieth century. Among these, the critical relation with the natural resources and with the concept of development and, above all, climate change, with its connections to territorial development, ecological risk, food security, and the consumption of natural resources. At the end of the course, the students have acquired the theoretical and empirical tools to critically analyze the global strategies of climate resilience and cooperation and the relation between climate change and tourism.

Course goals

Please note: the information in the course manual is binding.

This course is developed as an integrative course that links to spatial planning, human geography (economic, social, spatial, and political aspects), sustainability, and other disciplines through addressing themes from each of these in the context of a large emerging and transforming country.

At the end of the course, participants are expected/able to:

• describe and understand the historical evolution of the country and the forces that have shaped its recent development;
• understand economic, political, social, and geographical transformation in China; 
• grasp regional and urban dynamics, development issues, and sustainability challenges in contemporary China;
• critically assess recent policies, governance changes, and planning transitions as a response to address the challenges;
• assess different discourses on the meanings for global and local development processes of China’s changing connections to and influence on the world.

Content

China’s rapid economic rise from the early 1980s has captured the world’s imagination. So does the profound social, cultural, and spatial transformation that the country has been undergoing and continues to undergo at an unprecedented scale. The latter is visible in every corner of the country, no matter how remote.

Rapid economic development has led to a number of sustainable challenges regarding environmental problems, issues of migrant integration, an aging population, and social inequality. Indeed, social, economic, and environmental sustainability and stability have come under pressure. It has been recognized that adjustment of the growth model - pursued by China’s leadership over the past decades - is imperative in order to not only sustain growth but also to achieve a broad-based increase in the standard of living and solve imbalances in development during the rapid urbanization process. In the meanwhile the main features of a new development model and path are clear. A range of reforms has been devised. What are the issues associated with the ‘old’ model of urbanization? What is the substance of the ‘new’ model of urbanization? What are the new institutional arrangements, governance models, planning practices, and social and environmental policies to address sustainability challenges? What outcomes are produced? 

Besides, China is increasingly manifesting itself in, and impacting, other regions on the globe through rapidly growing production, trade, investment, and people flows; its role in institutions of regional and global governance is changing. China going global and its growing impact (combined with the domestic issues) have given rise to substantial scientific discourse and public debate, in many parts of the world. What are the new foreign policy initiatives and how do they influence the world?

The course addresses the above questions. It starts by discussing the evolution of China and its historical development with a focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. Next, attention is given to the country's diversity, and the patterns of economic, social, and geographical transformation. Subsequently, the institutional forces, governance, and urban planning that have shaped China’s dynamics over the past decades are scrutinized. In this framework issues, unity focuses on the regional patterns of change, the position of ethnic minorities in the 'periphery', and the rural-urban divide; stability focuses on urbanization and unequal development, issues of migrant integration, and social and geographical fragmentation; and sustainability emphasizes on the aging population, energy issues, and environmental and social problems. It also discusses emerging planning practices and policies (e.g., collaborative planning/governance, smart /green city initiatives, sponge city, micro-regeneration) to address sustainability challenges.

This course explores development and various aspects of development within the themes of migration and gender. The course also features two practitioners working in the field to advise on current field conditions and ongoing problems in the development world.

Academics and practitioners have paid increasing attention to the role that politics plays in development. The course provides students with an introduction to this exciting turn in development theory and practice. Students learn about global development, as well as the fundamentals of politics and political economy. 

This course starts with a critical assessment of development as a particular, historically grounded and morally colored enterprise. The course assesses how changing ideas about gender roles and relations prevalent in the Global North affected efforts to develop societies in the Global South. Students not only scrutinize how certain populations came to be imagined and targeted as objects of development, but also reflect on how women and men in the Global South have understood and expressed their own ideas about social change and their place in the world. To this end, students reflect on different ideological, instrumental, and critical approaches to development and ask what is at stake when gender is constructed as a development concern around discourses of equality, empowerment, and social justice. In the next part of the course, students closely assess the changes and continuities in gender structures during precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial eras. In this light, the course broadens the scope from Western-initiated development efforts to social change more generally and discusses the diverse impacts of globalization on gendered realities in different parts of the world. Key themes that are addressed: poverty, sexual and reproductive health and rights, education and empowerment, environmental politics, rural and urban change, as well as work and gender relations inside and outside the home. Whereas for long (Western-trained) academics, policy makers and development professionals equated gender with women's issues, it is now widely recognized that masculinity is as much a social construct as femininity and deserves critical attention too. Therefore, this course gives ample attention to men's issues too.

This course examines key contemporary issues in international agricultural development – including food security, food safety, poverty reduction, climate change, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the effects of the financial crisis on agricultural development, food crises and food aid etc. The agriculture for development highlights two major regional challenges, which are sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Agricultural productivity growth is vital for stimulating growth in other parts of the economy, but accelerated growth requires a sharp productivity increase in small holder farming combined with more effective support to the millions coping as subsistence farmers, many of them in remote areas. The success will also depend on concerted action by the international development community to confront the challenges ahead. We must level the playing field in goods, such as technologies for tropical food staples; help developing countries address climate change; and overcome looming health pandemics for plants, animals, and humans.

This course mainly focuses on the China's development in terms of economy, politics and society after 1987's revolution. Lecture topics include the structure of Chinese Communists Party; organization of Chinese government; rural reforms in China; primary-level democracy in China; SOE reform; relationship between Mainland China and Taiwan; development of private economy; industrial upgrading and factory of the world; land finance and investment by the local government; and establishment of social security system. Assessment: participation in class (10%), midterm report (20%), midterm exam(30%) and final exam (40%).