Development Studies

This course deals with the empirical reality, theory, and current governance problems of development, poverty, and inequality. Specifically, throughout the course students investigate the influence of colonialism, state capacity, regime type, war and conflict, accountability, social structures, and corruption on development. This course engages with both economic theory regarding development and political science research that highlights the challenges to implementing the policies that would lead to economic development. Students take these theories and use to them to then think about and develop research-informed policies that promote development.

This course is for students interested in addressing questions affecting nearly two-thirds of the world’s population living in poverty: why are some countries rich in comparison with the vast majority that are poor? Why do some countries grow faster than others? What are the most effective methods of improving health, education, and women empowerment in low and middle-income countries? Can the relaxation of credit and saving constraints help to alleviate poverty and empower women via microfinance? Are institutions the root cause of underdevelopment in former colonies? Can foreign aid via institutions as the World Bank and the IMF play a role in economic development? Is foreign aid efficient? The course provides an overview of the leading issues and ongoing controversies in economic development trajectories and policy, and to expose students to the latest research findings in salient poverty-related topics. 

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 DEVELOPMENT,” UCEAP Course Number 176 and Bologna course number 19695, 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 GLOBAL CHALLENGES,” UCEAP Course Number 177B and Bologna course number 95931, 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.

This course offers a study of state-of-the-art research within the field of environment, society, and development with a specific focus on understanding theoretical approaches to development geography and coupled human-environment systems in the Global South. It provides the theoretical and historical foundations for understanding contemporary sustainability agendas, including approaches to sustainable development. The first part of the course focuses on societal transformation processes in urban and rural areas and discusses how contemporary scholars theorize and explore urbanization and rural transformation processes in the Global South. The second part of the course focuses on the dynamics of coupled human–environmental systems and the multiple conceptual models that have been proposed to understand this complex relationship, including cultural, human, and political ecology; land use intensification; land system science; sustainability science; and resilience and vulnerability approaches. The course discusses approaches that relate to interactions between the human and environmental spheres.

This course introduces the theory and practice of community leadership. Topics include basic leadership theories, models and frameworks including transformational leadership, transactional leadership, servant leadership, as well as contingent models of leadership. The course also covers concepts related to community leadership such as power, culture, and conflict in the community. Through this course, students develop critical competencies in leading and managing in the community such as influence and persuasion, negotiation, communication, empathy, and empowerment.