🗓️ Session 1: Introduction and the meaning of ‘development’
Abstract
In this introductory lecture we discuss four “grand theories” that all give different answers to the question of “What is development?”. As we will see throughout this course, the fundamental ideas of these four approaches continue to shape - implicitly or explicitly - the discourses about the rights and wrongs of development policy.
🖥️ Lecture Slides
Click here to download the slides.
📚 Follow-up Reading
🏆 Further readings
✍️ Coursework
- Add your thoughts on the following questions to the Notepad on Moodle:
- What do you remember as the key message of the four theories/approaches introduced?
- What kind of socio-ecological challenges come to your attention or are obscured if you take one of the perspectives?
- What are aspects that you particularly like/disagree with?
- If you have questions or problems, please post them in the Moodle forum
References
Chang, H.-J. (2011) “Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark: How development has disappeared from today’s "development" discourse,” in J. Christiansen and S. R. Khan (eds.). Towards new developmentalism: Market as means rather than master. London: Routledge, pp. 47–58.
De Janvry, A. and Sadoulet, E. (2021) Development economics: Theory and practice, Second edition., New York: Routledge.
Escobar, A. (1995) Encountering development: The making and unmaking of the Third World, Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
Todaro, M. P. and Smith, S. C. (2020) Economic development, Thirteenth Edition., Hoboken: Pearson.
UNDP (ed.) (2024) Breaking the gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarized world, New York: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), available at https://hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/global-report-document/hdr2023-24reporten.pdf.