GEOG2541: GEOGRAPHIES OF DEVELOPMENT

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• The module provides students with a critical understanding of:
• The changing and diverse ways in which geographers have theorised the spatiality of development
• The history of development theories, strategies and ideologies
• The changing geopolitical and geoeconomic contexts of development
• The ways in which development is lived, experienced and resisted in the everyday

• The module will address key themes in geographies of development, for example:
• History of development thought and practice
• Critical geographical approaches to development
• Theories, ideologies and strategies of development past and present
• Orientalism and tropical geographies; post colonialism and development
• The geopolitics of development
• Geographies of resistance and alternatives to development
• Migration, displacement and development
• Materialities of development
• The environment/development interface, conservation and sustainability
• Post-development
• Urban metabolism

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students are expected to be able to:
• Understand key theories, ideologies and strategies of development past and present
• Trace the emergence and evolution of geographical approaches to development
• Appreciate the geographical contingencies of development experience in the global South

Subject-specific Skills:

• On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
• Show an appreciation of the spatiality of development
• Analyse a range of contemporary development debates through an engagement with relevant theoretical frameworks and empirical experiences
• Think critically about contemporary development theory and practice

Key Skills:

• On completion of the module students will be able to:
• Demonstrate an ability to formulate critical and sophisticated arguments and analysis
• Demonstrate a capacity to communicate effectively in written assignments
• Demonstrate an ability to gather, evaluate and synthesise information obtained from a variety of sources
• Demonstrate a capacity to evaluate the merits of contrasting theoretical and conceptual approaches
• Demonstrate an understanding of both the theoretical debates and empirical issues through case studies and grounded examples

• The lectures will introduce students to the concepts, theories and contemporary issues of development and its geographies
• In their independent learning, including reading widely, students will deepen their understanding of different perspectives on development
• Small group discussion and debate in seminars will allow students to work through theoretical understandings introduced in lectures and apply such understandings to contemporary examples
• Examination and coursework will test critical understanding of concepts and critical thinking

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