Geography of Third World Development

Course Requirements:

Lectures: I expect that you will attend lectures, contribute to discussions in class, complete the assigned readings before class, take the exams and be responsible for making-up any work missed during an absence. There may also be guest lectures in the class. If you miss a class I would suggest that you get the notes from a classmate and ask her/him about what we went over that day. Don’t miss the exam days!! If you are someone who may miss classes throughout the semester because of athletics or another university sponsored activity please let me know early in the semester so I can make note of it.

Readings: There are three books that you should purchase for this class: Theories and practices of Development by Katie Willis, Gender and Development by Janet Momsen and Unholy Trinity: The IMF, World Bank, and WTO by Richard Peet. All of them should be available at the bookstore. There will also be readings that you will need to read that will be posted on the electronic reserve system from the library. These readings are required.

You get the reserve articles by going to the UVM library website – http://library.uvm.edu/ On that page click on ‘course reserves’ which is on the green bar on the top of the page. On the reserve page, under ‘course’ scroll down to find Geog 173: Political Ecology. Then hit ‘search’. The class readings will then come up. Select the reading you are looking for and click on it. On this page look at the link that says ‘internet’ and click on that webpage. The computer will ask you for your username and password. Enter your username and password for your ZOO account. The article will then come up as a PDF file. You can read the article on your computer or print it out. You must have Adobe Acrobat to read the file. If you do not have that program you can download it for free. There is a link to download Adobe Acrobat on the course reserve webpage (where you searched for the course name). Let me know if you expect to have any problems getting these readings and we’ll try to arrange something. These are all very important readings.

Read all assigned material before the class for which it is assigned. We will discuss the readings in class, the material from the readings will be on exams, and you are required to turn in discussion points from the readings.

Movies: From time to time we will be watching movies that demonstrate the concepts covered in the class. The information from the movies will be on the exams (Don’t fall asleep!).

Things you will be graded on:

Exams:

There will be 2 exams during the semester: a midterm on Wed. Mar. 15 in class and the final on Thurs May 11^th at noon. The information from the exams will come directly from the class discussions, readings and movies. The final exam is cumulative. The exams may have some multiple choice and short answer, but will mostly be based on answering essay questions. I’ll let you know more information about the format as the first exam date gets closer.

Discussion points:

For each class that we have a reading assignment for you should write up 4 questions or ‘talking points’ that occur to you during the readings and come to class with two copies of them. This doesn’t have to be anything elaborate, but it is meant to be a way to keep discussion going in the class (as well as to help answer questions in class you may have had while doing the readings). You will turn in one set of these at the beginning of class and keep the other set to refer to during discussion.

Paper:

You will be required to do a paper on a country/area of your choice. The paper should be 7-10 pages (double-spaced, 12 point font, standard margins). In the paper give a general background on the area, and then discuss and analyze development initiatives that have been undertaken there. It is expected that you will use this case study to discuss some of the different development strategies and paradigms we cover throughout the semester. How does the experience of your country/region validate some views of development while arguing against others? This paper must be well researched and reference at least seven academic or scholarly papers or books. You are required to turn in to me an idea for the paper as well as an annotated list of at least 7 sources that you will use by Friday April 7. You should briefly describe how you plan to analyze development in this place and also give a short description of each source.

The paper is due at the beginning of class on Wed. May 3.

What an ‘A’ paper looks like:

The paper should be clearly written, well organized, and turned in on time. While websites of various organizations and news outlets can provide valuable information about your topic, an ‘A’ paper is based on research that not only cites at least seven scholarly sources (books and published articles) but also analyzes and critiques them. The paper should mesh the information from your research with concepts and readings covered in class during the semester, but I expect that you will consult a variety of scholarly sources that are pertinent to your analysis that go beyond what was assigned in class. Papers that lack one or more of these elements will be graded lower than an A.

Attendance and participation:

Attendance will be taken each day. If you miss more than 3 classes during the semester you will start losing points at the rate of 25 points off final class points for each day missed (there are a total of 1000 points for the semester). In other words if you miss 4 classes you lose 25 points, 5 classes you lose 50 points, etc. Also, there will be points awarded for participation in class discussions (see below).

Grades will be distributed according to the usual scale:

A+ 100-97; A 97-93; A- 93-90; B+ 90-87; B 83-87; B- 83-80; C+ 80-77; C 77-73; C- 73-70; D+ 70-67; D 67-63; D- 60-63; F= below 60.

This is how the points will break down:

Exams: 400 (2 exams at 200 each)

Discussion points: 300

Final paper: 200

Turn in paper topic idea / sources: 50

Class Participation: 50

Total points: 1000

Academic dishonesty: Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism (submitting someone else’s work as your own), cheating, and fabrication of information or citations. It will result in a grade of “F” for this course. If you have any questions or uncertainty regarding the use of sources in your research or other areas of potential conflict with this policy, discuss them with me.

Access: I encourage persons with disabilities to participate in this class. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation in this course or have questions about physical access, please tell me as soon as possible.

Class Schedule:

(Note: This is an approximate schedule. If there are any changes to it I will announce it in class.)

Jan 18, 20

Introduce class, syllabus, debates about development

Jan 23, 25, 27

What is Development? Classical and Neo-liberal Development

Readings: Mon -Chap. 1 Willis; Fri -Chap 2 Willis

Jan 30 Feb 1, 3

Marxist views of Development. Sustainable development

Readings: Mon- Chap 3 Willis; Wed- Chap 4 Willis

Feb 6, 8, 10

Developing Poverty? Discourse theory and rejections of development.

Readings: Mon- Chap 5 Willis; Wed- “The idea of progress” by Teodor Shanin (On E-reserve); Fri- “The Making and Unmaking of the Third World through Development” by Arturo Escobar (On E-reserve)

Feb 13, 15, 17

Gender and development

Readings: Mon- Chap.1 Momson; Wed- Chap 2 Momson; Fri- Chap 3 Momson

Feb 20 – Prez day – no class , Feb 22, 24

Gender and development

Readings: Wed- Chap. 4 Momson

Feb 27, Mar 1, 3

Development and the environment

Readings: Mon- Chap 5 Momson; Wed- Chap 6 Willis

Mar 6, 8, 10

Food security and development.

Readings: Mon- Chap 6 Momson

Mar 13, 15, 17 (Mar 17^th last day to withdraw)

Technological change and development

Readings: Mon- “Improved seeds and constructed scarcity” by Lakshman Yapa (On E-reserve).

***Wed. Mar 15 – Exam***

Mar 20 – 24 Spring Break

Mar 27, 29, 31

Globalization and development

Readings: Wed Chap 7 Willis; Fri- Chap 1 Peet.

April 3, 5, 7

The institutions of development: World Bank, IMF and WTO.

Readings: Mon- Chap 2 Peet; Wed- Chap 3 Peet; Fri- Chap 4 Peet.

April 7th turn in paper idea and bibliography.

April 10, 12, 14

Remaking nations

Readings: Mon – Chap5 Peet 5; Wed Chap 6 Peet.

April 17, 19, 21

Militarism and development: Reconstructing Afghanistan and Iraq

Readings: Mon - “Disaster Capitalism” by Naomi Klein (On E-reserve) and other readings TBA

April 24, 26, 28

Resisting development: Anti-globalization and anti-imperialist movements.

Readings: Mon: selected from We are Everywhere: the Irresistible Rise of Anticapitalism (On E-reserve)

May 1, 3 (May 3 last day)

Resisting development, part two: Anti-imperialist(?) states.

Readings: TBA.

Paper due May 3.

Final Exam Thursday May 11 at noon.