Description
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When ‘development’ is understood as a process of planned change, ‘development in practice’ concerns understanding the planning processes through which that change is imagined and achieved. It also concerns understanding the intended and unintended outcomes of that change. In this module, we will closely examine the complexities of development in practice through an in-depth exploration of a case in practice, which will involve an overseas practice engagement in term 3. In the past, overseas practice engagements have taken place in Uganda, Ethiopia and Egypt. At present, the overseas practice engagement takes place in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The exploration will entail querying the tools and approaches that are used to conceptualise, design, manage, monitor and evaluate development interventions. Focusing on the scale of the individual, we will also examine the role of the practitioner as one who wields these tools and applies these approaches.
The module aims to introduce you to the complexities of development in practice and of being a development practitioner. The module provides you with methodological tools and ethical partnership to examine the complexity and learn from it. It also provides an in-depth understanding of the context in which the overseas practice engagement occurs. In term one, the module focuses on the reflexive understanding of the development and methodological understanding, along with two series of workshops. The first is the ‘Development Workshops’, and the second workshop is known as the ‘Windsor Workshop’. In term two, the module focuses on contextual understanding with a focus on specific cases in practice. In term three, the module provides hands-on experience of development projects by conducting fieldwork in which the overseas practice engagement takes place. This module represents 300 hours of student learning time, which includes lectures, seminars, private reading and overseas practice engagement. There are four types of assessments for this module that will assess your skills in researching and critically reflecting upon development in practice.
By the end of this module you will be able to:
- Analyse the institutional and political context within which development practice occurs with reference to a specific case;
- Critically reflect on your (future) role as a development practitioner; and
- Design and implement a basic research project, a skill necessary for monitoring and evaluating development interventions.
Teaching delivery:
This module is taught in 10 weekly lectures (inclusive of reading week) in each term. Teaching and learning activities include lectures, group discussions, invited speaker and student presentations. A commitment to engage with learning material prior to class is essential, as in some weeks students will need to have completed a short exercise, watch a film or read a policy document to fully participate.
Indicative Topics:
The module topics are likely to include the following, these are subject to possible changes for 2024/25: Deconstructing ‘development’; Critical reflections on development management and planning; knowing reality for development planning; Needs, objectives and rights based planning; Conceptualising interventions: projects and programmes (special focus on methodological tools); Logical thinking in development planning and management; Evidence and Results in development planning and management; Approaches to monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment Understanding the role of development policy; Ethics of Development Managers and management of global crisis
Module aims:
By the end of this module students will be able to:
- Identify and critique a range of development management models;
- Query the assumptions that underlie common tools and approaches to development management;
- Situate themselves in critical reflections on practices of development management.
Recommended Readings:
Abbott, D. (2006) “Disrupting the ‘whiteness’ of Fieldwork in Geography”. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 27(3), pp.326-341.
Patel, K. (2015) “Teaching and Learning in the Tropics: An Epistemic Exploration of “the field” in a Development Studies Field Trip”. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 39(4), pp.584-594.
Thomas, G. (2013) ‘Preparing: Project Management, Ethics and Getting Clearance’, in How to do Your Research Project: A Guide for Students in Education and Applied Social Sciences, London: SAGE Publications, Chapter 2 pp.37-56
Kees van Donge, J. (2006) ‘Ethnography and Participant Observation’ in Desai, V. and Potter, R.(eds) Doing Development Research, London: SAGE: Chapter 20 pp 180-188
Poets Desiree (2021) Settler colonialism and/in (urban) Brazil: black and indigenous resistances to the logic of elimination, Settler Colonial Studies, 11:3, 271-291.
Torres, H., Alves, H. and Aparecida De Oliveira, M. (2007) São Paulo peri-urban dynamics: some social causes and environmental consequences. Environment and Urbanization, 19(1), 207-223
Additional Costs: None
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.