Unit information: Global Development and Environment: History, Theory, Practice in 2020/21

Unit name	Global Development and Environment: History, Theory, Practice
Unit code	GEOGM0044
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Rigg
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Geographical Sciences
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will review and critically analyse the causes, nature and consequences of contemporary trends in global development, against the backdrop of climate change. The aims of the unit are to:

• Set out the processes and trends that have contributed to the Global Development ‘turn’
• Ground these processes in the analysis of their impacts on certain places and for particular social groups
• Interpret their consequences for our understanding of environmental futures
• Evaluate how such processes have contributed to re-shaping global flows of development assistance and the logics that underpin such assistance
• Critically consider what this means for theorisations of transition and change
• Build an appreciation of why and where inequality remains deep and persistent notwithstanding narrowing between-country inequality

Intended Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate why scholars and practitioners have embraced global development in place of international development
2. Explore the processes that have underpinned this shift
3. Appraise these processes in the analysis of their impacts on certain places and for particular social groups
4. Interpret their consequences for our understanding of environmental futures under conditions of climate change
5. Critically evaluate why some scholars question the global development paradigm

Teaching Information

The unit will be taught through a blended combination of online and, if possible, in-person teaching, including

• online resources
• synchronous group workshops, seminars, tutorials and/or office hours
• asynchronous individual activities and guided reading for students to work through at their own pace

Assessment Information

Summative assessment

15-minute group presentation in a seminar (30% of module mark)

3,000 word essay (70% of module mark)

Both assessments assess all of the ILOs.

Reading and References

Essential Reading

Horner, R. and D. Hulme (2019). "From International to Global Development: New Geographies of 21st Century Development." Development and Change 50(2): 347-378.

Horner, R. (2019) "Towards a new paradigm of global development? Beyond the limits of international development." Progress in Human Geography 0(0): 0309132519836158.

Lewis, Simon and Maslin, Mark A. (2018) Human planet: how we created the Anthropocene, London: Pelican.

Simon, David (2019) Key thinkers in development, London: Routledge.