GEOGRAPHY
430
CRITICAL
DEVELOPMENT GEOGRAPHY AND LATIN AMERICAN CHANGE
Victoria Lawson Fall
2008
Office:
Smith 303-D e-mail:
lawson@u.washington.edu
Tel:
543-5196
Introduction:
This
course focuses on how we might understand intensifying inequality, across the
Americas and across the globe? What
does a geographic approach contribute to understanding development processes? Starting from development geography, we
will pose the question ÒwhatÕs missing in development theory?Õ with a focus on
the subjects, places and scales that have been excluded from particular
theorizations of development. We
will also pose questions about which development and whose development? Our focus will be on a critical reading
of development theory, paying particular attention to Latin American
theorizations, and empirical experiences with development. However, this is not a course about
Latin America so much as it is a course about critical development geography. We will also think through the
challenges of producing development knowledge under ethical and responsible
relations to people with whom we work.
Course Readings:
Lawson,
V. 2007. Making
Development Geography. Hodder Arnold Press.
A
course reading packet will be available for purchase
at Rams Copy and Print on the Ave and will also be on reserve in Odegaard Undergraduate Library.
Course Requirements:
1)
Students are expected to attend all lectures and to complete all
assigned readings.
2)
There will be a take-home midterm exam, handed out in class worth 30% of your
final course grade:
Thursday
Oct 30th (6th week) and due Tuesday Nov 4th
3)
Students will participate in group presentations on
the readings in Thursday class sessions.
You will participate in a group discussion to the rest of the class,
and will complete a report on that reading critique (three pages
maximum). You will be graded on
quality of your participation in the group effort and the presentation (15% of
course grade) and on your report (15% of course grade).
4)
Students will complete a ten-page review essay by the Thursday Dec 4th
(11th week last class session), worth 20% of the final course
grade. This review essay will
discuss the four readings that have been most influential for your
thinking. Lawson will provide a series
of questions to guide the format and content of your review.
5)
Students will complete an in-class final examination, worth 20% of
course grade:
Final
is Wednesday Dec 10th from 10:30- 12:20pm
Important
Dates
Tuesday
Nov 11th VeteranÕs Day – no class
Thursday
Nov 28-29th – thanksgiving holiday
**
Thursday Dec 4th (last day of our class) paper due in class **
COURSE
OUTLINE
I.
Introduction
1.
Development: Concepts and Contexts
2.
Critical Development Geographies: For each major stream of development thought
we will examine:
i)
ideas
and assumptions;
ii)
the
(geo)political context for that approach;
iii)
the
spaces and scales privileged and erased;
iv)
the
subjects privileged and erased.
II.
Currents of Development Theory
1.
Economic Growth and Modernization Approaches:
2.
Dependency and Development:
III.
Poststructural Re-workings of Development
Feminist
and Anti-Racist analyses of development
READING
LIST
Week 1:
Development
Concepts and Geography
Lawson,
V. 2007. Making
Development Geography, preface and chapters 1& 2.
Esteva, G. 1992. ÔDevelopmentÕ The Development Dictionary.
Contemporary
Currents in Development Theory
Weeks 2 and 3:
Lawson,
V. 2007. Making
Development Geography, Chapter 3
World Bank Development
Report, 1999/2000, Overview and Chapter 1.
Ferguson,
J. 1990. The anti-politics machineÕ Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
chapter 2.
George, S. 1999. ÔA short history of neoliberalismÕ
Conference on Economic Sovereignty in a Globalizing World
(http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/econ/histneol.htm)
Escobar,
A. 1995. ÔChapter 2: The Problematization
of PovertyÕ in Encountering Development.
Shresthsa, N.
1995.
ÔBecoming a Development CategoryÕ in J. Crush (ed)
The Power of Development.
Weeks 4 and 5:
Dependency Thought
Lawson,
V. 2007. Making
Development Geography, chapter 4 pages 108-127.
Furtado,
C. 1970. ÔEconomic Development of Latin AmericaÕ
in Promise of Development, P. Klaren and T. Bossert (eds), 1986 edition.
Kay,
C. 1989. Latin American Theories of
Development and Underdevelopment.
London: Routeledge. Pages 25-41 for structuralist arguments and pages 125-139 for discussion of
the range of reformist and revolutionary dependency theories.
George, S. 1997. ÔHow the Poor Develop the RichÕ in Rahnema and Bawtree, The Post-Development Reader.
Hershberg, E. et. Al. 2003. ÔRethinking Development SeriesÕ NACLA Report on the Americas XXXVII
(3): 20-33.
Weeks 6, 7 and 8:
Political-Economy Analyses of Development
Lawson,
V. 2007. Making
Development Geography, chapter 4, pages 120-161.
Harvey,
D. 1985. 'The Geopolitics of
Capitalism', in Social Relations and
Spatial Structures, Gregory, D. and J. Urry, eds., Chapter 7.
London: Macmillan.
Water, INC. 2004. Report
on the Americas, NACLA. ÔThe
Struggle for Latin AmericaÕs WaterÕ, ÔWater Privatization in Buenos AiresÕ and
ÔRunning Water: Participatory Management in BrazilÕ.
George, S. 1989. ÔHow Much is $1 Trillion?Õ, ÔThe Money-MongersÕ and ÔLatin America: Going to
ExtremesÕ in A Fate Worse than Debt.
Mullings, B. 1999: Sides of the same coin? Coping and resistance among Jamaican data-entry operators. Annals of the
Association of American Geographers 89(2), 290-311.
Poststructural Re-workings of Development
Weeks 9, 10 and 11:
Feminist and Anti-racist Analyses of
Development
Lawson,
V. 2007. Making
Development Geography, chapters 5 and 6.
Illich, Ian. 1997. ÔDevelopment as Planned PovertyÕ in Rahnema, M. and V. Bawtree, (eds) The
Post-Development Reader.
Nelson,
L. 2004. ÔTopographies of Citizenship: Purhepechan Mexican women claiming political
subjectivitiesÕ Gender, Place and Culture
11(2), 163-187.
Nagar,
R. and A. Lock Swarr. 2005. ÔOrganizing from the Margins: Grappling
with ÒEmpowermentÓ in India and South AfricaÕ in Companion to Feminist Geography. Lise Nelson
and Joni Seager (eds).
Galleano, E.
1997, ÔTo
Be Like ThemÕ in Rahnema, M. and V. Bawtree, (eds) The Post-Development Reader.
Arenas, L.C. 2007. ÔThe UÕwa
CommunityÕs Battle against the Oil Companies: A Local Struggle Turned GlobalÕ
in B. Sousa-Santos. Another Knowledge is Possible.