Course Synopses

DS 101-6          The Making of The Third World

An introduction to the study of development, and the essence of the subject of Development Studies through introductory look at the evolution of the concept of Third World. Emphasis is placed on the historical processes that have shaped the contemporary global society, the oft-used means of studying development of societies, and the constitution of the notion of Third World - the diversity and comparability of Third World societies. Deliberate stress is placed on the multidisciplinary nature of Development Studies as an instrument for understanding the Third World.

DS 211-6          Historicisation of Development Concepts and Theories

A select treatment of the concepts used in the study and discussion of development, and the historical context in which the concepts have arisen and evolved, the relative import and weight accorded the concepts in the different paradigms and theories of development. Specific foci will include the significance of concepts as “organising poles” for development thought, and the socio-political milieu as informant of world outlook.

DS 212-6          State, Technology and Development

Introduction to issues and debates on the role of the state in the development process; critical treatment of the place and function of technology in the development of nations, and the interplay among the three variables: the nature of the state, technological development and economic progress.

DS213-6           Economics for Development

A brief outline of the major developments in economic thought from the mercantilists to the present day. Theories of international trade and “comparative advantage”. An introduction to a limited number of issues and concepts central to the concerns of development economics, for example, household economics and elements of welfare economics.

DS 204-6          Introduction to International Institutions and Organisations

A preliminary discussion of a wide range of regional and global organisations in the development industry; their scope of activities, and their instruments of operation, and relations with national governments and citizen groups. To introduce students to the international context and determinants of development

DS 311-6          Social Research Methods

The course will introduce candidates to the various methods of social investigation evolved over time, and the degrees of their applicability in a variety of situations. Instruction is offered in main aspects of the research process from formulating and data analysis, to the presentation of a report. Quantitative, qualitative and participatory techniques and methods are introduced, debated, and practised on a small scale. At the end of the course, students should be able to design a research problem, and choose techniques most suited to the conduct of research, bearing in mind the oft-observed weaknesses and the ways in which these can be minimised.

DS 312-3          Agrarian and Rural Development

A critical assessment of the major debates surrounding the transformation of the rural life in the Third World, with particular reference to relations in Southern Africa. Theories of the peasantry, agrarian reform and transition, land tenure, food security, rural power relations and the state; intersectoral linkages and theorisation thereof; rural industrialisation.

DS313-3           Issues and Problems in Urban Development

Theories and problems of urbanisation in the Third World; unemployment, the informal sector, squatter settlements, housing, and urban services. The course looks at the political, infrastructural, economic and social aspects of urbanisation in the Third World. A comparative approach is adopted to juxtapose cross-continental patterns, including the parallels between the Third World and Western city. A historical perspective is adopted.

DS 304-3          Social Aspects of Development

Unequal social relations: gender, class, race and ethnic inequalities including middlemen minorities. Negative consequences of inequality for development; conflict, power games, and problems of organisation; various strategies used to change inequalities.

Culture: the role of values and cultural styles in development; cultural imperialism and culture diffusion; cultural lag; leadership, co-operation, and communications style; culture as a resource appropriated by various interested parties.

Socio-psychology: an introduction to “mini-theories” that attempt to explain what motivates people to produce, participate, and co-operate, for example, alienation, group size, public goods and free riders, and feedback.

DS 315-3          Natural Resource Management

Issues and debates about the environment and man-nature relationships; the co-called traditional environmental knowledge; command, market based and community-based resource conservation and management; the techniques of environmental valuation and resource accounting and politics of global environmental concerns; regional specificity of environmental problems, global trade and environmentalism. Environmental impact assessment.

DS 306-3          Project Design, Implementation and Evaluation

Techniques and approaches and methods in designing development projects, in planning their implementation, and in monitoring and evaluating the projects. Components of a project proposal; feasibility studies, issues in the formation of co-operatives; co-ordination, supervision, and delegation; the monitoring and controlling of funds; role of donors, local and national government agencies and non-governmental institutions; and class and gender issues.

DS307-3           Tourism and Enterprise

Closely related to issues of ecological concern is the benefit of natural heritage to current and future generations. The consumption of this heritage and its contribution to national welfare and enterprise are the main foci of this course. Themes treated include: theoretical approaches to entrepreneurship; the effects of tourism on the development of entrepreneurship and class, gender and organisational constraints to entrepreneurial development.

DS 401-6          Research Project

This course is designed for students taking Development Studies as a major in a double major programme. During the period between third and fourth years at the University, the student begins fieldwork and undertakes a research project based on the literature and proposals developed in DS 301. This will be collected and analysed under the supervision of a member of staff, and the findings written up in a research report. Students are expected to attend seminars at which they present heir preliminary findings.

DS 412-3          Development in a Southern African Context

This course entails an assessment of the dominant modes of thinking and the perspective commonly deployed in the interpretation of political and socio-economic development processes in the region. Deliberate focus is placed on the special cases like Lesotho which has been characterised as a “labour reserve”, Swaziland which has a “distinct” political system, and the less well-studied cases of Luso-phone Southern Africa. Attempts are also made to compare the region’s transnational organisations with those existent in other regions. Topics include pre-colonial trade patterns and state formation, forms of colonialism and capital accumulation, regional co-operation and its effects on intra-society democracy and societal welfare, aspects of sovereignty and collective survival.

DS403-3           Comparative Development

Development has been variously conceptualised and defined. The different perspectives have naturally led to divergent emphases in the pursuit of development in practice. This course makes the case that despite the apparent, visible differences of methods in the execution of development across time and space, there is essential similarity of content in the processes involved. Theories of comparison are treated, followed by treatment of selected themes in a comparative, iterative approach deploying theory and experiential evidence from case studies.

DS 414-6          International Political Economy

Development is arguably the result of the interaction of national and international forces. Consequently, it is important for the student have a working knowledge of the operational of the global political economy, consisting of number of political processes and institutions which affect the scope and context development in any given country. A critical assessment of the literature on such topics as the international division of labour, transnational corporations, and international institutions of trade and finance, the United Nations system, and alternative regional arrangements for restructuring of international political and economic relations.

DS405-3           Gender and Development

In this course students are introduced to historical and contemporary theoretical perspectives and debates on gender relations, with particular reference to development issues. A critical analysis of gender relations in the household: decision making, the pooling of resources and income, Gender inequality: legal and customary constraints to access to financial and productive resources. The position and role of women in the labour force. The intersection of gender issues with issues of social class, race, and ethnicity. Strategies and movements for political and economic empowerment of women. Policy interventions and their impact on gender relations.

DS416-3           Social Movements in the Third World

The dominant approaches to development tend to see the development process as induced by the state, capital or government. As a result, there is a tendency to neglect the contribution made by the social movements to the career of development. The course seeks to remedy this lacuna by critically looking at the role played by social movements in the socio-political and economic transformation of the Third World, harnessing theoretical perspectives and global Third World empirical data. Among the topics discussed are trade unionism in the Third World; peasant movements, co-operative movements and organisations, women’s movements, and youth and intellectuals.

DS407-3           Selected Topics in Development

Themes treated here change from year to year according to preferences of individual instructors, including guest instructors from other faculties and beyond.

DS408-3           Development in Practice

This in-depth treatment of case studies applies theory to actual life processes of pursuit of development from a variety of angles. The theoretical and official propositions and tested against practical endeavours, and attempt is made to explain the emergent patterns.

DS409-6           Production Systems

A survey of theories of organisation of industrial production, management and development; their social grounding, political economy and influence on the modern economy. The course will also use a series of inter-temporal case studies and where possible field visits to various types of industries.

M.A. Course Synopses

Core courses

DS 601-5AB: Social Theory and Development in the Third World

The evolution of selected theories and their application and applicability in Third World conditions; as well as specially Third World-grown theories.  Areas to be covered include: the nature of precapitalist and capitalist socio-economic formations; power and its organisation in historical perspective; forms of consciousness; the concept, context and hierarchy of rights and identities; collective identities and the politics of their representation; popular movements (labour, refuge, etc.); the roles and representation of women in the struggles for (re-)organisation of development; social problems and social policy.

DS 602-5AB: Political Economy of Development

This course looks at development as social transformation, and the utilisation of institutions to achieve this transformation; the agency of transformation, and the spread of the values of development and hegemonisation.  The organisation of development, public policy formulation and administration and their place in the culture of organisation of development.  The course deliberately takes an in-depth look at the interface of the economic and political spheres (state, civil society, questions of democracy) in development: determination of money value, markets and their structures and social function, equilibria, exchange rates, inflation, international trade theory, and the way these affect people's state of well-being.

DS 603-5AB: Social Policy Development Analysis

The importance of coming to terms with the social character of public policy has evolved not only in close association with shifts of paradigms in development theory but also in keeping with such ‘new traditions’ (e.g. needs assessment, consultancy, etc.) measuring citizens’ preferences and choices. Like development public policy has spawned its own histories and metaphors. As a cross-cutting issue social policy hinges as much on governance as on resource allocation.

This course will enhance students’ ability to view public policy as complex web of oft contradictory actions ranging from clearly articulated pronouncements, through narrative messages and stories all the way to popular participation in politics. Inquiry into public policy will emphasise the significance of the fact, commonly taken for granted, that public policy is historically grounded social construct. This course will introduce students to a variety of techniques of policy formulation, development and analysis.

DS 604-4AB: Research Methods and Dissertation

This course comprises two parts, viz. a team-taught instruction in Research Methods for the Social Sciences and a Dissertation which shall be examined at the end of the course. Candidates shall be assigned supervisors under whose guidance research on individually chosen topics shall be pursued. The research report shall be submitted not later than the last day of examinations.  Once a week the candidates shall have a 2-hour session where general problems of research or candidates' presentations of findings shall be discussed.

Optional courses

DS 605-5A: Development Planning

The evolution of development planning from a comparative theoretical and historical perspective; the rise and fall of planning in the academese, and in state practice; and the implications of the processes for future direction of development.  Questions will include whether development without planning is feasible, and what the implications of recent developments in perspectives on planning are for popular classes in the developing world.  The processes of change and their effects will be studied in parallel in the cases of the developed and the developing worlds.  The course will also look at computer-based and other models and techniques of development planning and their usefulness in a variety of contexts.

DS 606-5A: Cultural Change and Development

Culture remains one of the major problems in social and development theory. While some perspectives seek to explain change processes by reference to culture, the point  remains contentious whether culture should be viewed kaleidoscopically as an ever-moving moment in society’s life,  or whether specific fixed values and ways of seeing can be associated exclusively with certain societies and not others This course poses such questions as: To what degree can we talk of the specific effects of culture, whether changing or 'stagnant', on the processes of development? To what degree can change, or lack of same, often explained by reference to the category of culture, be equally explained by other variables? How do we define culture in a way that gives us a distinct variable amenable to social scientific interrogation?

DS 607-5A: Social Action, Contestation and Change

Development is not just about industry and market.  The structure of industry and of the market revolves around the organisation of power in society.  This organisation is often challenged in ways that both encourage the marginalised groupings to rise against the obtaining order, and threaten the dominant groupings into counter-measures to sustain the status quo.  The dynamics of social action and its effects on contestation and change in society, and the relationship of these variables with processes of development remain some of the least understood and most neglected areas in social science especially in the Third World.  This course uses theoretical models and empirical evidence to map out relationships of these processes, and their configuration in relation to development as social transformation.

DS 608-5B: Development, Law and Social Justice

The course looks at the determinants of (i) the relative power of different players in the processes of development; (ii) the patterns of distribution of benefits of development; (iii) the role and evolution of law in the shaping and institutionalisation of specific patterns of distribution.  The course maintains a higher Third World bias, while making frequent references to case studies to interrogate specific developmental policy interventions.

DS  609-5B: International Organisations in Development                          

A host of charitable and common interest international developmental organisations' action has political ramifications, despite official claims of exclusion of politics from the workings of these organisations. The course takes a look at the daily workings and modes of decision-making of international organisations that deal with development, and the ways in which these processes affect the development prospects of the different groups of countries.  Topics covered include: by what agency do international organisations operate; the character of state and its influence on the democratic content of international developmental organisations; can international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) reach out to the interests of states? How do we explain the apparent autonomy of international organisations’ bureaucrats?  By what action can the activities of the international organisations be made to have a democratising effect on processes of development?

DS 610-5B: Environment and Development

A look at the modes of man-nature relations and the changing contexts of discourse evolution around questions of ecology and social reproduction; the political economy of resource management; institutional frameworks and technical wherewithal of sustainable resource exploitation; the relationships between the international and local aspects and contexts of conservation and preservation of human heritage. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques and approaches will be used in this practice-oriented course.

DS 611-5B: Directed Reading and Synthesis                                                           

Students are allowed to select the areas and subjects which they want to study, and select the literature with the assistance of the instructor; carry out assignments on a literature-review mode on a variety of angles of the selected subject.