Course Catalogue

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This course explores the development discourses that emerged from post - Second World War international economic and financial circumstances and their implications for African economies to the present. By examining how development ideas were applied by multi-lateral lending institutions, economic experts, government official and aid agencies, as policy prescription in developing countries, students will not only become familiar with the theoretical underpinnings of development discourse, but also explore critical insights informing these apparently universal ideas and their applicability to the contexts and conditions of developing nations.

Teaching Sessions will take place twice per week over ten weeks. This will take the form of a 1 hour lecture and 1 hour seminar.

Standard entry requirements for post-graduate taught MSc courses in the College of Social Sciences and the College of Arts.

None

None

Literature review 1500 words - 30%

Essay 3500 essay - 70%

This course aims:

(i) to introduce students to development ideas from 1945 to the present;

(ii) familiarize students with colonial and post-colonial Africa's development experiences and economic history;

(iii) critique the formulation of universalising development ideas from the perspective of contesting global interests and African contexts and experiences;

(iv) Explore, from the perspective of local and international development and economic thinking, questions about Africa's economic fortunes and futures.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. understand and critically assess development theories and historiographies (neo-liberal, Marxist, underdevelopment and so on) and how they informed economic thinking and development consideration and policies in Africa economies;

2. discuss and contextualise African historical experiences as these ideas were transformed into policies and programmes that affected economies in the late colonial period and their legacies in a post-colonial context;

3. analyse and critically examine the contemporary theoretical and philosophical debates on the local and international factors that inform African economic fortunes;

4. apply critical skills to emerging African and international debates about contemporary economic thinking and development in Africa and how this locates Africa in the global political economy by writing essay on questions formulated around these themes.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.