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Course Design and Evaluation
Each 16 week course will be structured around
12 modules that will be taught in a class where the teacher will
introduce a topic, select students who will make presentations
on the topic, followed by open discussions. Students are
expected to read about 50 pages for each module and make a
specified number of presentations and act as discussants to
presentations by others. Students will be evaluated on the basis
of attendance, participation and presentation in the class,
short analytical written tests, tutorials and term papers. The
medium of instruction and evaluation will be English. A detailed
course schedule that includes reading packages for each of the
12 modules in the courses will be provided by the course team.
This will include compulsory and additional readings that will
be available in the University library.
Course Description
Core Courses
1. Growth, Society and Development
Social theories have problems relating to
economic theories as universality is favoured in preference to
social specificities. This paper underlines the importance of
social and political factors as pre-conditions for development.
Rostow’s ‘The Stages of Economic Growth’ would be a good
introduction that considers social factors in the analysis of
the pre-conditions for take-off. Other sources such as
Maddison’s modernization theory analysis of India and Pakistan,
where the social is seen in terms of barriers to economic
rationality and ‘progress’, will be studied. Sociological
writings that emphasize values and cultural change pitting
tradition against modernity have a bearing on how development is
perceived in poorer societies. The works of Marx, Durkheim and
Weber will be introduced to provide an understanding of society
and change. This will be followed with literature on the
sociology of development in the form of theories of
underdevelopment, dependency and imperialism. Indian
sociological literature in the form of debates on tradition and
modernity, caste and development as well as debates on
assimilation and integration of tribal people will be studied.
2. States, Markets and Society
This course will concern itself with political
and institutional dimensions of economic policy and economic
management. It will focus on the concept of economic
liberalization (in classical economic thought) and critically
analyze the political-economic doctrine of neo-liberalism that
became influential in the 1980s. An understanding of
‘rent-seeking’ is an important component of neo-liberal theory
of politics and economy, and this will be attempted with
reference to the work of Anne Krueger and Robert Bates. Specific
country analyses will be taken from the three continents - Asia,
Africa and Latin America. A comparative study of State
Capitalism in East Asia (Taiwan and South Korea) will provide an
understanding of markets and states in newly industrializing
countries. The third component of this course will deal with the
concept of centrally planned economies, including the Soviet
Union and China, followed by an understanding of state socialist
development in developing countries (the periphery of both
capitalist and socialist models). This paper will also
critically evaluate the concept of new public management that
emphasizes the role of professional managers at the expense of
democratically controlled accountability structures. This course
will conclude with an assessment of recent emphasis on a
reassertion of the public that starts from the second Washington
consensus followed by the works of scholars such as Antony
Giddens, Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz who underline a
democratic and participatory character to development (and
freedom).
3. Development Studies - Historical Contexts and Recent Trends
Economic development has been a major concern
for social scientists and thinkers for a few centuries now, but
underdevelopment as a distinct category meriting analysis on its
own terms is something that came into existence in the mid-1940s
or so. The course ‘Development Studies
Historical Contexts and Recent Trends’ will take students
through varied historical contexts that generated different
paradigms of development thinking as well as different
conditions for initiating development processes, focusing on the
post-Second War period. An analysis of the Bretton Woods system,
its weaknesses (and incompleteness), and how the rise of oil
prices terminated the 25 ‘Golden Years’ as also how growth in
developing countries was artificially maintained through debts
and trade imbalances, will be undertaken. It will also expose
students to concrete experiences of attempts at overcoming
development, such as the Latin American, South Asian, East Asian
and African cases and show how the system broke down with the
recession in 1979-80, which eventually displaced development
with structural adjustment.
4. Perspectives for Agriculture and Industrial Development
This course will deal with diverse approaches
that will help in the understanding of agricultural and
industrial development. Students will be introduced to the
classical literature of Ricardo, Lewis, Malthus and Boserup that
sets the basis of any understanding of agriculture and
industrial development. A study of the Soviet industrialization
debate will be followed by a discussion of the contrasting
Chinese strategy of agrarian development. Theoretical arguments
made in favour of land reforms will be evaluated. The classical
literature on the peasantry and the mode of production debate,
especially in the context of India will be studied. An
examination of the State as an implementing agent in
agricultural and rural development will be explored, especially
in the context of the debate on the green revolution in India as
well as the Ujamaa experiment in Tanzania (and a similar
experiment in Ethiopia). In the Indian context the debate on the
terms of trade in agriculture and the political conflicts over
Bharat versus India will be discussed with reference to the
works of Krishna Bhardwaj and Ashutosh Varshney. Contemporary
approaches to rural development and the recent thrust towards
decentralization will be studied. The discussion on
industrialization will include debates on appropriate strategies
and experiences of industrialization in a broad sense and also
deal with forms of industrial organization and labour processes
such as Fordism-Taylorism, Flexible Specialization and
Post-Fordist production and labour process organization.
5. Indian Development - Thoughts, Debates and Experiences
India has been considered a special case in
the literature on development from the time it embarked upon its
post-Independence development strategy in the 1950s. In recent
years it has also been considered to be a case of a high growth
economy in the era of globalization. The course 'Indian
Development-Thoughts, Debates and Experiences' will examine the
more than sixty-year Indian development experience as a specific
case of post-colonial development strategy and will aim to place
this experience in the context of development thinking. It will
also expose students to the thinking that emerged quite
distinctly in the Indian context from economists and thinkers
like Gandhi, Ambedkar, Mahalanobis, Amartya Sen and others.
These debates will encompass specific political and policy
choices that the nation made at strategic junctures of its
development.
6. Issues in Human Development
The issues of Human Development challenged and
at the same time enriched notions of development and
underdevelopment and have come to occupy a central place in
policy frameworks from the early 1990s. This course will expose
students to the theoretical approaches to the role of 'social'
factors such as education, health and access to water and
sanitation in defining and appraising development strategies and
outcomes, including the very influential ‘capabilities and
entitlements’ approach pioneered by Amartya Sen. It will also
take them through diverse experiences with the provision of
‘social goods’ and examine specific policy debates (such as a
comparative understanding of liberalization) on health,
education and water in developing countries and elsewhere. The
paper will attempt to critique market interventions in sectors
that can be called ‘public goods’ that have a bearing on
people’s livelihoods.
7. Institutions and Public Policy Processes
This course will introduce students to debates
ranging from the Classical Political Economy to the New
Institutions. It will help in the understanding of institutions
and power and will provide an overview of macro- and micro-level
institutions. Issues around collective action, rents and
regulation will be dealt with bringing together, politics,
economics and sociology. As the aim is to gain a fundamental
knowledge of institutions and processes involved in public
policy and administration, the course will deal with an analysis
of policy changes that have been introduced in the recent past
in India and understand the characteristics of these policies
that make them politically contentious. This course will give
students a contemporary approach for dealing with issues of
development and help them transcend from being analysts to
becoming institutional architects.
8. Environment and Development
Rapid environmental destruction presents
challenges to policy-makers in developed as well as developing
countries. The environment presents limits to growth, questions
limitless consumption, and brings to the fore issues of
egalitarian distribution of resources into developmental
thinking. This paper will draw upon the courses from the MA
programme in Environment and Development and give students an
understanding of the ecological critique of development. The
debate on the limits to growth, anthropocentric versus
bio-centric development, and the socialist strands in
environmental thought will be discussed. Some understanding of
history and colonization for markets as well as an introduction
to the different philosophical and social approaches to nature
will be provided. The paper will discuss select environmental
challenges and will try to bring to the fore different
disciplinary methodologies (specifically history, politics,
sociology, economics and geography) towards understanding the
dialectics of environment and development. The focus will be to
present a developing country perspective that critiques
limitless growth and promotes sustainable livelihoods for the
poor.
Electives
Students will take a total of 12 credits from
the electives on offer in any year. Some electives could be of 2
credits each.
1.
Equality, Discrimination, Marginalization and
Development-Race, Caste & Gender (Compulsory Elective)
From the late 1970s onwards, a vast volume of literature
has discussed the role of discriminatory practices based on race
and gender on outcomes of development processes on different
groups of people. The development processes of countries like
the USA and South Africa, where race has functioned as a
distinct discriminatory category, or the case of India, where
caste has played such a role, or the impact of gender
discrimination as resulting in differential impacts on men and
women globally, gave rise to approaches that allowed an
analytical understanding of issues of discrimination. These
approaches, which brought out the limitations of overarching
approaches to development, enriched the development discourse
and their concerns were incorporated into policy frameworks
across the world. The course will take students through the
theoretical approaches to diverse forms of discrimination as
well as the contours of these experiences and their impact on
different groups of people. It will aim to expose students to
the impact of such an understanding on policy frameworks in
different countries and at different points in time.
Other electives will be offered from the
following list:
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Gender and Development
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Classical to New Public Management
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Industrial Organization, Labour and
Development
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Trade Union, Peasant Groups, Social
Movements and Social Change
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Society, Culture, Identity and Development
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Environment: A maximum of 2 electives
worth 8 credits from the MA in Environment and Development
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Child, State and Society
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International Governance
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Decentralization and Local Governments
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International Political Economy and
International Trade
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Approaches and Trends in Rural Development
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Contemporary Issues in Urban Development
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NGO Management, Policy and Administration
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Select Issues of Policies Related to
Science, Technology and Arms
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Governance, Politics and Development
Research Course Work
Students will be exposed to a range of
thinking on research methodology that extends from philosophy of
social sciences, tools for research design, qualitative and
quantitative methods and logical frameworks to participatory
methods of research, project design and evaluation. Specific
topics will include Understanding and Interpretation; Truth and
Validation; Objectivity in Social Sciences; Fact and Value;
Nature of Social Theory; Research Design - central question,
hypothesis and thesis; Techniques of Data Collection and
Analysis; Qualitative Data Analysis - case studies, ethnographic
studies; Field research and challenges; Research Tools -
sampling and survey; Data Analysis - descriptive, inferential
and co-relational; Factor Analysis, Regression Models; Logical
Framework; Participatory Methods - PRA, Planning, Social Audit,
Monitoring and Evaluation, and Report Cards.
Seminars/Workshops
Seminars and Workshops will be run throughout
the programme and will include credited workshops that provide
an understanding of policy and the basics of organization and
project management.
Summer
Internship
The Internship will be scheduled during the
summer between Semesters 2 and 3. This is meant as an
opportunity to bridge theory and practice. Each student will be
attached to an organization to work on a development problem.
Research Project
Each student will take up a research project
at the end of Semester 2. The research project will lead to a
dissertation which will be submitted during Semester 4.
The
following experts contributed to the design of the MA
Development Studies:
Dr Riaz Ahmed, Dr Shabeen Ara, Dr Sumangala
Damodaran, Professor N. Jayaram, Dr Mary E. John, Dr Geeta
Menon, Professor Pulin B. Nayak, Professor Deepak Nayyar,
Professor Manoranjan Mohanty, Dr Ritu Priya, Dr K. Ramachandran,
Professor Kishor Chandra Samal, Professor Satyajit Singh,
Professor E. Somanathan, Dr N. Sukumar, Professor Nandini
Sundar, Professor Meenakshi Thapan, Professor Vinay Srivastava
and Professor Virginius Xaxa.
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Admissions Programme Structure Fees
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