description

The title of this course hints at our trajectory. We will approach the study of international development using the conceptual and theoretical tools of human geography. Human geography is a broad discipline concerned with the ways humans inhabit and interact with the world. In a broad sense, human geography is concerned with spatial difference: The question is not simply what is different, but more importantly where and why?

“Geographies of international development” is intentionally plural, which should tell you that there is no single, universally-accepted approach to either human geography or development. If you follow issues of international development in the popular media, it can seem like everyone everywhere is equally caught up in a linear process of change called “progress.” This course will complicate that idea, and emphasize that any understanding of development is deeply embedded in specific places and histories. In other words, what we mean by development depends on where we are and when. Development is intensely geographic.

This course will not suggest a “right” way to see or do development. It will argue, however, that to understand development, we must first appreciate the complexity of the term and the geographically uneven impact of development projects. It is in recognizing these complexities that hope survives: what we see and do now is not the only choice we have. While this is not a course on evaluating and implementing development programs, I hope the paths of critique we follow will be valuable ways of thinking through the discourses and practices of development.

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This syllabus by Travis Klingberg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.