IDSA01H3Y

Introduction to International Development Studies

International Development Studies
Fall 2022

Course Director
Chevy R.J. Eugene
Time: Wednesdays, 7pm – 9pm
Location: Arts and Administration (AA) (Room 112)
Online Student/Office hours: Wed. 4-6 pm and by appointment via Zoom
Office: HL416

Teaching Team
Juan Carlos Jimenez, Juan -Manuel Velez -Villegas, Sabrien Amrov, Marcellinus Essah

* The preferred method for students to get in touch with the instructor and TAs is via the email
system (called Inbox) within Quercus.

Times and Locations:

TUT3001 WE 16:00 17:00 HW 216

TUT3002 WE 16:00 17:00 HW 214
TUT3003 WE 15:00 16:00 IC 120
TUT3004 WE 12:00 13:00 HW 408
TUT3005 WE 21:00 22:00 IC 326
TUT3006 WE 21:00 22:00 AC 332
TUT3007 WE 10:00 11:00 BV 264
TUT3008 WE 11:00 12:00 HW 408
TUT3009 WE 12:00 13:00 MW 160
TUT3010 WE 21:00 22:00 IC 328
TUT3011 WE 16:00 17:00 IC 120

*Please double check your online timetable in case your tutorial room has been updated.

Course Objective
This course provides an overview of the history, theory, practice and critical actors of
international development, as well as current approaches and debates in international
development studies. Through case studies, lectures and tutorials, students will understand key
development issues and the academic discourses surrounding them.

In addition to regular lectures, panel discussions, and special guest lectures, we will explore the
multi-disciplinary nature of international development studies and the connections between
academic analysis and real-world engagement with development problems.

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A broad range of issues will be covered, including the relationship between health and human
rights, the unequal distribution of wealth and power, poverty and well-being, trade and economic
growth, conflict and peace, resource exploitation and governance, environmental change and
food security, cultural identity and community development, the roles of multilateral aid
agencies and civil society organizations, and the impact of new information technology on
development. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic reveals many deep-seated problems in our local
and global social and political systems and challenges long-held assumptions about international
development. We will use this opportunity to critically examine these issues.

Rationale
The course gives IDS students a common starting point in the sequence from introductory
through the core to specialized courses in the IDS program. It is intended to provide students
with the background required to successfully engage with concepts, theories and approaches to
development dealt with in upper-year courses. This will help you to think about aspects of IDS
you might like to explore in more depth after you have completed this course.

Learning objectives:

This course is intended to

• Provide you with historical background, an overview of key theories, and analytical
perspectives relevant to International Development Studies so that you gain an
understanding of the complex and intersectional nature of development;
• Give you tools with which to analyze and understand processes that contribute to the
production and reproduction of inequality and to appreciate the diversity of external and
internal factors that shape development outcomes;
• Encourage you to use this knowledge to deepen your understanding of social, political
and cultural processes that affect development and to integrate ideas and knowledge
about development across a range of topics or issues;
• Improve your ability to read and think critically about policy and practical issues
pertaining to development studies and to identify an author’s thesis and evaluate the
evidence and logic they have employed to craft their argument;
• Give you guidance on and practice in discussing scholarly debates and contested issues in
a critical, constructive manner.

Assignments and Evaluation:

Original
Due Date
Weight
Tutorial attendance and participation Cumulative 20%
Short Reflection paper on the Albert Berry October 16, 2022 (no later than
20%
Lecture 11:59 pm)
Nov. 23, 2022 (no later than 11:59
Development Issue report 30%
pm)
Final exam (take home) Final Exam Period 30%

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 Total 100

Required Readings
We are not using a textbook for the course. All required readings are available on Quercus. It is
important that you check the site regularly, as there may be additional resources that are added
periodically. Readings are drawn from a number of sources, including peer-reviewed journal
articles, supplemented by book chapters, magazine and web publications. Optional readings and
relevant web resources such as videos and podcasts will also be recommended for some lecture
topics.

Assignments
The first assignment is a reflection paper, a short essay (5 pages) on Dr. Kalpana Wilson special
Al Berry Lecture that will be delivered on September 28, 2022. Details of the requirements for
the essay will be posted in the Assignment section of Quercus.

The case study assignment (the 2nd assignment) is intended to allow students to critically
evaluate a major development project, such as projects designed to improve maternal and child
health, promote economic development, or broaden educational outreach in rural areas. Details
about the assignment, format, and expectations will be available in the Assignment section.

COURSE FORMAT

The course consists of a weekly lecture (approximately two hours each week) that will be
delivered in person. All lectures will be recorded and made available on Quercus.

The amount of work for this class, such as content review, tutorial attendance, readings, online
activities, assignments, is equivalent to roughly 3-5 hours per week. We encourage students to
allocate this minimal amount of time for the course each week. Students who wish to engage in
further learning about a particular issue are encouraged to do so through the “Extend your
learning” section in the Module section, and time commitment will vary depending on how deep
you want to explore the issue.

Tutorials
There is a one-hour weekly tutorial that will be conducted in-person, and each student is required
to register and attend the same tutorial throughout the term. Attendance is required. The tutorials
are designed to provide students with the opportunities to discuss and debate the issues raised in
lectures and in the readings. The tutorial is also a forum for students to learn about assignment
requirements and how to write the case study reports.

Discussion Forum on Quercus

Class discussion on Quercus provides opportunities for students to express ideas or to gain new
knowledge and or skills. Students are welcome to ask questions and express ideas freely. Don’t
hold them back, even if you feel your questions might be trivial or off-topic. We understand that
this type of learning environment and learning styles are new to many of you, and our primary
goal is to maintain a safe learning environment by respecting students’ level of understanding
and contribution, and helping each other succeed.

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Instructor and TA communication plan
The instructor and TAs will be providing you frequent feedback in various places in the course:

1. Announcements: each week the instructor will send a weekly overview in the
announcements. You can feel free to respond to my announcement if you have any
questions..
2. Email: You can reach out to me or your TA via the built-in email on Quercus, labelled
Inbox on Quercus, and we will do our best to get back to you within 48 hours or less.
3. There is a discussion called the “Q&A Forum.” Post any general questions you have
about the course here. There will be separate discussion forum for the assignments and
you can post specific questions there. Students should feel free to respond to questions
posted by others if they are comfortable with providing an answer.
4. Speedgrader: We will be leaving you comments about your submitted assignments in the
Speedgrader in the Assignment section of Quercus. You can have a message exchange
there as well.

Attendance and Engagement

Attendance and Engagement are based on attendance in tutorials, contribution to tutorial
discussions and ability to relate discussions to the broader concerns of the course. Tutorial
leaders will assign participation grades based on an assessment of these factors.

Notice of video recording and sharing (download permissible; re-use prohibited)

This course, including your participation, will be recorded on video and will be available to
students in the course for viewing remotely and after each session.

Course videos and materials belong to your instructor, the University, and/or other sources
depending on the specific facts of each situation and are protected by copyright. In this course,
you are permitted to download session videos and materials for your own academic use, but you
should not copy, share, or use them for any other purpose without the explicit permission of the
instructor.

For questions about the recording and use of videos in which you appear, please contact your
instructor.

Late work policy

Every assignment has a due date, rubric, and a deadline for submissions. Please plan on
submitting your assignments on or before the assigned due date. This will allow us time to
review your work and provide meaningful feedback to you. Due dates have been designed in the
course to ensure time is provided to allow you to produce your best work.

If something comes up and you feel you can’t make the deadline, please contact your TA or the
instructor beforehand, explain the situation and we can work to negotiate a solution.

However, if your work is submitted late and we did not receive any prior notice, you will receive
a 5% deduction per day, including weekend, on the submitted work.

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Academic integrity and plagiarism
Academic Integrity refers to the “integral” quality of the search for knowledge that a student
undertakes. The work a student produces, therefore, ought to be wholly his/her/their own; it
should result completely from the student’s own efforts. A student will be guilty of violating
Academic Integrity if he/she/they a) knowingly represents work of others as his/her/their own, b)
uses or obtains unauthorized assistance in the execution of any academic work, or c) gives
fraudulent assistance to another student.

To this not to say that students should not be assisting and learn together. Indeed I strongly
encourage collaborative learning and the sharing of ideas! Let’s take advantage of the variety of
online tools and learn from each other and from the rich diversity of books and articles we read
and resources we will be consulting, but make sure the work we turn in is our own.

In the tutorials we will be teaching you how to properly cite sources so you can correctly
paraphrase, quote, and summarize ideas. This is a skill that will benefit you in many other
academic endeavors. If you are having issues with your writing, talk to me of your TA, so that
we can help you individually. If you are tempted to plagiarize to save time or get a good grade,
please see me instead. I would rather grant you an extension is time is an issue. However,
plagiarism, cheating, and other misconduct are serious violations of University of Toronto
Academic Misconduct Policies (link), and I am obligated to follow the appropriate and official
protocol in response to plagiarism or cheating. Let’s avoid going there.

On Equity, Diversity and Inclusion:

The University welcomes and includes students, staff, and faculty from a wide range of
backgrounds, cultural traditions, and spiritual beliefs.

The University of Toronto is committed to equity, human rights and respect for diversity. All
members of the learning environment in this course should strive to create an atmosphere of
mutual respect where all members of our community can express themselves, engage with each
other, and respect one another’s differences. U of T does not condone discrimination or
harassment against any persons or communities.

Students with disabilities

The University provides academic accommodations for students with disabilities in accordance
with the terms of the Ontario Human Rights Code. This occurs through a collaborative process
that acknowledges a collective obligation to develop an accessible learning environment that
both meets the needs of students and preserves the essential academic requirements of the
University’s courses and programs.

Students with diverse learning styles and needs are welcome in this course. If you have a
disability that may require accommodations, please feel free to approach me and/or the
Accessibility Services office.

• AccessAbility Services on the UTSC campus

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 Religious observances
For more information, and to link to the University’s policy on accommodations for religious
observances, please see the web site of the Office of the Vice-Provost, Students.

Possible statement:

The University provides reasonable accommodation of the needs of students who observe
religious holy days other than those already accommodated by ordinary scheduling and statutory
holidays. Students have a responsibility to alert members of the teaching staff in a timely fashion
to upcoming religious observances and anticipated absences and instructors will make every
reasonable effort to avoid scheduling tests, examinations or other compulsory activities at these
times.

Please reach out to me as early as possible to communicate any anticipated absences related to
religious observances, and to discuss any possible related implications for course work.

Family care responsibilities

The following statement was prepared by the Family Care Office at U of T and can be adapted
for use by instructors in their course syllabus to signal awareness of the demands that family care
can have on students:

The University of Toronto strives to provide a family-friendly environment. You may wish to
inform me if you are a student with family responsibilities. If you are a student parent or have
family responsibilities, you also may wish to visit the Family Care Office website at
familycare.utoronto.ca.

Topics, Readings and Dates:

* Please note that the order of the topics and some of the readings may be revised. But you will
receive advanced notice if changes should take place.

Date Topic Readings

Voce, A., Cecco, L., & Michael, C. (2021). ‘Cultural genocide’: The
shameful history of Canada’s residential schools – mapped. The Guardian.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2021/sep/06/canada-
residential-schools-indigenous-children-cultural-genocide-map
Week
Introduction, BMJ Global Health Blogs. (2020, August 7). There are two pandemics, but
1
course structure, why do we keep forgetting the underlying one? BMJ Global Health Blog.
evaluation and https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjgh/2020/08/07/there-are-two-pandemics-but-why-
Sep 7-
expectations do-we-keep-forgetting-the-underlying-one
9
Maliha Chishti TEDxUTSC. (2016, March 3). Foreign Aid: Are we really
helping others or just ourselves?
|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xJ6p0B5V_A

6
 Kothari, U. (2019). Introduction to the book- A Radical History of
Week What is Development Studies: Individuals, Institutions and Ideologies (2nd edition).
2 Development Zed Books. Download
Studies? How
Sep and why is the Sultana, F. (2019). Decolonizing Development Education and the Pursuit of
12-16 field changing? Social Justice. Human Geography, 12(3), 31–46. Download .
https://doi.org/10.1177/194277861901200305
Allina-Pisano, E. (2012). Imperialism and the Colonial Experience. In
Introduction to international development: approaches, actors, and issues. P.
Beaudet, P. A. Haslam, & J. Schafer (Eds.). Don Mills, Ont: Oxford
University Press., 28–44. Download
Week History Matters:
3 Shoemaker, N. (2015). A Typology of Colonialism. Perspectives on History |
Imperialism, AHA. Retrieved from https://www.historians.org/publications-and-
Sep Colonialism and directories/perspectives-on-history/october-2015/a-typology-of-colonialism
19-23 Development
Popp, J. (n.d.). How Indigenous knowledge advances modern science and
technology. Retrieved August 27, 2018, from
http://theconversation.com/how-indigenous-knowledge-advances-modern-
science-and-technology-89351
Annual Albert
Berry Lecture

Special
Wilson, K. (2015). Towards a Radical Re-appropriation: Gender,
speaker:
Development and Neoliberal Feminism. Development and Change 4,
Week
46(4), 803–832. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12176
4 Dr. Kalpana
Wilson
Sep
26-30 Topic: Kabeer, N. (2015). Gender, poverty, and inequality: a brief history of feminist
contributions in the field of international development, Gender &
‘Revisiting
Development, 23:2, 189-205, DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2015.1062300
Gender and
Development in
a Time of
Fascisms’
O’Neill, K. (2015). Big Food without big diets? Food regimes and Kenyan
diets. Critical Public Health, 25(3), 265–279. [download directly]
https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2015.1007922
Week Political
Monteiro, C. A., & Cannon, G. (2012). The Impact of Transnational “Big
5 Economy of
Food” Companies on the South: A View from Brazil. PLOS Medicine,
Food, Hunger
[download directly] 9(7), e1001252.
Oct 3- and the Global
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001252 (Links to an external site.)
7 Food Regimes
Friedmann, H. (2014). Food regimes and their transformation. Retrieved
April 30, 2020, from http://www.foodsystemsacademy.org.uk/audio/harriet-
freidmann.html (this is a 33 minute podcast; the transcript (pdf) is also

7
 available. I highly recommend that you download and read along as you
listen to the podcast)
October 10 - 14, 2022: No Classes – Fall Reading Week
Development Harris (2013) Development Theories. From the Development Ideas.
Theory: DevelopmentTheories_JohnHarriss_2013.pdf
Week
6 Growth, Reid-Henry (2012) Arturo Escobar: a post-development thinker to be
Modernization, reckoned with. https://www.theguardian.com/global-
Oct development/2012/nov/05/arturo-escobar-post-development-thinker
17-21 Dependency,
Reid-Henry, S. (2012). US economist Walt Rostow and his influence on post-
Neoliberalism 1945 development | Simon Reid-Henry. The Guardian. Retrieved from
& Post- https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/oct/08/us-economist-
Development walt-rostow-development
Daniel, A., & Ruggiero, E. D. (2020). WE Charity’s international
development efforts offered quick fixes, not real impact. The Conversation.
http://theconversation.com/we-charitys-international-development-efforts-
Week offered-quick-fixes-not-real-impact-144473 (Links to an external site.)
Key
7
Development
Jakupec, V. (2018). Development Aid—An Historic-Political Overview. In
Players and
Oct V. Jakupec (Ed.), Development Aid—Populism and the End of the Neoliberal
Questioning
24-28 Agenda (pp. 19–36). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72748-6_2
Development
Aids
Thompson, C. (2018). Philanthrocapitalism: Rendering the public domain
obsolete? Third World Quarterly, 39(1), 51–67. (Links to an external site.)
https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2017.1357112

Guo, L., Huang, J., & Zhang, Y. (2019). Education Development in China:
Education Return, Quality, and Equity. Sustainability, 11(13), 3750.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su11133750
Week
8
Mamdani, M. (2018, July 19). The African University. London Review of
Books, pp. 29–32. Retrieved from https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n14/mahmood-
Oct 31 Education and
mamdani/the-african-university
– Nov Development
4
Coburn, V. (2018). Why there are so few Indigenous graduates at
convocation. http://theconversation.com/why-there-are-so-few-indigenous-
graduates-at-convocation-96782

Week
Health and
9 Marmot, M. (2007). Achieving health equity: From root causes to fair
Development –
outcomes. The Lancet, 370(9593), 1153–1163. Download
Social
Nov 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61385-3
Determinant of
– 11
health

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 Rollston, R., & Galea, S. (2020). COVID-19 and the Social Determinants of
Health. American Journal of Health Promotion, 34(6), 687–689. Download
https://doi.org/10.1177/0890117120930536b

McGavock, J. (2016, June 14). The scientific link between culture and health
for Canada’s indigenous populations is strong. Retrieved August 31, 2018,
from https://medium.com/evidencenetwork-ca/the-scientific-link-between-
culture-and-health-for-canadas-indigenous-populations-is-strong-
f0f2d67bc911
Isaac, M., Isakson, S., Dale, B., Levkoe, C., Hargreaves, S., Méndez, V., ... &
Week
Nelson, E. (2018). Agroecology in Canada: towards an integration of
10
agroecological practice, movement, and science. Sustainability, 10(9), 3299.
Agroecology https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/9/3299
Nov
and Sustainable
14 –
development Carte, L.; Schmook, B.; Radel, C.; Johnson, R. (2019) “The Slow
18
Displacement of Smallholder Farming Families: Land, Hunger, and Labor
Migration in Nicaragua and Guatemala”. Land 8(6), 89;
https://doi.org/10.3390/land8060089
Evans, M., & Wilkins, D. (2019). Transformative Justice, Reparations and
Transatlantic Slavery. Social and Legal Studies, 28(2), 137–157
The Caribbean https://doi-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1177/0964663917746490
Week
Reparations
11
Campaign: A
Social Beckles, H. (2019). The Reparations Movement: The Greatest Political Tide
Nov
Development of the Twenty-first Century. Social and Economic Studies, 68(3 & 4), 11–30.
21-25
Project https://www.proquest.com/docview/2471028307/fulltextPDF/DB56EE4257D
F4A69PQ/6?accountid=14771

Hickel, J. (2015, September 23). Forget “developing” poor countries, it’s time
to “de-develop” rich countries. The Guardian. Retrieved from

Week The future of http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-

12 development network/2015/sep/23/developing-poor-countries-de-develop-rich-countries-
and sdgs
Nov development
28 – studies; course Kothari, A., Demaria, F., & Acosta, A. (2014). Buen Vivir, Degrowth and
Dec 2 review Ecological Swaraj: Alternatives to sustainable development and the Green
Economy. Development, 57(3–4), 362–375.
https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2015.24