Prof Sylvia Chant

This course is available on the MSc in African Development, MSc in City Design and Social Science, MSc in Development Management, MSc in Development Studies, MSc in Environment and Development, MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation, MSc in Gender, Policy and Inequalities, MSc in Health, Community and Development, MSc in Human Geography and Urban Studies (Research), MSc in Local Economic Development, MSc in Population and Development, MSc in Regional And Urban Planning Studies, MSc in Urban Policy (LSE and Sciences Po) and MSc in Urbanisation and Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Experience and/or knowledge of development and/or urbanisation in the South would be a distinct advantage

The course examines the patterns, processes and implications of urbanisation in developing societies, with particular reference to the survival and well-being of low-income groups, and the variability of urban life and poverty in different geographical contexts. The conceptual and empirical focus of the course revolves around strategies adopted at individual household and community levels to ensure sustainable livelihoods, and the interrelations of grassroots processes with policy interventions on the part of governments, international development agencies and NGOs. Specific themes include: trends in urban development in the 20th and 21st centuries; population and rural-urban migration; shelter and housing; land and tenure; urban services; the conceptualisation and measurement of poverty; the 'urbanisation' of poverty; the 'feminisation of poverty'; poverty reduction strategies; employment and informality in urban labour markets; urban livelihood strategies and economic restructuring; households and gender; women-headed households; health and healthcare; participatory urban governance, civil society, and UN-Habitat agendas past, present and future.

10 hours of lectures and 7 hours and 30 minutes of seminars in the LT. 2 hours of seminars in the ST.

Students will be expected to produce one essay during the course, as well as to prepare seminar presentations (usually in pairs), and to be actively involved in seminar discussions, including as discussants and rapporteurs.

Detailed reading lists will be provided during the course.  No one book covers the entire course.  However, recommended essential reading is as follows: J. Beall and S. Fox, Urban Poverty and Development in the 21st Century, 2009; J.Beall, G.Khasnobis & R.Kanbur (Eds) Urbanisation and Development: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 2010; S.Chant and C.McIlwaine Geographies of Development in the 21st Century, 2009;  D. Mitlin and and D.Satterthwaite, Urban Poverty: Scale and Nature, 2013. M. Montgomery, R. Stren, B. Cohen & H. Reed (Eds), Cities Transformed: Demographic Change and its Implications in the Developing World, 2004; S.Parnell and S.Oldfield (Eds), The Routledge Handbook on Cities of the Global South, 2014; D. Satterthwaite Urban Myths and the Mis-use of Data Which Underpin Them, 2010; G. Tannerfeldt & P. Ljung More Urban, Less Poor, 2006; UNFPA, State of the World's Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth, 2007; UN-Habitat, State of the World's Cities, 2012/13: Prosperity of Cities, 2012;  UNICEF State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World, 2012.

Exam (75%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.
Essay (25%, 2500 words) in the ST.

A course which regularly attracts MSc students from  wide range of Departments across the School with the majority attaining merit or distinction marks