Prof Katherine Gardner

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Anthropology and Development. This course is available on the MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Columbia), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Hertie), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and NUS), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Sciences Po), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Tokyo), MSc in China in Comparative Perspective, MSc in Comparative Politics, MSc in Human Rights, MSc in Human Rights and Politics, MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies, MSc in Political Science (Conflict Studies and Comparative Politics), MSc in Social Anthropology and Master of Public Administration. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course explores how anthropologists have evaluated, criticised and contributed to development. Focussing on both 'Big D' development (schemes of improvement or projects) and 'little d' development (change which occurs as the result of economic growth or modernisation) the course shows how anthropological insights have been used to change practices from within as well as critique development from the outside. From anthropological work which seeks pragmatic engagement to that which deconstructs development as an oppressive and power laden discourse, the course aims to give students a broad background to the field. Topics covered include the role of the state; local politics and power relations; gender and empowerment; development as discourse and 'aidnography'; neo liberalism and global capital; corporate social responsibility; markets and micro credit; and the relationship between 'tradition' and modernity. Throughout, the course will draw upon a broad range of ethnographic examples.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the AT.

The contact hours listed above are the minimum expected. This course has a reading week in Week 6 of AT.

Students are expected to prepare discussion material for presentation in the seminars based on the core ethnographies of the course. Formative work will include a mock exam question.

Gardner and Lewis 2015, Anthropology and Development: Twenty First Century Challenges; Ferguson, J. 1990 The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticisation and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho; Cambridge University Press; Li, T, 2014 Land's End: Capitalist Relations on an Indigenous Frontier; Karim, L., 2011 Micro-Finance and its Discontents: Women and Debt in Bangladesh; Elyachar, J. 2005; Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, the Market and the State in Cairo; Scherz, C. 2014. Having People, Having Heart: Charity, Sustainable Development, and Problems of Dependence in Central Uganda; Scott; J. 1998, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed.

Detailed reading lists are provided at the beginning of the course.

Take-home assessment (100%) in the ST.