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| Instructor: Professor Michael Watts email: mwatts@berkeley.edu office phone: 642-3902 office: 555 McCone office hours: T 2-3:30, W 1-2, or by appt. |
Class Location: 135 McCone Class Time: W 10-1 Course control number: 36757 Units: 4 |
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| This seminar will focus on relatively new work on the political economy of development with a particular focus on agrarian, industrial and environmental literatures. There is no presumption that we shall cover any significant part of what might be called conventional development theory or development policy. My intention is to address a number of longstanding debates within the social science of development (late industrialization, agrarian questions, democracy and development, conservation and development) and to address them on the basis of reading a key monograph each week (supplemented by a number of relevant shorter pieces often of a theoretical nature). I am assuming that students bring to the class some sort of background in development theory (exposure through upper division classes such as Development Studies 100 taught by Gill Hart or the Sociology of Development by Peter Evans) and political economy broadly construed. At the heart of the seminar will be an exploration of neoliberalism - as a set of theories and practices – and the ways it has arisen, assumed a sort of hegemony (the Washington Consensus or Post-Washington Consensus), its lineages and genealogy, and the sorts of development practices (and consequences) put to work in its name (across a variety of fields and areas). | ||
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Books: Stuart Corbridge et al., Seeing the State, Cambridge University Press, 2005 Paige West, Conservation is our Government Now, Duke University Press, 2005 Julia Elyachar, Markets of Dispossession, Duke University Press, 2005 David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Clarendon 2005 James Ferguson, Global Shadows, Duke University Press, 2005 Atul Kohli, State Directed Development, Cambridge University Press, 2004 Gillian Hart, Disabling Globalization, University of California Press, 2002 Sanjeeve Khagram, Dams and Development, Cornell University Press, 2004 Diane Davis, Discipline and Development, Cambridge University Press, 2004. Abdul Maliq Simone, For the City yet to Come, Duke University Press, 2004 Michael Goldman, Imperial Nature, Yale University Press, 2005 David Mosse, Cultivating Development, Pluto, 2005 Kathryn Verdery, Vanishing hectare, Cornell University Press, 2003. |
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Readings: The readings consist of: Key text (listed above) available at local bookstores Articles (archived on the class website in PDF format that can be downloaded) A small class Reader available at Copy Central on Bancroft All materials are also on 2 hour reserve in the Earth Sciences Library |
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Requirements: This class will be run as a reading-intensive research seminar. Accordingly, it is critical that everyone come well-prepared for discussions. Each student will be expected to undertake the following: (i) To prepare a short one page critical commentary on one of the week's readings [the monograph under consideration for that week] and to circulate this electronically by the Tuesday evening (absolutely no later than 5 pm) prior to the Wednesday class (a listserve will be set up at the outset of the semester). (ii) To lead/chair one class discussion (depending on enrollment this may be best undertaken in pairs or groups) which involves a short (5-10 minute) presentation of the key theoretical and conceptual issues in the readings pertaining to that week. The presenters are expected to cover all of the readings for each week (the monograph plus the supplementary readings). (iii) The submission of a research proposal to be handed in no later than December 15thth. There is a website that I developed on the IIS website devoted to the preparation of a proposal at: www.globetrotter.berkeley.edu/DissPropWorkshop/ In addition I shall be distributing a copy of a broadsheet [The Art of Writing a Proposal] prepared by the Social Science Research Council which is the best short discussion of how to structure a research proposal. At various points during the semester I shall discuss actual proposals and how to develop a compelling research question. I shall distribute a book chapter entitled "In search of the Holy Grail" on dissertation research at the beginning of the semester (it is available on the class website). Some of you may wish to make use of an excellent book: Michael Pryke et al., Using Social Theory. London, Sage, 2003. |
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Class Structure: I would like to run the seminar in the following way. The first period (1.5 hours) will be a discussion of the key reading/monograph for the week. This discussion will be led and chaired by 1-2 students (or more, depending on class size); it will involve an outline or of framing the book/articles and posing a key set of questions or provocations. The framing part of the presentation should not take more than 10-15 minutes. The student (s) are then responsible for chairing the subsequent discussion, i.e., trying as much as possible to provide some direction to the discussion. I expect that everyone will try to participate in the discussion. I shall make some observations but my input will be somewhat limited during this part of the class. At some point (there is no point in stopping the discussion at a specific time) we will take a coffee break. For the second period (an hour or so) I shall give/lead a mini-lecture/discussion. The function of this is to place our discussion and the monograph on a larger landscape of literatures, ideas, and theorizing about resources. Students can certainly participate in the second period, and can ask questions and make interventions of their own of course. But the major function will be to situate our discussions and for us to provide something of a roadmap for related debates and literature. In this way my hope is that we can explore in depth a monograph or a set of readings-- research which has ethnographic, historical, sociological depth -- and build up a comprehensive sense of the `field’ of political ecology studies and the sorts of knowledges and approaches to it. The class will be run as a reading intensive research seminar. I expect that people read systematically (a monograph a week minimally) and participate in the seminar fully. |
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Course Outline
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| The key reading for the week and the basis for the commentary is marked with an asterisk (*)
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Week 1
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August 30th | |
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Introduction
The purpose of the first class is to lay out the structure and expectations of the seminar and to flag a number of key issues to be covered in class. For those of you who wish to get a sense of the current intellectual landscape of development studies you may wish to consult the following: |
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Peter Evans, The Challenges of the Institutional Turn, The Economic Sociology of Capitalist Institutions (http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/evans/publications.htm) Michael Watts, Alternative Modern: Toward a Cultural Geography of Development, in S.Pile, N.Thrift and K. Anderson, M.Domosh, (eds)., Handbook of Cultural Geography, Sage: London, 2003, pp.433-453. Paul Roemer, Economic Growth, in The Fortune Encyclopedia of Development (http://www.stanford.edu/~promer/Econgro.htm) Colin Leys, The rise and fall of development theory, in M.Edelman and A.Haugerud (eds)., The Anthropology of Development and Globalization, Blackwell, 005. Gill Hart, Beyond Neoliberalism, Progress in Human Geography 2004 |
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Week 2
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September 6th | |
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Neoliberalism I: Genealogy and Forms of the Washington Consensus
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* David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Clarendon 2005 Charles Gore, The rise and fall of the Washington Consensus, World Development 28/5, 2000 Perry Anderson, The Intransigent Right, in Spectrum, London, Verso, 2005 (Reader). Marion Fourade-Gourinchas and Sara Babb, The rebirth of the Liberal creed, AJS, 108/3, 2002 Joanna Bockman and Gil Eyal, Eastern Europe as a Laboratory for Economic Knowledge, AJS, 108/2 2002 |
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Week 3
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September 13th | |
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Neoliberalism II: Neoliberalism and Rule
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* James Ferguson, Global Shadows, Duke University Press, 2006 Stephen Collier, Spatial Forms and Social Norms of actually existing neoliberalism, International Affairs Working Paper, 2005, New York University Ahiwa Ong, Introduction, Neoliberalism as Exception, Duke University Press, 2006 (Reader). Tim Mitchell, The Work of Economics, unpublished, New York University, 2005. Jean and John Comaroff, Millennial Capitalism, Public Culture, 2001. |
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Week 4
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September 20th | |
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Rethinking Late Industrialization
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* Atul Kohli, State Directed Development, Cambridge University Press, 2004 Vivek Chibber, Locked in Place, Introduction, Princeton University Press, 2003 (To be circulated) Ha-Joon Chang, Kicking Away the Ladder, London, Anthem, 2002, Chapter 1 and 2 (Reader). |
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Week 5
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September 27th | |
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October 4th Rethinking Agrarian Questions and Trajectories of Capitalism
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| * Gillian Hart, Disabling Globalization, University of California Press, 2002 Sharad Chari, Provincialising Capital, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 2004. Judith Carney and Michael Watts, Manufacturing Dissent, Africa 60/2, 1990, pp.207-240 |
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Week 6
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October 4th | |
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Green Government
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| * Paige West, Conservation is our Government Now, Duke University Press, 2005 Li, Tania, The Will to Improve, Duke University Press forthcoming (selections) [Reader] |
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Week 7
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October 11th | |
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The Urban Question: Planet of the Slums?
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| * Abdul Maliq Simone, Abdul Maliq Simone, For the City yet to Come, Duke University Press, 2004 Mike Davis, Planet of the Slums, New Left Review, 26, 2004. Arjun Appadurai, Spectral Housing and urban cleansing, Public Culture, 12/3 2000. Alan Smart, Unruly Place, American Anthropologist, 103/1, 2001 |
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Week 8
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October 18th | |
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Development and the Middle Classes
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| * Diane Davis, Discipline and Development, Cambridge University Press, 2004. |
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Week 9
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October 25th | |
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The Development Project and Foreign Aid
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| * David Mosse, Cultivating Development, Pluto, 2005 Michael Goldman, Imperial Nature, Yale University Press, 2005, Chapter 4. Anthony Bebbington et al., Village Politics, culture and community driven development, Progress in Development Studies 4/3 2004 See also William Easterly, The White Man’s Burden, Penguin, 2006 |
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Week 10
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November 1st | |
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The Multilateral Development Institutions
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| * Michael Goldman, Imperial Nature, Yale University Press, 2005, Chapters 1-3, 6-7. * Robert Wade, US hegemony and the World Bank, Review of International Political Economy 9/2, 2002. Aaron Bobrow Strain, DisAccords, World Development, 32/6 2004 Anthony Bebbington et al., Exploring Social Capital Debates at the World Bank, Journal of Development Studies, 40/5, 2004 Jonathon Fox, Advocacy Research and the World Bank, in A. Haugerud and M. Edelman (eds)., The Anthropology and Development and Globalization, Blackwell, 2004 (Reader). Tania Li, "Neoliberal Strategies of government through community", IILJ Working Paper, New York School of Law, 2006. |
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Week 11
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November 8th | |
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NGOs, Markets and Civic Development
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| * Julia Elyachar, Markets of Dispossession, Duke University Press, 2005 A. Bebbington Donor-NGO relations and representations of Livelihoods IN NGO Aid Chains, World Development, 33/6 2005. Janet Roitman, Unsanctioned Wealth, Public Culture, 15/3, 2003. Michael Watts, Culture, development, Global neoliberalism, in S. Radcliffe (eds)., Culture and Development in a Globalizing World, Routledge, 2005. |
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Week 12
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November 15th | |
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Seeing the State
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| * Stuart Corbridge et al., Seeing the State, Cambridge University Pres, 2006 Akhil Gupta, Narratives of Corruption, Ethnography, 6/1, 2005. Amita Baviskar, The Dream Machine, Department of Sociology, New Delhi, 2004 (Reader). |
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Week 13
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November 22nd | |
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Technics, Networks and Development
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| * Sanjeeve Khagram, Dams and Development, Cornell University Press, 2005 Mitchell, Tim Rule of Experts, University of California Press, 2002, Chapter 1 (Reader). Michael Goldmann, Imperial Nature, Yale University Press, 2005, Chapter 5. Peter Evans, Counter Hegemonic Globalization, 2005 (http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/evans/publications.htm) |
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| Week 14 | November 29th | |
| Postsocialist Development and Emerging Markets | ||
| * Kathryn Verdery, The Vanishing hectare, Cornell University Press, 2004. David Stark, Postsocialist Pathways, Cambridge University Press, 2002, chapters 2 and 3 (Reader). |
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| Week 15 | December 6th | |
| Democracy, Participation and New Forms of Corporate Governance | ||
| * Peter Evans, Development as Institutional Change, 2004 http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/evans/publications.htm * Patrick Heller, Moving the State, Politics and Society, 2001. * Jesse Ribot, Democratic Decentralization through a Natural Resource Lens, Routledge, 2004, chapters 1 and 2 (Reader). * Anna Zalik, Niger Delta and Partnership Development, Review of African Political Economy, 2004 * Simone Pulver, Governing the Climate, Watson Institute, Brown University 2003. Craig Jeffrey, Democratisation without Representation? Political Geography 19, 2000. |
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| Paper due no later than Friday December 15th at 5pm in my mailbox in 505 McCone. | ||