Spring 2022  |  PA 5504 Section 001: Transforming Development (66691)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Enrollment Requirements:
Graduate Student
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
01/18/2022 - 05/02/2022
Tue, Thu 11:15AM - 12:30PM
UMTC, West Bank
Hubert H Humphrey Center 35
Enrollment Status:
Open (12 of 30 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19, antimicrobial resistance, climate change, loss of species, and habitats are driven by our dominant definition of development and pose existential challenges to humankind. COVID-19 has laid bare the ethnic, racial, class, and gender inequalities in the ways societies across the globe lead material life (economy). Current social and environmental challenges are global and local in scale and challenge us to consider poverty alleviation not as an international issue and only of concern for low resourced communities and developing countries, but one in need of attention in every country in the world, including peoples in the wealthy West. This course examines the emerging pluriverse paradigm and some of the models intending to transform development: nature rights movement, community economy, solidarity movement, degrowth, transition design, and ontologies and epistemologies of First Nations in North and South America. We will contrast these development models to sustainable development goals and the green growth approach.
Class Notes:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?gfs+PA5504+Spring2022
Class Description:
We have seldom seen global acts of solidarity and political will such as the one generated by the COVID19 pandemic in the Spring and summer of 2020. The expansion of social distancing policies slowed consumption and resulted in sharp reductions of CO2 emissions, among other positive environmental benefits in 2020 which were, until recently, impossible to achieve. The infusion of financial resources and social safety nets during the pandemic is evidence of their availability when there is political will.


Yet, there is little recognition in international policy arenas that the ultimate drivers of the world's looming existential crises, including that of emerging infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, climate change, and the accelerated loss of species and habitats, lies in our dominant definition and the historical foundations of development. COVID19 has required an unprecedented shift in paradigms, forcing many to reconsider long-held historical ideologies and approaches to development. The pandemic has also laid bare the ethnic, racial, class, and gender inequalities in the ways societies across the globe lead lives, proving to be a (in)justice thermometer of sorts: ethnic and racial political minorities, but population majorities across the world are over-represented among those who have been sick or have died from Covid: African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans in the United States and Amerindians and Afro-descendants in South America. Across the globe, women are juggling paid work, parenting responsibilities, and caring for the elderly. Larger numbers of people in the informal sector in the majority world (aka Global South) have food and housing insecurity. The advances in decreasing income poverty across the globe have reversed. The list goes on.



These social and environmental challenges are global and local in scale and challenge us to consider poverty alleviation not as an "international" issue and only of concern for low resourced communities and countries in majority worlds (aka developing, or the Global South), but one in need of attention in every country in the world. Two key ingredients to any economic system, the natural world and the female caring labor that support social and physical reproduction, continue to be invisible in the dominant model of development. Similar factors that lead to social inequities lead to unsustainable development and fuel the COVID19 pandemic, the loss of biodiversity, species extinction, climate change and ultimately, the existential crisis we find ourselves in. Human welfare is intricately connected with species and life-supporting systems welfare.



In this course, we will explore the dominant and alternatives debates about development on how to lead our material lives and how to meet the global challenges of feeding and materially supporting 10 billion humans by 2050, by using food production as the anchor for the course. The course starts by exploring two different arms of the debate (growth and industrial agriculture and community economy/conservation and alternative forms of food production) followed by a review of the planetary systems and species crisis. After studying these foundational areas, we will study various theoretical/policy frameworks across multiple disciplinary fields, providing paths on redefining development and reframing our economy to consider the natural world and care. The latter is understood as the values, attitudes, and practices that sustain all life. We will explore current scholarly and applied definitions of sustainable development and study how it differs (or not) from green growth. We will study different models loosely framed under what is currently known as the pluriverse, models intending to transform development: nature rights movement, community economy, solidarity movement, degrowth, transition design, and pluriversal alternatives for First Nations in North and South America. Concerns about the environment and gender, class/caste, and race/ ethnicity are mainstreamed throughout the course.



For students who have taken PA5501, this course is a deep dive and expansion of the last two weeks of class covering "the right side of the board."


Who Should Take This Class?:
Any individual interested in domestic OR international policy and social and environmental justice
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the course students should be able to:



Understand the linkages of dominant development to the planetary crisis.



Recognize the false dichotomy developed/developing countries by understanding the linkages of wealth acquisition in the minority world (aka Global North) and wealth dispossession in the majority world (Global South).



Understand and apply the concept of planetary boundaries



Understand the definition of development as economic growth, as human development, and as sustainable development from scholarly and policy perspectives



To understand the scope of the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) and the inherent contradictions among the various goals



Understand current alternative proposals to economic development:
green growth; degrowth; community economies; and proposals under the pluriverse umbrella.



Understand a variety of policy formulations for sustainable development and how they differ (or not) from formulations for green growth, from degrowth, from community economies, from the pluriverse.



Understand the importance of ontology, epistemology, theory and measurement in policy formulation and implementation.



Develop a semantic field and conceptual tools on transforming development.



Recognize and understand the importance of gender, ethnic and class/caste perspectives in the context of transforming development theory, policy, and implementation.



Develop the analytical skills to sort context specific (one size does not fit all), gender specific (there is no such thing as gender neutral); and class/caste
(the rising boat does not lift all equally) development challenges.



Recognize that transforming development is anchored in ethics and is based on justice for all beings and the systems that support life.


Grading:
Leading Class 30 points (2x15=30)

Discussant for class 20 (2 x10=20)


Writing assignments 50
(5x10=50)

Class Format:
Our class meetings will be structured in seminar-style. When needed, brief lecture sections at each class meeting will provide enough background information to contextualize the readings. It is vital that you do the reading on time since we will explore the material through discussions.



Every week one student will lead the topic discussion and the readings, while two other students will be discussants.


Workload:

There are five assignments, designed in the spirit of transforming development by transforming how we learn and share what we learn. Assignments are NOT tests of knowledge. They ARE meant to cement information or to help you/us parse out debates. Because the course aims to dismantle the paradigm of individuality, all the assignments will be uploaded to canvas and we will all have access to them. This way, the assignments become education solidarity and solidarity education. The folder in canvas is at the top of the page where main documents for class will be stored.


Most of the workload is reading or watching documentaries.

Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/66691/1223
Syllabus:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/syllabi/frie0013_PA5504_Spring2022.pdf
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
15 November 2021

ClassInfo Links - Spring 2022 Public Affairs Classes

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