Antropology of Development and Humanitarian Aid

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

The course is organized in theoretical classes, in which the teacher exposed the main topics based on bibliography previously selected (prior reading by students it’s required), and seminar sessions devoted to the presentation and discussion of 'work in progress' developed by students.
The evaluation consists of a final individual work on a topic of the program, chosen by the students, but with individual tutorial guidance by the teacher.  

Learning Outcomes

This course tackles two contiguous fields of knowledge - development and humanitarian aid. Thus it will trace the rise of the humanitarian and development narratives; unravel the complex historical processes that lead to the current understanding of these concepts, analyse the major theories and approaches, examine how these, in tandem with other concepts such as crisis, emergency, and intervention, are one of the organizing categories of political action and social order in other contexts.  

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

The course explores the impact several processes – heath programs, humanitarian interventions, development programs, peace-building efforts - of intervening in the lives of individuals and “local communities”.  It will answer the question of what is development and underdevelopment.

In the context of increasing diminishing of nation-state and increase of new forms of governance, when should be right to intervene? Or when is the failure to act can be seen as an ethical failure? When interventions can be seen as a process of implementing human rights or a form of cultural imperialism, i.e. political related, or crucial response for populations marginalized within the nation-state?

Regarding development it will tackle the social consequences on the ground of large-scale modernizing projects of World Bank, IMF, Millennium Development Goals (MDG). 

Head Lecturer(s)

Filipa da Mota Alvim de Carvalho

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Research work: 100.0%

Bibliography

1. Marcel Mauss.  Ensaio Sobre a Dádiva.

2. Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Sandra T. Hyde, Sarah Pinto, Byron J. Good. (2008). Postcolonial Disorders.

3. Carolyn Nordstrom. 2005.  Shadows of War: Violence, Power and International Profiteering in the Twenty-First Century.

4. Megan Vaughan. 1992. Curing their Ills: Colonial Power and African Illness.

5.  Gilbert Rist, 2002,The History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith, Zed Books.

6. De Waal, Alex, 1998, Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa, Indiana Univ. Press.

7. James Ferguson, The Anti-Politics Machine: "Development", Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho.

8. Scott, James 1998. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes To Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

9. Mosse, David. 2004. Cultivating Development: An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice. London,Pluto Press.

10. Peter Redfield. 2013. Life in Crisis: The Ethical Journey of Doctors Without Borders. 

11. Erica Bornstein, The Spirit of Development: Protestant NGOs, Morality, and Economics in Zimbabwe.