Global Development Studies (GDST)

Students explore the idea of development and its changing and contested nature from colonialism to the current era of globalization. With an eye toward social change and uneven power, students unpack concrete case studies in resistance and domination, analyzing the causes and consequences of global social, environmental, and economic crises in these turbulent times.

Students are introduced to the history and scope of global development studies as an interdisciplinary field. Students explore different, competing, and contested perspectives on development, poverty, and prosperity while examining a wide spectrum of social, political, environmental and economic challenges throughout the world.

This is a continuation of GDST 2301. Students explore development policies and contemporary issues in the context of an uneven global order. Students examine the role, practices, and actions of the state, local communities, international institutions, nongovernmental organizations, transnational corporations and other actors, critically analyzing their impacts on society, the environment, and the economy.

Students explore the great fair trade/free trade debate, examining fair trade projects, free trade theory, and trade agreements. Do we live in a free trade world? Is this a desirable goal? Student investigate labour, environmental, gender, and human rights with a focus on trade, justice, and social power.

Students explore how BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) evolved into emerging global powers and the international development issues that they face in the twenty-first century.

In this experiential learning course students have an opportunity to link development theory and development practice, and to integrate their GDST classroom learning with their experience of developing society realities.

Students explore the relationship between marginalized and minority groups (ethnic minorities, ‘racial’ minorities, indigenous peoples, etc.), states and development, drawing on cases from different countries. The meaning of “minority”, its social construction and consequences in terms of rights and in development projects in different places and times are problematized.

Students explore the contemporary and dialectical relationship between migration and development. More specifically, the interactive processes of migration and development are examined through the lens of structure and agency, analyzing the constructed and constructing role of various migration and development agencies, nation states, state agencies, private companies, global enterprises, and international organizations. The impact of migration on socio-economic development is assessed as well as the impact of development on migration processes, both internal and external.

Fostering a healthy population is of critical concern to international development policy and practice, and is considered both a goal of and necessity for development. Students examine how different social and economic policies influence health and well-being, and critically explore the impacts of national and global medical and public health programs. Students explore the relationship between health and development, taking examples from around the world.

This is a core GDST course in which students examine key theories concerning the political economy of development. The course pays particular attention to the ways that the inequalities of race, gender, nationality, and class have been built into the global economy. Students are exposed to historical and contemporary trends in the global economy and will consider topics like land, labour, capital, and the state.

A continuation of the core GDST 3401 lecture/seminar. Students research and analyze selected problems of development in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Oceania, or Middle East/North Africa. Students read and discuss a common body of readings, discussing existing programs, policy implications, and contemporary development practices and write one or more major research papers.

In this course students explore the basics of research design, ethics, data collection and analysis for the study and practice of global development.

Students are provided with an experiential learning opportunity to link development theory and development practice. This may take many forms, such as acting as a volunteer with an NGO or community-based organizations, pursuing an internship with a multilateral agency, or other forms of University and Program-approved field experience overseas, or, with approval, in Canada.

Students are introduced to key concepts in the study of environment, politics, and development, and examine the chains of connection between everyday activities in the Global North (food choices, plastic use, clothing purchases), and communities, livelihoods, and politics in the Global South. The political difficulties of confronting globalized environmental problems are explored.

In this field school students develop a deeper understanding of how different grassroots organizations work with historical memory, reconciliation and peace projects in Colombia. Students gain firsthand knowledge from and participate in different community projects in some of the areas most affected by the conflict. Students visit public institutions related to historical memory such as Casa Museo de la Memoria in Medellin. This field school will be a combination of lectures and experiential learning opportunities. Taught in English.

The objective of this course is to foster a greater understanding of the United Nations (UN). Students may have an opportunity to participate in a university-level Model UN simulation. The goal is to gain an in-depth knowledge of the UN’s organizational structure, activities and rules of procedure by engaging in experiential learning in and outside the classroom.

Students explore different approaches, policies and theories addressing global food sovereignty and food security. Using examples from different countries, students examine the relationships between food/livelihood security with labour, gender, trade, social power, and rights to natural resources. Students consider the social justice and human rights dimensions of hunger and food insecurity, and how this relates to international and national development policy.

Students examine bordering and migration as an integral part of the development process. The impacts of remittances, the brain "drain"- "gain" debate and diaspora mobilizations will be examined as well as states’ role in bordering, migration governance and "containment development" in the context of Africa/Europe and South/North America.

Although most countries have accepted international human rights instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the full realization of human rights remains problematic across the world. Students achieve an understanding of how development policies and practices impede or facilitate the realization of human rights in ways which are gendered, racialized, and classed.

In this experiential learning course students have an opportunity to link development theory and development practice, and to integrate their IDS classroom learning with their experience of developing society realities.

Students explore development issues in the context of South East Asia, focusing on the nation-state and its development strategies, as well as broader, regional issues of economic and social development. Issues include the emergence of high- growth rate, newly-industrializing countries, the impact of the Asian financial crises and globalization. The course begins from the perspective of common colonial roots and identify the current sub-regional models of development. Students explore current alternative approaches articulated by Asian scholars and grassroots organizations.

Students explore development issues in Africa, focusing on the nation-state, the colonial legacy, the impact of structural adjustment programs, the persistence of traditional forms of socio-political organization, and current development strategies. The objective is to present the dynamic nature of policy debates articulated by African scholars and grassroot organizations.

Students explore central development issues in Latin America, focusing on the nation-state and its development strategies, as well as broader issues of economic and social development. Such issues include the impact of globalization and liberalization, efforts towards political democratization including the role of popular organizations and alternative approaches articulated by Latin American scholars and grassroots organizations. Sub-regional differences are discussed and compared.

Labour conditions and the role of labour in social change are key issues in the study of international development. Exploration of these topics will link to issues of changing production patterns in developing countries, changing labour and social conditions as well as issues around labour organization and their participation in political and economic processes.

Students are introduced to the special development problems associated with urbanization in developing societies, the broad spectrum of complex challenges arising from rapid urban development (rural-urban migration, formation of slums) and the development dynamics which serve to perpetuate the complex relationship between urban, suburban, peri-urban, and rural spaces in developing societies.

Students explore the implications for world economic and social development of environmental problems, as well as the question of what mainstream economic development might mean in the context of tackling the growing disruption of the global ecosystem. Along with an in-depth discussion of the possible ecological outcomes of environmental modification, the importance of a sociological and political-economic analysis of the problems of environmental disruption and change will be emphasized.

Students examine trade and development, not solely as a technical or policy issue, but as a political, economic, and ideological package rooted in complex social forces. Students assess the dominant trade regime as well as a variety of trade alternatives from new South-South trade relations to fair trade.

Students registered in the Global Development Studies Honours Program use this seminar as an on-going forum in which to complete the required honours thesis. Using a sequence of assignments, discussions, and seminar presentations the student will be introduced to the requirements of conducting empirical research and advanced undergraduate scholarly research writing.

Honours students have access to a course that allows time for the research students will undertake in order to complete their Honours Thesis. The course will be taken concurrent with, and as a complement to, GDST 4500.