ANTH 109 SC - Anthropology of Development

The term development is often used by international funding agencies like the World Bank, governing bodies, and non-governmental organizations, as well as religious organizations, to indicate progress, both economic as well as cultural. Aspirational narratives of economic development as a civilizational end-goal are deployed as justification for instituting billion-dollar infrastructure projects and poverty alleviation programs. Often these narratives of progress overshadow the lived experiences of people on the ground. This course introduces students to the historical and political underpinnings that have led us to understand development as economic growth. Using anthropological critiques of the idea of development, this course helps students to challenge the meanings ascribed to development by foregrounding the experiences of communities (often marginalized by virtue of their status as low-income or indigenous, or because of their gender, race and ethnicity) whose lives are impacted by development projects. This course sheds light on the need to view development with a critical lens and the pressing need to think of alternatives to dominant models of development as economic growth.

Course Credit: 1.0

Please refer to the course schedule on the Scripps Portal for current course offerings and details.