INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ISSUES IN ASIA
DVM4125A
TRAN THI THU TRANG
FALL 2008
Course schedule:
Course location:
Office Hours:
Office:
Telephone:
E-mail:
Friday 8h30 – 11h30
SITE F0126
Thursday 11h30 – 13h00 or by appointment
DMS 9108
613-562-5800 x 2773
TrangTran@uottawa.ca
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course examines a number of key development issues in Asia since the end of the WWII. It analyses
the challenges that the government and the peoples of Asian countries have faced and the impacts that
different development policies have created. The course examines sectoral development, including the
agrarian question, the modernization and globalization of agriculture, the industrialization and the 1997
financial crisis. It examines the shift from development from above to development from below, from
planning to market, and from large-scale to small-scale production. The course also looks at cross-cutting
issues, notably rural-urban migration and the current situation of poverty.
The course takes a political economy approach, which views politics and economics as two closely linked
processes. It includes lectures on theoretical issues, documentary screenings, and students’ active
participation through discussions and debates.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of the course, students will be able to acquire:
•
•
•
An overall understanding of key historical events and contemporary development issues in Asia;
An in-depth knowledge of at least one country in the region.
Analytical skills in examining political, economic, and social changes in Asia.
ASSESSMENT
Mid-term exam in class – 30% of the final note
Description
This exam provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate their understanding of
the issues so far discussed in class and raised in the required and recommended
literature. Students are requested to answer 3 questions. Rather than reflect breadth of
knowledge, an answer should synthesise and sharply articulate elements relevant to its
question. It should demonstrate analytical skills and critical thinking.
Students should cite authors whenever relevant but full references are not necessary.
Date
24 October
Marking
Each of the following elements counts for 20% of the assignment:
• Coverage of the theoretical debates;
• Structure;
• Argumentation;
• Use of references;
• Writing and formatting.
Theories of International Development (DVM4125A)
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Term Paper – 40% of the final note (can be substituted by CSL option, see below)
Description
The objective of the essay is for students to review the literature and formulate their
own argument. The essay should therefore have a discussion of different theoretical
perspectives and clearly explain a student’s analytical framework. Students will then
develop an argument to support their position. The essay should refer to at least 10
academic sources.
Length
Maximum 2,000 words, including all footnotes, endnotes, and annexes, but excluding
the list of references at the end of the paper. Each block of 50 words in excess will
entail a 1% penalty.
Deadline
10th November before 16h00 on Virtual Campus. Each 24 hours of delay will incur a
3% penalty for this assignment (weekends included). No assignment will be accepted
after 17th November, 16h00.
Marking
Each of the following elements counts for 20% of the assignment:
• Coverage of the theoretical debates: critically analyse different relevant theoretical
approaches and clearly state the analytical framework chosen for the paper;
• Structure: clarity of the subject and hypothesis in the introduction, arguments are
logically articulated throughout the essay, and sharp and concise summary of the
arguments is provided in conclusion;
• Argumentation: arguments substantiated with evidences and examples, free of
unsupported normative statements;
• Use of references: numerous, diversified, relevant, well used, cited, and quoted
academic sources. Note that encyclopaedias (including Wikipedia) are not
academic sources.
• Writing and formatting: comprehensibly written, free of spelling mistakes and
typos, clearly formatted with pagination, headers, lists, tables, figures, maps,
annexes and other tools as useful to the argument.
Final Take-home Exam – 30% of the final note
Description
A final take-home exam at the end of the semester completes the assessment of this
course. The exam provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate their
understanding of the issues discussed in class and raised in the required and
recommended literature, and to have achieved the stated learning objectives of the
course.
Date
21st December before 16h00 on Virtual Campus. No late submission is accepted for
this assignment, except for serious health issues with medical certification.
Marking
Each of the following elements counts for 20% of the assignment:
• Understanding of the main issues;
• Structure;
• Argumentation;
• Use of references;
• Writing and formatting.
Theories of International Development (DVM4125A)
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Community Service Learning (CSL) – 40% (Optional and in lieu of Term Paper)
Description
Students who chose to do so can participate to a Community Service Learning
volunteer posting in lieu of the Term Paper. Those placements allow acquiring handson experience with an organization doing work related to the topics of the course.
Depending on the position, students will be required to perform a maximum of 35 hours
of volunteer work with a not-for-profit group, produce an essay that links that CSL
experience to development issues. Students are free to choose the topic of this essay,
but should have it approved in writing by the professor.
The objective of the CLS essay is for students to briefly review the literature and
formulate their own argument on a topic relevant to their placement and development.
The essay should therefore have a discussion of different theoretical perspectives and
clearly explain a student’s analytical framework. The CLS essay should refer to at least
5 academic sources, which can be complemented by media and other non-peer
reviewed sources as relevant. The essay should use the placement as much as possible
as a source of empirical evidence, or as a case study, to support the argument.
Time spent on a Service Learning assignment can also be applied to the University of
Ottawa’s new Co-Curricular Record, which is an official attestation of verified
volunteer activities undertaken both on and off the university campus. Details about this
program can be found on the Experiential Learning website.
Students who would like to choose the Service Learning option are required to register
on-line and select an assignment linked with this course. Students will then be sent all
pertinent contact information within a week.
Deadline
Same as for the Term Paper
Marking
Same as for the Term Paper.
A letter from the hosting organization will also be required to certify a satisfactory
completion of the assignment.
Contact
Experiential Learning Service
http://www.sass.uOttawa.ca/els
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COURSE OUTLINE
Introduction and Methodology
Date
5 September
Colonisation, Decolonisation, the Cold War and Viet Nam War
Date
12 September
Required
Readings
Wolf, Eric Robert, 1982, Europe and the People without History, Berkeley: University
of California Press. ‘Trade and Conquest in the Orient’.
Vera Simone, 2001, The Asian Pacific: Political and Economic Development in a
Global Context, New York, Longman. Chapter 7: The Global Context of Asian
Pacific Development – The Cold War.
Suggested
Readings
McCloud, D. G., 1986, System and Process in Southeast Asia: The Evolution of a
Region, Boulder, Westview. ‘Southeast Asia in Regional and Global Contexts’.
Osborne, M., 1997, Southeast Asia: An Introductory History, Sydney, Seventh Edition,
Allen & Unwin. ‘The European Advance and Challenge’.
Owen, N. G. (ed), 2005, The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History,
Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press. ‘Passages Out of the Colonial Era’.
The Agrarian Questions
Date
19 September
Required
Readings
Rigg, Jonathan, 2001, More than the Soil: Rural Change in Southeast Asia, Harlow:
Pearson. ‘Agrarian Questions for a New Rural South’.
Bernstein, H., 2004, ‘‘Changing Before Our Very Eyes’: Agrarian Questions and the
Politics of Land in Capitalism Today’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol. 4
(1&2): 190-225, Electronic Access through E-Journals.
Lipton, M., 1991, ‘Agriculture, Rural People, The State and the Surplus in Some Asian
Countries’, in J. Breman and S. Mundle (eds), Rural transformation in Asia.
New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Suggested
Readings
Lewis, W. A., 1954, ‘Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour’,
Manchester School, vol 22(2): 139-91. Electronic Access through E-Journals.
Byres, T., 1991, ‘The Agrarian Question and Differing Forms of Capitalist Agrarian
Transition: An Essay with Reference to Asia’, in J. Breman and S. Mundle
(eds), Rural transformation in Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Bernstein, H., 1996, ‘Agrarian Questions Then and Now’, Journal of Peasant Studies,
vol. 24 (1&2): 22-59.
Duara, P., 1991, ‘State-Involution in Comparative Perspective’, in J. Breman and S.
Mundle (eds), Rural transformation in Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University
Press.
From Modernization to Globalization: the Green Revolution, Land Reforms, and Contractfarming
Date
26 September
Required
Readings
Patnaik, U., 1990, ‘Some Economic and Political Consequences of the Green
Revolution in India’, in H. Bernstein et al. (eds), The Food Question: Profits
Versus People, New York: Monthly Review Press.
Griffin, K., A. R. Khan, and Amy Ickowitz, 2002, ‘Poverty and the Distribution of
Theories of International Development (DVM4125A)
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Land’, Journal of Agrarian Change, vol. 2 (3): 279–330, Electronic Access
through E-Journals.
White, B., 1999, ‘Nucleus and Plasma: Contract Farming and the Exercise of Power in
Upland West Java’ in T. M. Li, (ed), Transforming the Indonesian Uplands:
Marginality, Power and Production, Amsterdam: Harwood Academic
Publishers.
Thompson, S. J. and J. T. Cowan, 2000, ‘Globalizing Agro-Food Systems in Asia:
Introduction’, World Development, vol. 28 (3): 401-407. Electronic Access
through E-Journals.
Suggested
Readings
Griffin, K. B., 1974, The Political Economy of Agrarian Change: An Essay on the
Green Revolution, London: Macmillan.
Blyn, G., 1983, ‘The Green Revolution Revisited’, Economic Development and
Cultural Change, Vol. 31(4): 705-725. Electronic Access through E-Journals.
Freebairn, D., 1995, ‘Did the Green Revolution Concentrate Incomes?’, World
Development, pp. 265-279. Electronic Access through E-Journals.
Bramall, C., 2004, ‘Chinese Land Reform in Long-Run Perspective and in the Wider
East Asian Context’, Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 4(1&2): 107–141.
Accessible online from the Library Website.
Watts, M., 1998, ‘Recombinant Capitalism: State, De-collectivisation and the Agrarian
Question in Vietnam’ in J. Pickles and A. Smith (eds), Theorising Transition:
The Political Economy of Post-Communist Transformations, London; New
York: Routledge.
Kay, C., December 2002, ‘Why East Asia Overtook Latin America: Agrarian Reform,
Industrialisation and Development’, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 23(6): 10731102, Electronic Access through E-Journals.
Duval-Diop, D. M. and J. R. Grimes, 2005, ‘Tales from Two Deltas: Catfish Fillets,
High-Value Foods, and Globalization’, Economic Geography, vol. 81 (2): 177200. Electronic Access through E-Journals.
Rural Growth Linkages and Rural Industrialisation
Date
3 October
Required
Readings
Saith, A., 1992, The Rural Non-Farm Economy: Processes and Policies, Geneva:
International Labour Office. ‘The RNFE: Demand-side Dimensions’.
White, B. and G. Wiradi, 1989, ‘Agrarian and Nonagrarian Bases of Inequality in Nine
Javanese Villages’, in G. P. Hart, A. Turton, and B. White (eds), Agrarian
Transformations: Local Processes and the State in Southeast Asia, Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Hart, Gillian, 1989, ‘The Growth Linkages Controversy: Some Lessons from the Muda
Case’, Journal of Development Studies, vol. 25 (4): 571-5. Electronic Access
through E-Journals.
Harriss, J., 1991, ‘Agriculture/Non-agricultural Linkages and the Diversification of
Rural Economic Activity: A South Indian Case Study’ in J. Breman and S.
Mundle (eds), Rural transformation in Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University
Press.
Suggested
Readings
Saith, A., 1991, ‘Asian Rural Industrialization: Context, Features, Strategies’, in J.
Breman and S. Mundle (eds), Rural transformation in Asia. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Saith, Ashwani, 2001, ‘From Village Artisans to Industrial Clusters: Agendas and
Policy Gaps in Indian Rural Industrialization’, Journal of Agrarian Change,
vol. 1 (1): 81-123. Electronic Access through E-Journals.
Harriss, Barbara, 1987, ‘Regional Growth Linkages from Agriculture’, Journal of
Development Studies, vol. 23 (2): 275-89. Electronic Access through EJournals.
Theories of International Development (DVM4125A)
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Arghiros, D., 1997, ‘Rural Industry and Development in Central Thailand: An
Alternative Approach’, The Journal of Entrepreneurship, vol 6(1): 1-18.
Electronic Access through E-Journals.
Alexander, P., P. Boomgaard, and B. White (eds), 1991, In the Shadow of Agriculture:
Non-farm Activities in the Javanese Economy, Past and Present, Amsterdam:
Royal Tropical Institute.
Rural–urban Migration
Date
10 October
Required
Readings
Rigg, J., 2007, An Everyday Geography of the Global South, London; New York:
Routlege. ‘Living on the Move’.
De Haan, A. and B. Rogaly, 2002, ‘Introduction: Migrant Workers and their Role in
Rural Change’, Journal of Development Studies vol 38(5): 1-14. Electronic
Access through E-Journals.
Suggested
Readings
Fan, C. C., 2003, ‘Rural-urban Migration and Gender Division of Labor in Transitional
China’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol 27(1): 2447. Electronic Access through E-Journals.
Firman, T., 1994, ‘Labour allocation, Mobility, and Remittances in Rural Households:
A Case from Central Java, Indonesia’, Sojourn vol 9(1): 81-101.
Gardner, K. and F. Osella (eds), 2004, Migration, Modernity and Social
Transformation in South Asia, New Delhi: Sage.
McKay, D., 2005, ‘Reading Remittance Landscapes: Female Migration and
Agricultural Transition in the Philippines’, Geografisk Tidsskrift, Danish
Journal of Geography, vol 105(1): 89-99.
Rogaly, B. and D. Coppard, 2002, ‘”They used to go to eat, now they go to earn”: The
Changing Meanings of Seasonal Migration from Puruliya District in West
Bengal, India’, Journal of Agrarian Change vol 3(3): 395-433. Electronic
Access through E-Journals.
Mid-term Exam
Date
24 October
Industrialisation: State-Market Debate
Date
31 October
Required
Readings
Wade, R., 2004, Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government
in East Asian Industrialization, Princeton, Princeton University Press. ‘States,
Markets, and Industrial Policy’.
Lall, Sanjaya, 1996, ‘Paradigms of development: The East Asian debate’, Oxford
Development Studies, vol. 24 (2): 111-131. Electronic Access through EJournals
Suggested
Readings
World Bank, 1993, The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy,
Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Amsden, A. H., 1979, ‘Taiwan's Economic History: A Case of Etatisme and a
Challenge to Dependency Theory’, Modern China, vol. 5 (3): 341-379.
Electronic Access through E-Journals
—, 1994, ‘Why isn't the whole world experimenting with the East Asian model to
develop?: Review of the East Asian miracle’, World Development, vol. 22 (4):
627. Electronic Access through E-Journals
Theories of International Development (DVM4125A)
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Deyo, F. C., 1987, The Political Economy of the new Asian Industrialism, Ithaca, N.Y.:
Cornell University Press.
The Asian Financial Crisis
Date
7 November
Required
Readings
Wade, R. and F. Veneroso, 1998, ‘The Asian Crisis: The High Debt Model vs. the Wall
Street-Treasury-IMF Complex’, New Left Review 228, pp. 3-23. Electronic
Access through E-Journals
Stiglitz, J. E., 2003, Globalization and its Discontents, New York, W.W. Norton. ‘The
East Asia Crisis’.
Suggested
Readings
Jomo, K. S., 2001, Growth After the Asian Crisis: What Remains of the East Asian
Model?, New York, United Nations.
Hunter, W. C., G. G. Kaufman, T. H. Krueger, et al., 1999, The Asian Financial Crisis:
Origins, Implications, and Solutions, Boston: Kluwer Academic.
Poverty and Inequalities: Conceptualisation and Explanations
Date
14 November
Required
Readings
Laderchi, C. R., R. Saith, and F. Stewart, 2003, ‘Does it Matter that we do not Agree on
the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches’, Oxford
Development Studies, vol. 31 (3): 243-274. Electronic Access through EJournals
Crow, B., 2000, ‘Understanding Famine and Hunger’, in T. Allen and A. Thomas (eds),
Poverty and Development into the 21st Century, Oxford; New York: Open
University in association with Oxford University Press.
Suggested
Readings
Sen, A. K., 1981, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlements and Deprivation.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Singh, I., 1990, The Great Ascent: The Rural Poor in South Asia. Baltimore, MD: Johns
Hopkins University Press.
Bramall, C. and M. E. Jones, 1993, ‘Rural Income Inequality in China since 1978’,
Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 21 (1): 41-70.
Poverty Reduction Strategy: Microcredit, Decentralisation, Good-governance
Date
21 November
Required
Readings
Montgomery, R., 1996, ‘Disciplining or Protecting the Poor? Avoiding the Social Costs
of Peer Pressure in Microcredit Schemes’, Journal of International
Development, Special Issue, Sustainable Banking with the Poor, Vol. 8(2): 289305. Electronic Access through E-Journals
Johnson, S. and B. Rogaly, 1997, Microfinance and Poverty Reduction, Oxford, Oxfam
(UK and Ireland).
Suggested
Readings
Hulme, D. and P. Mosley (eds), Finance Against Poverty, Volume 1&2, London,
Routledge.
Craig, D. and D. Porter, 2006, Development beyond Neoliberalism?: Governance,
Poverty Reduction and Political Economy, London: New York ; Routledge.
White, Sarah C., 1992, Arguing With the Crocodile: Gender and Class in Bangladesh,
London: Zed Books.
Theories of International Development (DVM4125A)
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Conclusion
Date
28 November
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK
DVM4125A Course Pack available at Enviro Copies, 404 Dalhousie
For useful tips on how to write a University paper, please refer to the following Website:
http://www.sciencessociales.uottawa.ca/USB/cleusbkey.swf .
Absence from an examination or test
Absence from any examination or test, or late submission of assignments due to illness, must be justified;
otherwise, a penalty will be imposed. The Faculty reserves the right to accept or reject the reason offered.
Reasons such as travel, employment and misreading the examination schedule are not usually accepted.
Beware of Academic Fraud!
Academic fraud is an act committed by a student to distort the marking of assignments, tests, examinations
and other forms of academic evaluation. Academic fraud is neither accepted nor tolerated by the
University. Anyone found guilty of academic fraud is liable to severe academic sanctions.
Here are a few examples of academic fraud:
•
engaging in any form of plagiarism or cheating;
•
presenting falsified research data;
•
handing in an assignment that was not authored, in whole or in part, by the student;
•
submitting the same assignment in more than one course, without the written consent of the
professors concerned
In recent years, the development of the Internet has made it much easier to identify academic plagiarism.
The tools available to your professors allow them to trace the exact origin of a text on the Web, using just
a few words.
In cases where students are unsure whether they are at fault, it is their responsibility to consult the
University’s Web site at the following address; you will find « Tools for Writing Papers and Assignments
» to http://www.socialsciences.uottawa.ca/eng/writing_tools.asp
Persons who have committed or attempted to commit (or have been accomplices to) academic fraud will
be penalized. Here are some examples of the academic sanctions, which can be imposed:
•
a grade of « F » for the assignment or course in question;
•
an additional program requirement of between three and 30 credits;
•
suspension or expulsion from the faculty.
Last session, most of the students found guilty of fraud were given an « F » for the course and had
between three and twelve credits added to their program requirement.
For more information, see:
http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/info/newsletter/fraud_e.html
Theories of International Development (DVM4125A)
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