SSU2252 Development Theory and Practice
Session Plan
Session Title
Activities
Reading Material
Pre-course activity
Forum: Development is a word that you hear often. Countries talk of development, people talk about development, countries are ranked
according to their level of development. Write 5 sentences about what you understand by the term development. What does development
mean to you?
Block 1
1. Emergence of Development Learning Journal
Simon, D (1997). Development Re-considered:
as a Concept
Read President Truman’s inaugural speech at the United new directions in development thinking.
Nations in 1949. What do you think about this speech? Geografiska Annaler Vol 79:4 pp 183-201
Write 5 sentences.
What is Development? World Bank publication
Online submission
Ask 10 people the following question: What do you What Next? (Vol 1) The Background to
understand by the term ‘development’? Collect their Development in the last several decades.
answers and post 100 words based on your surveys and
submit online.
2. Economic Growth Models
of Development
Opinion poll
Students vote on a poll. Questions for poll are as
follows:
1. Infrastructure development leads to economic
growth (yes/no)
2. A global division of labour according to
availability of resources is an equitable system of
managing human resources
Yes/no
(Is it possible to create a poll so that students can see
the results?)
Activity 2: Learning journal entry
http://livelearnevolve.com/peters-projectionworld-map/ (link to Peter’s Map)
Sen, Amartya (1983). Development: Which
Way Now? The Economic Journal Vol 93 pp
745-762
How do you define being ‘modern’? What are the
characteristics of being a ‘modern’ person or a ‘modern
society?
3.
Marxist, neo-Marxist and
socialist development
models
Activity 3: Forum: Peter’s Projection (Please give link to
this)
Click on the following link to find a world map known as
“Peters Projection”. Compare this with standard world
maps. How is it different? Which areas are highlighted?
How does it draw our attention to a Eurocentric view of
the world? Write 5 sentences in the forum
Online submission
Define the following and submit your answers. You may
refer to what you learned in SSU1251.
Means of production
Relations of production
Mode of production
Class
Ruling class ideology
Learning Journal
Do some research on Nkrumah the Ghanaian President
of the 1960s. Find out what he had to say about neocolonialism. Write a maximum of 250 words in your
Learning Journal
4.
Participatory Development
and Sustainable
Development
Online Forum: The World’s poorest President
Find out about the “world’s poorest President” Jose
Mujica of Uruguay. What were his policies like? What
were his successes? What has happened to Uruguay
since Mujica retired?
Online Journal entry
Chambers, Robert (1994) The origins and
Talk to older people about recyling. What were
practice of participatory rural appraisal. World
traditional practices for recyling and reusing materials?
Development Vol 22: 7 pp 953-969
How has this changed?
5. Neo-liberalism and SAP
Online submission
British Economist A.E.Schumacher, in his book Small is
Beautiful: A study of Economics as if People Mattered,
argues that small scale, ‘appropriate’ technology is a
more sustainable and effective way to empower people.
Find out more about the ‘small is beautiful’ approach.
See if this approach has been implemented in Sri Lanka
or elsewhere. Write a 500 word essay on this issue and
upload.
Online Forum
http://vimeo.com/6686131
Watch this video produced by the ‘Yes Men’ or the
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376
movie ‘The Take’. Write a few sentences about the
movie in the forum.
Online Journal:
What do you know about the Accelerated Mahaweli
Development Project? What impact did it have on
vulnerable communities in the areas where the project
was implemented?
6. Women in Development
and Women And
Development
Chambers, Robert (2007). Participation and
Poverty. Development. Vol 50 (2) pp 20-25
Online Forum: Guest Resource Person – Sarala
Emmaunel
Topic: Can you think about why women cannot attain
enlightenment in Therawada Buddhism? Or why women
cannot become priests in the Roman Catholic Religion?
How is spiritual, intellectual, enlightenment linked to our
social and historical ideas of purity and pollution? Why
do women not step into a Hindu Kovil when they have
their menstruation?
Online Submission:
Look at the GDP of Sri Lanka. What are the major sectors
that bring in revenue for the country? What is the
involvement of women in these sectors? What are the
economically productive roles women are playing? Write
250 words
7. Gender and Development
and Third World Feminism
8. Development in Disasters
and Humanitarian Aid:
Conflict situations
Online submission
Talk to 5 women that you know. Ask them what they do
from the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep.
List all the different activities they do. Analyse how they
use their time. On what kind of things do they spent
most of their time? What does this exercise tell you
about the gender division of labour?
Online debate:
Topic: There is no ‘glass ceiling’ in Sri Lanka.
Online submission
Read the section in your course material that describes a
‘Day at Menik Farm’. This narrative and images taken
from the internet explains some of the humanitarian
issues that came up during the massive displacement
that took place in 2009 in Sri Lanka. Can you identify the
different needs and the different vulnerable groups?
What kind of assistance would the different groups
require? Try to think of material support, basic needs,
emotional needs, protection and safety needs. Write a
short essay (300 words) and submit online.
Forum: Topic – Competitive Humanitarianism: Read the
attached article. What steps could be taken to reduce
competition between agencies during times of
Batliwala S and Dhanraj D. Gender Myths that
Instrumentalise Women: A View from the
Indian Frontline. IDS Bulletin Vol 35:4
Stirrat, Jock (2006). Competitive
humanitarianism: relief and the tsunami in Sri
Lanka. Anthropology Today: Vol 22:5 pp 11-16
Fernando, U and Hilhorst D (2007). Everyday
practices of humanitarian aid: tsunami
response in Sri Lanka. Development in Practice
Vol 16:3 pp 292-302
disasters?
9. Development and Aid in
Natural Disasters
Online submission
http://www.epw.in/webOn the 29th of October 2014, a calamitous landslide in
exclusives/plantation-labour-buried-neoliberalthe Meeriyabedda tea plantation in Sri Lanka’s Badulla
company-state.html
district claimed dozens of lives and many remained
unaccounted for. There were many reports in the media
on the tragedy of men, women and particularly children.
We saw visuals of people digging with their bare hands
looking for their loved ones buried under the soil. People
from across the country came forward to collect relief
for the affected people. There was much debate about
the causes and who was responsible for the disaster.
Some officials said the people were warned many times
to move. Can you think about the short term
humanitarian issues for the survivors of the disaster?
Would there be different issues for men and women?
What about those with other vulnerabilities?
Then think about the long term causes for this disaster
and its impact on the plantation workers of
Meeriyabedda. Make a table of the structural
vulnerabilities looking at economic, social, caste, class,
ethnicity, poverty and gender issues. Analyze the
responses of the government and other actors (such as
trade unions, the plantation management, military,
NGOs etc.) in terms of addressing the above issues. Do
they address these issues? Read the article (see link) for
more information.
Block 2
10. Measuring Development 1
Online Debate:
Topic: The White Man’s Burden or the Civilising Mission
Online Journal
Read the National Human Development Report 2014
(Chapter 3). What are the main problems with
education in Sri Lanka identified in this report?
Online submission
Conduct a mini survey among 10 people. Ask them what
indicators they would use for measuring development.
What do their responses tell you about development
indicators? Write a reflection in your online journal.
Online submission
Read the article on ‘Strategies for Success in Human
Development’ by Gustave Ranis and Frances Stewart
(link below) and come up with 5 strategies that could
help Sri Lanka to further improve its status in HDI in the
world.
(http://www.econ.yale.edu/~granis/papers/cp0558.pdf).
11. Measuring Development 2
Online submission
Conduct some online research and find answers to the
following questions:
1. How is Sri Lanka ranked in the GDI and GEM?
2. What is the proportion of seats held by women
in the current parliament?
3. What are the labour force participation rates of
women currently in Sri Lanka?
4. What are the education participation rates of
girls in Sri Lanka?
Once you have collected this information, write a 300
word essay on the Status of Women in Sri Lanka
Useful websites:
www.statistics.gov.lk and
http://www.lk.undp.org/content/srilanka/en/home.html
Journal entry
‘Number of women parliamentarians does not reflect
women’s empowerment in a society’. Conduct a mini
survey among your friends on this statement. What are
their views? Or
What does wellbeing mean to you? Translate the term
‘wellbeing’ into Sinhala and Tamil. Compare your
definition with that of your colleagues. How is it
different? How is it similar?
12. Development as discourse
13. The politics and practice of
development policy
Journal entry
Find out about a development project in your area. It
may be something small like road repairs, water supply
or community strengthening project. Find out what the
goals of the project were and whether these goals were
reached.
Cornwall, A and Brock, K (2005). Beyond
Buzzwords
“Poverty Reduction”, “Participation” and
“Empowerment” in Development Policy.
Overarching Concerns: Programme Paper No
10. UNRISD.
Forum: Guest Resource Person – Dr Udan Fernando
Topic: Images of Development – what do they tell us
about the world?
Upload a picture that represents ‘development’ in your
opinion. Describe the image and explain why it
represents development to you.
Hintjens, H (1999) The Emperor's New Clothes:
a moral tale for development experts?
Development in Practice, Vol 9:4 pp 382-395
Online Journal
Read the Mahinda Chinthana 2010 policy document.
Identify the main goals and strategies it has proposed.
What development models does it reflect?
Mahinda Chinthana 2010
Power point presentation - upload
Interview 2-3 development practitioners. Inquire from
them as to their ideas about the role of development
policy and the extent to which it influences what they
do. Prepare a presentation based on your findings and
upload
14. Politics of Development and
Aid
Online debate:
Conduct a mini-survey among 10 people. Ask them for
their views on NGOs. Initiate an online debate among
your peers to discuss the role of NGOs especially in the
Sri Lankan context. Read the following article and bring
in the arguments from this article when you post your
comments:
Kamat, Sangeeta, (2004), The Privatisation of Public
Interest: theorising NGO discourse in a neo liberal era,
Review of International Political Economy, Vol 11, No 1,
Routledge
Karim, L (2001) Politics of the Poor? NGOs and
Grass-roots Political Mobilization in
Bangladesh. PoLAR Vol 24:1 pp 92-107
Kamat, S (2004). The privatization of public
interest: theorizing NGO discourse in
a neoliberal era. Review of International
Political Economy Vol 11:1 pp 155–176
Journal entry
Find out about the Occupy Movement. There was an
attempt to establish a similar movement in Sri Lanka,
known as the Occupy Sri Lanka Movement. What were
the aims of the global Occupy Movements? How
effective was the Sri Lankan movement?
15. Development in Sri Lanka
during the Colonial period
Journal entry
Can you imagine what life would have been like under
Colonial Ceylon? How do you think the introduction of
the railway system, roads and communication tools such
as newspapers and books influenced the ordinary
Ceylonese?
16. Development in Sri Lanka
during the post
Forum:
Topic – Family Planning: success or failure?
Balakrishnan, N (1973). The Five Year Plan and
Development Policy in Sri Lanka: Socio-political
independent period: the
welfare state
17. Development in Sri Lanka:
Introduction of Open
Economy
Online Submission:
S.W.R.D Bandaranaike – Impact of his policies on
development in Sri Lanka – 500 words
Online journal:
Conduct a mini-survey among 10 people to gather their
attitudes about female workers in the FTZs. Analyse
your findings and write a reflection in your online
journal.
Online Forum: Rituals of Development
Read Serena Tennakoon’s article Rituals of
Development: Rituals of Development: The Accelerated
Mahaveli Development Program of Sri Lanka’, American
Ethnologist, 5(2), pp. 294–310. What does the article
mean by ‘rituals of development’? Think of
contemporary examples of a similar kind. Write 300
words in the online forum of Rituals of Development.
18. Development in Sri Lanka:
Post War
Online submission
Collect the following data between the years 2004-2012:
GDP growth rates, employment rates, poverty rates.
What are the observations you can make about national
trends? Do you see any regional variations?
Write a 250 word report and upload to Moodle.
Forum: Film Review
Watch the movie ‘Mega-Development Projects in
Hambantota: In whose interests? (2013) available in the
following link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk5hRKts0so
Write 5 sentences about this movie in the forum.
19. Review Session
Online Forum with Course Team
You can post any question you want regarding the
perspectives and the plan. Asian Survey Vol
13:12 pp1155-1168
Tennakoon, N.S (1988). Rituals of
Development: The Accelerated Mahaveli
Development Program of Sri Lanka’, American
Ethnologist, 5(2), pp. 294–310.
Hewamanne, S (2003) PERFORMING ‘DISRESPECTABILITY’ New Tastes, Cultural
Practices, and Identity Performances
by Sri Lanka’s Free Trade Zone GarmentFactory Workers. Cultural Dynamics 2003; 15;
71
Amarasuriya, Harini and Jonathan Spencer
(2015),’ With that, discipline will also come to
them”: politics of postwar urban Colombo in
Current Anthropology, Special Issue
course or for any clarifications to the following people:
Harini Amarasuriya
Sarala Emmanuel
Darshi Thoradeniya
Udan Fernando