Module description
Specific aims of the module:
This module seeks to investigate questions of critical development and social geography in contemporary Latin America. It is a level 6 module, and thus the aims and expectations are high. Students will engage with several socio-theoretical perspectives in order to examine questions of development and social geography in Latin America. Examples include the following: political economy, state theory, political ecology, feminist critiques, critical development, poststructuralism, postcolonialism, critical identity studies, urban geography, social movement theory, and so on. These critical perspectives will be used to examine a host of contemporary social, political, economic, and cultural issues in Latin America.
This module will also have a strong emphasis on academic research, and examples from recent and ongoing research projects will be used to highlight complex ideas from the class readings. The overall aim of this module is to help students develop a basic understanding for several socio-theoretical perspectives, and then to be able to ground these ideas in contemporary Latin American contexts in order to better analyse and make sense of ongoing socio-geographic and critical development debates
Learning outcomes:
By the end of this module students are expected to achieve the following learning outcomes:
• Develop critical thinking skills useful for analysing contemporary social, political, economic, and cultural issues in contexts like Latin America.
• Develop an awareness for several social, political, economic, cultural, and development issues currently confronting Latin American countries.
• Understand what a critical research approach means, and how different research approaches lead to different research outcomes.
• Understand the basic history of development and critical development studies in Latin America.
• Improved essay writing skills.
• Have a basic knowledge for contemporary academic debates in Latin America, and have the skills to critically assess these debates
Module structure
To understand contemporary development and social geographic questions in Latin America, it is crucial to develop a critical academic focus. As such, this module engages questions of development, politics, culture, political economy, and social struggle in Latin America through several socio-theoretical perspectives. The goals of this module are threefold: 1) to develop a strong understanding of Latin American development issues since at least the mid-twentieth century; 2) to develop a general understanding for several social, political, development, and cultural geographic issues that are currently playing out in Latin American countries, and 3) to engage these issues and contexts in Latin America through several different critical perspectives (some examples include the following: political economy, state theory, political ecology, feminist critiques, critical development, postculturalism, postcolonialism, urban studies, social movement theory, and so on). More than just a module about social geography and critical development in Latin America, this one challenges students to think if different ways, hone their critical analysis skills and apply what they have learned to a variety of contemporary geographic contexts.
Provisional lecture titles include:
History of Latin American development 1
History of Latin American development 2
Critical perspectives of development in Latin America
Identity and indigeneity
Urban growth and segregation
Contemporary environmental debates
Postdevelopment critiques
Feminist critiques
Contemporary research case study 1 – Conditional Cash Transfers in Latin America
Contemporary research case study 2 – Considering gentrification in Latin America