Development in Arab World

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course takes a critical and interdisciplinary approach to development in the Arab world. It examines development as a discourse, a political project and as a range of interventions undertaken by diverse actors (local, national, and beyond). We will consider the following questions: What is development? How have notions of development, and beliefs about how best to promote it, shifted over time? What are the political interests that shape and define development problems and provide the parameters within which development solutions are constructed and imagined? What are the most pressing human development issues in the region? What are the obstacles to development? What does development mean given the political and economic contexts of the contemporary Arab world?