11.005
Introduction to International Development
Introduces the political economy of international economic development planning, using an applied, quantitative approach. Considers why some countries are able to develop faster than others. Presents major theories and models of development and underdevelopment, providing tools to understand the mechanisms and processes behind economic growth and broader notions of progress. Offers an alternative view of development, focusing on the persistence of dichotomies in current theory and practice. Using specific cases, explores how different combinations of actors and institutions at various scales may promote or inhibit economic development. Students re-examine conventional knowledge and engage critically with the assumptions behind current thinking and policy.
Spring 2015
Topics
- Introduction to International Development
- Development and the Colonial Legacy
- The Ethical Underpinnings of Development
- International Development as Concept and Narrative
- Measuring Development
- Identities in Development: Inserting “Who We Are” in Relation to a Diverse Development Context
- Modernization and Growth Paradigms
- Easier Said than Done: Dependency and the First Challenges of the Development Agenda
- Development Strategies by Late-industrializing Countries
- The Debt Crisis, Globalization, and the Rise of the Washington Consensus
- Different Views on Why and How Institutions Matter for Development
- Continuous Development: Recent Challenges of Transition for High, Medium, and Low Income Countries
- International Development Across Scales: The Role of Organizations Linking a Complex Global System and the Implementation of Actual Interventions
- An Evolutionary Account of the Bretton Woods System
- “Good Government in the Tropics” and South-south Cooperation
- The Rise of NGOs and Foundations
- The Newer Role of the Private Sector in Development: Collaborative Capitalism
- Development through the Private Sector
- Development through Government Initiatives
- Development by Fostering Complementarities across Sectors
- Development through Research
- Group Presentations – Part 1
- Development through Non-profit Organizations
- Group Presentations – Part 2
- International Development: From the Classroom to the Real World
Readings
- SES #: 1 · TOPICS: Introduction to International Development · READINGS: None
- Graeber, David. Chapter 1 in Debt: The First 5,000 Years . Melville House, 2011. ISBN: 9781933633862.
- Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth . Vol. 390. Grove Press, 1966.
- Hobsbawm, Eric. Chapter 3 in The Age of Empire: 1875–1914 . Pantheon Books, 1987. ISBN: 9780394563190.
- Chambers, Robert. Chapter 3 in Whose Reality Counts?: Putting the First Last . Intermediate Technology Publications, 1997. ISBN: 9781853393860.
- Giri, Anta Kumar, and Philip Quarles van Ufford, eds. Chapter 1 in A Moral Critique of Development: In Search of Global Responsibilities . Routledge, 2003. ISBN: 9780415276252.
- Sandel, Michael. What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012. ISBN: 9780374203030.
- Ferguson, James. Chapter 2 in The Anti-politics Machine: “Development,” Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho . Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780521373821.
- Esteva, Gustavo. “Development.” In The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power . 2nd ed. Zed Books, 2010. ISBN: 9781848133808.
- Banerjee, Abhijit, and Esther Duflo. Chapter 1 in Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty . Public Affairs, 2011. ISBN: 9781586487980.
- Schön, Donald A. Chapter 2 in The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action . Vol. 5126. Maurice Temple Smith Limited, 1983. ISBN: 9780851172316.
- Rodriguez, Richard. Chapter 2 in Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez: An Autobiography . Bantam, 1983. ISBN: 9780553272932.
- Mehmet, Ozay. Chapter 1 in Westernizing The Third World: The Eurocentricity of Economic Development Theories . Routledge, 1999. ISBN: 9780415205733.
- Piore, Michael. Beyond Individualism: How Social Demands of the New Identity Groups Challenge American and Political Life . Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780674068971.
- Said, Edward. Orientalism . Vintage, 1979. ISBN: 9780394740676.
- Sen, Gita, and Caren Grown. Development Crises and Alternative Visions: Third World Women’s Perspectives . Monthly Review Press, 1987. ISBN: 9780853457176.
- Lewis, W. Arthur. “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labor.” In The Economics of Underdevelopment . Edited by A. N. Agarwala and Sampat Pal Singh. Oxford University Press, 1971. (Selected notes)
- Rosenstein-Rodan, Paul. “Problems of Industrialization of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.” In The Economics of Underdevelopment . Edited by Agarwala and Singh. Oxford University Press, 1963. (Selected Pages)
- Cardoso, Fernando Henrique, and Enzo Faletto. Chapters 1 and 2 in Dependency and Development in Latin America . University of California Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780520035270.
- Chenery, Houis B., et al. Redistribution with Growth: Policies to Improve Income Distribution in Developing Countries in the Context of Economic Growth . Oxford University Press, 1974. ISBN: 9780199200696.
- Meadows, Donella H., D. L. Meadows, et al. The Limits to Growth . Signet, 1972. ISBN: 9780451057679.
- Prebisch, Raul. Towards a Dynamic Development Policy for Latin America . United Nations, 1963.
- Furtado, Celso. “Underdevelopment: to Conform or Reform?” In Pioneers in Development, Second Series . Edited by Gerald M. Meier. Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 203–7. ISBN: 9780195205428.
- Davis, Diane E. Discipline and Development: Middle Classes and Prosperity in East Asia and Latin America . Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780521002080.
- Gereffi, Gary. “Paths of Industrialization: An Overview.” In Manufacturing Miracles: Paths of Industrialization in Latin America and East Asia . Edited by G. Gereffi and D. Wyman. Princeton University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780691077888.
- Wade, Robert. Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asian Industrialization . Princeton University, 1990. ISBN: 9780691003979.
- Amsden, Alice H., and Takashi Hikino. “Borrowing Technology or Innovating: An Exploration of Two Paths to Industrial Development.” In Learning and Technological Change . Edited by R. Thomson. Palgrave Macmillan, 1993. ISBN: 9780312095918.
- Kindleberger, Charles. “Anatomy of a Typical Crisis.” In Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crisis . Wiley, 1986. ISBN: 9780471161929.
- Stiglitz, Joseph E. Globalization and its Discontents . W. W. Norton & Company, 2003. ISBN: 9780393324396.
- Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. Chapter 15 in Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty . Vol. 4. Crown Business, 2012. ISBN: 9780307719218.
- Sabel, Charles. “Learning by Monitoring: The Institutions of Economic Development.” In Rethinking the Development Experience ; Essays Provoked by the Work of Albert O. Hirschman . Edited by L. Rodwin and D. Schon. Brookings Institution Press, 1994, pp. 231–74. ISBN: 9780815775515.
- Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson. “Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth.” In Handbook of Economic Growth . Edited by Philippe Aghion and Steven Durlauf. North Holland, 2006, pp. 388–421. ISBN: 9780444520418. (Read First 4 Sections)
- Rodrik, Dani. Chapter 4 in One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth . Princeton University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780691129518.
- Harvey, David. The Enigma of Capital: And The Crises of Capitalism . Oxford university Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780199836840.
- Piketty, Thomas. Capital in the Twenty-first Century . Belknap Press, 2014. ISBN: 9780674430006.
- Power, Samantha. Chasing the Flame: One Man’s Fight to Save the World . Penguin Books, 2008. ISBN: 9780143114857. (Selected Notes)
- Mazower, Mark. Governing the World: The History of an Idea, 1815 to the Present . Penguin Press HC, 2013. ISBN: 9780143123941. (Selected Notes)
- Sachs, Jeffrey. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time . Penguin Press, 2005. ISBN: 9781594200458.
- Moyo, Dambisa. Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is A Better Way for Africa . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. ISBN: 9780374139568.
- Brautigam, Deborah. Chapter 6 in The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa. Oxford University Press, pp. 139–40, 2010. ISBN: 9780199550227.
- Tendler, Judith. Chapter 6 in Good Government in the Tropics . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780801854521.
- Roll, Michael, ed. The Politics of Public Sector Performance: Pockets of Effectiveness in Developing Countries . Routledge, 2015. ISBN: 9781138956391.
- Brautigam, Deborah. The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa . Oxford University Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780199606290.
- Fowler, Alan, ed. Striking a Balance: A Guide to Enhancing the Effectiveness of Non-governmental Organisations in International Development . Routledge, 2009. ISBN: 9781853833250.
- Fayolle, Alain, and H. Matlay, eds. Handbook of Research on Social Entrepreneurship . Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010. ISBN: 9781848440968.
- Yunus, Muhammad. Creating A World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism . PublicAffairs, 2009. ISBN: 9781586486679.
- Locke, Richard M. The Promise and Limits of Private Power: Promoting Labor Standards in a Global Economy . Cambridge University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9781107670884.
- Prahalad, C. K. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, Revised and Updated 5 th Anniversary Edition: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits . Pearson FT Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780133829136.
- Khanna, Tarun. Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping their Futures and Yours . Harvard Business Review Press, 2011. ISBN: 9781422157282.
- Levy, Santiago. Progress Against Poverty: Sustaining Mexico’s Progresa-oportunidades Program. Brookings Institutional Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780815752219. (Selected Notes)
- Levy, Santiago. Chapters 2 and 3 in Progress Against Poverty: Sustaining Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades Program . Brookings Institution, 2006. ISBN: 9780815752219.
- Hirschman, Albert O. Development Projects Observed . Brookings Institution Press, 1967. ISBN: 9780815736516.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2015
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.