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ANSO 2000-05
Spring 2001

Allan MacNeill
HSPC 210
968-7489
macneiam@webster.edu
http://www.webster.edu~macneiam

Cross-Cultural Development

Course Description: Are Western economic perspectives objective and universal or are they a form of cultural imperialism imposed on other societies? This question has been at the heart of important debates in economics, anthropology, political science and other disciplines concerned with economic development. These debates, along with the contributions of many non-Western scholars, have drawn our attention to the diversity of economic systems found throughout the world that seemingly do not operate according to the cultural logic of Western, industrial societies. What is the fate of these societies in the 21st Century? Can they preserve their cultural traditions and economic practices in the face of capitalist globalization? Can indigenous, non-Western models of development be more successful than Western models? Is the concept of development itself an inherently Western construct, and thus part of the problem? This course will address the consequences of globalization on indigenous cultures, and explore the problems and possibilities of alternative development strategies in the current global environment.

Text

Majid Rahnema and Victoria Bawtree, eds. The Post-Development Reader. London and New Jersey: Zed Books. 1997 (PDR)

Course Requirements

Students are expected to come to class having read and thought about the assigned readings and prepared to participate in discussion.

The major project of the course is a case study of a non-Western culture and their specific experiences with globalization and economic development. The study could focus on specific issues that are of importance and interest such as gender, religion or the environment. You will write an 6-8 page summary of your research and present your project to the class.

There will also be a take-home essay midterm exam and a final exam. The approximate weights are as follows:

Discussion and Participation.....................................................20%

Case Study Research Project....................................................30%

Midterm Exam. .....................................................................…25%

Final Exam…………………………………………………….25%

Course Outline and Readings

I. Modernism and Economic Development in the Western Imagination

Teodor Shanin, "The Idea of Progress" in PDR

Marshall Berman, "Faust, The First Developer" in PDR

                     Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto. London: Verso. 1998 W.W. Rostow, "The Five Stages of Growth: A Summary" in The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto, 3rd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1960 II. Non-Western Encounters with Development Edward Said, excerpts from Orientalism in Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tifflin, eds. The Postcolonial Studies Reader. New York: Routledge. 1995

Nanda Shrestha, "Becoming a Development Category" in Jonathan Crush, ed. Power of Development. New York: Routledge. 1995

Arturo Escobar, "The Making and Unmaking of the Third World through Development" in PDR.

Ivan Illich, "Development as Planned Poverty" in PDR.

 III. Western Economic Thought: Neoclassical and Marxian Economics Richard Wilk, "Self-Interest and Neoclassical Economics" Economies and Cultures. Boulder: Westview Press. 1996.

Sharp, Register and Leftwich. Economics of Social Issues, 11th ed. Chapter 1. Boston: Irwin Publishers. 1994

Harry Cleaver, "Socialism" in Rist, ed. The History of Development. London: Zed Books. 1997.

Majid Rahnema, "Development and People's Immune System: The Story of Another Variety of Aids" in PDR.

Serge Latouche, "Paradoxical Growth" in PDR.

 IV. Cultures and Economies Karl Polanyi, "Societies and Economic Systems" in The Great Transformation. Boston: Beacon Press. 1944

Marshall Sahlins, "The Original Affluent Society" in PDR

 V. Exchange and Gifts Lewis Hyde, "Some Food We Could Not Eat" in The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property. New York: Vintage Books. 1979

Ursala Sharma, "Dowry in North India: Its Consequences for Women" in Hirschon, ed.,Women and Property, Women as Property. New York: St. Martins Press. 1984

 VI. Exchange and Money Parker Shipton, Bitter Money. Ch. 4. Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association. 1989

Taylor and Evans, "Islamic Banking and the Prohibition of Usury in Western Economic Thought" in National Westminster Bank Quarterly. November, 1987

Susan Meeker-Lowry, "Community Money: The Potential of Local Currency." in Mander and Goldsmith, eds. The Case Against the Global Economy.

MacIsaac and Wahid, "The Grameen Bank: Its Institutional Lessons for Rural Financing."Wilber and Jameson, eds. The Political Economy of Development and Underdevelopment. 1995

Gina Neff, "Microcredit, Microresults." Left Business Observer. 74. October 1996. (http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/micro.html

 VII. Scarcity and Excess

                   Georges Bataille, The Accursed Share, Vol. I. Cambridge, MA: Zone Books. 1988.

VIII. Discourses and Practices of Development

Pierre de Senarclens, "How the United Nations Promotes Development through Technical Assistance" in PDR.

Susan George, "How the Poor Develop the Rich" in PDR.

Eduard Galeano, "To be Like Them" in PDR.

James Ferguson, "Devlopment and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho" in PDR

Graham Hancock, "Transmigration in Indonesia: How Millions are Uprooted" in PDR.

 IX. Gender, Development and Feminism Vandana Shiva, "Western Science and the Destruction of Local Knowledge" in PDR.                     Pam Simmons, "'Women in Development': A Threat to Liberation" in PDR. Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses" in McClintock, Mufti, and Shohat, eds. Dangerous Liaisons:Gender, Nation & Postcolonial Perspectives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1997. X. Alternative Economies Helena Norberg-Hodge, "Learning from Ladakh" in PDR.

Hassan Zaoual, "The Economy and Symbolic Sites of Africa" in PDR.

Linda Clarkson, et. al. "Our Responsibility to the Seventh Generation" in PDR.

 XI. Sustainable Development?--A Case Study of the Kayapo of Brazil Terence Turner, "An Indigenous People's Struggle for Socially Equitable and Ecologically Sustainable Production" Journal of Latin American Anthropology. 1(1) Fall, 1995

Beth Conklin and Laura Graham, "The Shifting Middle Ground: Amazonian Indians and Eco-Politics." American Anthropologist. 97(4) December 1995

Rob Buchanan, "Looking for Rainforest Heroes." Utne Reader. March/April, 1993. Originally published in Outside (November 1992).

 XII. Alternatives to Western Development Models: Problems and Prospects Wolfgang Sachs, "The Need for the Home Perspective" in PDR.

Gustavo Esteva, "Basta! Mexican Indians Say 'Enough'" in PDR.

Majid Rahneema, "Towards Post-Development: Searching for Signposts, A New Language and New Paradigms" in PDR.