Culture and Development

This course explores the relationship between “culture” and “development” as concepts and practices and where they intersect. We examine how meanings of ‘the West,’ ‘civilized,’ ‘development,’ ‘modernization,’ ‘progress,’ ‘poverty,’ ‘tradition,’ ‘First World’ and ‘Third World’ are constructed and contested concepts. The course will exam how culture has been thought of historically within development ideas and practice as well as its contemporary manifestations.  Moreover we examine how colonial perceptions and practices still imbue much development discourse today and how might they be more effectively challenged.

The course focuses on key sites where culture has been deployed to promote development and how these interact with economic policy and political change. Topics include human rights, tourism, digital culture, food, music and sports. Students will be able to research a wide range of other cultural phenomena as it relates to development for their major research project.

Please note: This course will have 1 hour of synchronous lecture per week (on Mondays at 5:30 pm EST). Attendance is optional as these lectures will be recorded and uploaded to the course in OnQ.