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About Development Studies
Development as a Field of Study
At the meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland in July 2005 the leaders of the G8 group of the largest developed countries had global poverty, Third World debt and global climate change at the top of their agenda. Not surprising in terms of their economic and security interests in an interdependent world, where in the year 2003 the people of 18 countries were poorer than they were in 1990 according to the United Nation’s Development Program’s 2005 Human Development Report, and more than 1 billion people around the world survive on less than $1 per day. In addition in many parts of the developing world where these people live the natural environment is also under pressure, making it difficult to access clean water, energy sources and natural materials for housing and other uses. The problems of poverty, debt and the quality of the environment are of central concern to those living throughout the developing world but so are their relations with the developed world.
Understanding these and other related global trends and how they can be addressed is the concern of the interdisciplinary program of Development Studies that introduces students to the field of development studies. Central issues and themes in Development Studies, which are examined in the core program, include the history and political economy of development, the causes of poverty and inequality, the relationship between the environment and economic development, the problems that confront efforts at local, state and international social, economic, environmental and political institution building and the growing debate about globalisation.
Understanding these and other related global trends and how they can be addressed is the concern of the interdisciplinary program of Development Studies that introduces students to the field of development studies. Central issues and themes in Development Studies, which are examined in the core program, include the history and political economy of development, the causes of poverty and inequality, the relationship between the environment and economic development, the problems that confront efforts at local, state and international social, economic, environmental and political institution building and the growing debate about globalisation.
The interdisciplinary major in Development Studies consists of core courses and a selection from a wide range of options offered by a range of Schools inside and outside the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Students can also include other options with the permission of the Coordinator of the program
A Development Studies Honours and a Combined Honours program (where Development Studies is coupled with another major sequence such as Political Economy, Sociology, History or Spanish and Latin American Studies etc.) is offered in the Fourth Year in the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Social Science.
