INTD 497-01: Rural development and food security
Winter 2013 Syllabus
Instructor: Karen McAllister
Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), McGill University
Email:
Office phone: (514)398-7386
Time of class: Tuesdays, 4-7:00 PM
Class location:STBIO S3/4
Office location: Room 210, Peterson Hall, McTavish Street
Office hours: Tuesdays, 12:30-2:30
Course description:
This course will cover issues related to rural development and food security. Topics that will be covered include the basis of peasant decision-making and rural livelihoods, property rights and agrarian transitions (particularly in response to commercialisation of subsistence agriculture, as well as contemporary land enclosures and displacements from the development of agro-industries or conservation projects), the knowledge and assumptions that underlie rural development projects and land reform, and issues of poverty, vulnerability and famine. The course will end with a focus on applied rural development projects, taking a look at participatory research and farmer-researcher partnerships. This course is intended to build critical research and presentation skills, and students are encouraged to follow their specific interests and may write research papers about countries and issues relevant to the theme of the course but not specifically covered in the course readings. Seminars will be supplemented by films and guest lectures when this is appropriate.
This is a 400 level seminar class intended for final year IDS students. The class will be run like a graduate seminar, and will require active student participation. Students will be expected to come prepared with discussion questions and comments on the class readings, and to take turns giving a brief introduction to each reading.
Grade Distribution and Assessment:
Class Participation: 20% (based on class attendance, in-class informal presentations, and attendance at one session of the ISID conference in March)
Mid-term assignment: 15%
Final term paper: 50% (45% for paper, and 5% for abstract/proposal and reference list)
Final presentation: 15%
Participation: The class will require active student participation. Students are expected to have completed the readings prior to class, and to come prepared with discussion questions. Students will be expected to take turns summarising the key points of the readings each week and helping facilitate the discussions. Seminars will be supplemented with guest lectures and films when appropriate.
ISID March Conference: On March 21 and 22, the Institute for the Study of International Development is organizing a conference on The Challenge of Developing Countries from the Bottom Up. There will be one session taking place on Thursday March 21st (16:00-18:00) and four sessions on Friday March 22nd (9:00-10:45, 11.15-13:00, 14:00-15:45, and 16:00-17:45). Attendance to any session of the conference will earn students extra credit (2.5%) that will count toward their participation grade. Please note that participation is never to exceed the 20% established for the course. At the conference there will be a sign up sheet at each session. Students should put their name, student ID, and signature. Needless to say, students leaving early from a session will not receive the extra credit.
Mid-term assignment: The mid-term assignment is a short analytical paper (4-5 pages double-spaced) that is based on one week’s set of readings – the choice of which week is up to the student. This assignment is not a summary, but an analytical comparison and critique of the perspectives of the different articles which focuses on some central issue that the articles address. These are due one week after the set of class readings. Final day to pass these in is March 26. Any set of readings can be chosen except for the class on the IUARP project and participatory development projects.
Final term paper: This is a research paper of between13-15 pages double-spaced. The paper should address some issue related to rural development and food security. The choice of topic will depend on the specific interest of the student, and can focus on issues or countries that have not been covered in the class. However the paper topic should be approved in advance with the instructor, and a one page abstract/paper proposal plus a preliminary reference list (10-15 references) will be due on February 19. The final paper will be due on April 17.
Late papers and assignments will be penalised one half-grade per day (e.g. a paper that is one day late would go from an A to A-).
Mini-conference:The last 3 classes of the semester will take the form of a mini-conference in which each student will give a 10 minute presentation of their term paper topic. Paper presentations will be organised into panels of similar topics, and time will be given for questions and discussion.
Statement on Academic Integrity:
McGillUniversity values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the
meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism, and other academic offences under
the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see
for more information).
In accord with McGillUniversity’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.
Course materials:
The following book will be available for purchase at Paragraph bookstore:
Hall, D., P. Hirsch, et al. (2011). Powers of exclusion: land dilemmas in Southeast Asia. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press.
A course pack of required readings will be available at the McGill Bookstore.
Journal articles are available electronically through the McGill library, and links to articles and electronic books will be posted on webCT. The readings listed as optional in the syllabus are not necessarily posted on webCT and will not be discussed in the seminars, but students who are writing papers on related topics and want further reading material might find these articles useful.
Class schedule and reading list:
DATE / Class topic / Assignment deadlineJan 8 / Introduction
Jan 15 / Peasant decision making and rural livelihoods
Jan 22 / Food security, poverty and famine
Jan 29 / Contested knowledge and environmental narratives
Feb 5 / Participatory rural development: IUARP project
Feb 12 / Scientific and local knowledge for rural development
Feb 19 / Property, land tenure and land reform / Paper proposal due
Feb 26 / Enclosures, dispossessions and displacements
Mar 5 / STUDY BREAK! (no class)
Mar 12 / Agrarian transitions and rural resistances
Mar 19 / Gender issues in rural development
Mar 26 / Student presentations. / Last day for critique
Apr 2 / Student presentations.
Apr 9 / Student presentations.
Apr 17 / Term Paper due
January 8: Introduction
January 15: Peasant decision making and rural livelihoods
Ellis, F. (2000). A framework for livelihood analysis. Rural livelihoods in developing countries. New York, Oxford University Press: 3-51. (Coursepack)
Popkin, S. L. (1979). The rational peasant: the political economy of rural society in Vietnam. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, University of California Press. Pages1-31.
Scott, J. C. (1976). The moral economy of the peasant: subsistence and rebellion in Southeast Asia. New Haven, Yale University Press. Introduction, pp 1-12; chapters 1 and 2.
Other readings of interest on this topic (optional):
Scoones, I. (2009). "Livelihoods perspectives and rural development." The Journal of Peasant Studies36(1): 171-196. (webCT)
Bebbington , A. (1999). "Capitals and capabilities: a framework for analysing peasant viability, rural livelihoods and poverty." World Development27(12): 2012-44.
Scoones, I. (1998). "Sustainable rural livelihoods: a framework for analysis." IDS Working paper72.
Leach, M., R. Mearns, et al. (1999). "Environmental Entitlements: Dynamics and Institutions in Community-Based Natural Resource Management." World Development27(2): 225-247. (WebCT)
Ellis, F. (1993). Peasant economics: farm households and agrarian development. Cambridge University Press, New York. Chapter 1: pp 3-16, Chapter 3, pp 45-60
Scott, J. C. (1976). The moral economy of the peasant: subsistence and rebellion in Southeast Asia. New Haven, Yale University Press. Chapt er 6. 157-192
January 22:Food security, poverty and famines
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. New York, Anchor Press. Chapter 7. Famines and other crisis. Pp. 160-188 (coursepack)
Stock, R. (2004). Africa south of the Sahara: a geographical interpretation. Chapter 15. Food Security. New York, The Guildford Press. Pp. 224-238. (coursepack)
de Waal, A. (1991). "A Re-assessment of Entitlement Theory in the Light of Recent Famines in Africa." Development and Change 21(3): 469–90.
Devereux, S. (2009). "Why does famine persist in Africa." Food security 1(25-35).
Optional:
Devereux, S. (2000). "Famine in the 20th Century." IDS Working paper107: 1-40.
University Press. (web CT)
Sen, A. (1981). Poverty and famines: an essay on entitlement and deprivation. Oxford, Oxford (Classic reading on famines)
Buchanan-Smith, M., S. Davies, et al. (1994). "Food security: let them eat information." IDS Bulletin25(2): 1-16. (On early warning systems)
Swift, J. (1993). "Understanding and preventing famine and famine mortality." IDS Bulletin24(4)
January 29: Contested knowledge: Environmental narratives and rural development projects
Forsyth, T. and A. Walker (2008). Forest guardians, forest destroyers: the politics of environmental knowledge in northern Thailand. Seattle, University of Washington Press. Chapter 1. Environmental crisis and the crisis of knowledge. Pp. 3-26; Chapter 4. Forests and water. P 87-116; Chapter 9. pp. Rethinking environmental knowledge. Pp. 226-246.
Leach, M.; Mearns, R. (1996) The lie of the land: challenging received wisdom on the African environment. M. Leach and R. Mearns. Oxford, James Currey. Chapter 1.
Swift, J. (1996). Desertification: narratives, winners, losers. The lie of the land: challenging received wisdom on the African environment. M. Leach and R. Mearns. Oxford, James Currey: 79-90.
Optional:
Goldman, M. (2001). "Constructing an environmental state: eco-governmentality and other trans-national practices of a 'green' World Bank." Social Problems 48(4): 499-523.
February 5: Participatory rural development: The Integrated Upland Agriculture Research Project (IUARP)
Selection of original documents and reports from the Integrated Upland Agricultural Research Project (IUARP), a development project that involved ethnic minorities in upland Laos. IUARP will be used to provide an example of how similar projects are designed and implemented, and analysed and critiqued according to what has been learned in earlier course materials. These will be available on webCT.
Mosse, D. (2001). People's knowledge', participation and patronage: operations and representations in rural development. Participation: the new tyranny? B. Cooke and U. Kothari. Zed Books: 16-35. (Coursepack)
Goebel, A. (1998). "Process, perception and power: notes from 'participatory' research in a Zimbabwean resettlement area." Development and Change29(2): 277-305. (webCT)
Optional:
Chambers, R. (1994). "The origins and practice of participatory rural appraisal." World Development22(7): 953-969. (WebCT)
Cornwall, A. (2002). "Making spaces, changing places: situating participation in development." IDS Working paper170
Cornwall, A. (2003). "Whose Voices? Whose Choices? Reflections on Gender and Participatory Development." World Development31(8): 1325-1342.
February 12: Scientific and local knowledge
Agrawal, A. (1995). "Dismantling the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge." Development and Change26(3): 413-439. (webCT)
Thrupp, L. A. (2000). "Linking Agricultural Biodiversity and Food Security: The Valuable Role of Sustainable Agriculture." International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-) 76(2): 265-281. (webCT)
Parayil, G. (2003). "Mapping technological trajectories of the green revolution and the gene revolution from modernization to globalization." Research Policy 32: 971-990.
Optional:
Altieri, M. A. (2002). "Agroecology: the science of natural resource management for poor farmers in marginal environments." Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 93: 1-24.
Ashby, J. A. and L. Sperling (1995). "Institutionalizing Participatory, Client-Driven Research and Technology Development in Agriculture." Development and Change26: 753-770.
Bebbington , A. (1993). "Modernization from below: an alternative indigenous development?" Economic Geography69(3): 274-292.
Sillitoe, P. (1998). "What know the natives? Local knowledge in development." Social Anthropology 2: 203-220.
February 19: Property rights, land tenure and land reform.
Scott, J. C. (1998). Seeing like a state: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. New Haven, Yale University Press. Introduction. Pp. 1-8 (available as eBook on webCT)
Bruce, J. (1993). Do indigenous tenure systems constrain agricultural development? Land in African agrarian systems. T. J. Bassett and D. E. Crummey. Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Press: 25-56. (Coursepack)
Maxwell, D. and K. D. Wiebe (1999). "Land tenure and food security: exploring dynamic linkages." Development and Change30: 825-849. (webCT)
Hall, D., P. Hirsch, et al. (2011). Powers of exclusion: land dilemmas in Southeast Asia. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press. Chapter 2. Licensed exclusions: land titling, reform and allocation. (Textbook)
Optional:
Vandergeest, P. (2003). "Land to some tillers: development-induced displacement in Laos." UNESCO2003: 47-56. (webCT)
Lestrelin, G. and M. Giordano (2007). "Upland development policy, livelihood change and land degradation: interactions from a Laotian village." Land degradation and development18: 55-76.
February 26: Enclosures, displacements and trans-national land grabbing:
Hall, D., P. Hirsch, et al. (2011). Powers of exclusion: land dilemmas in Southeast Asia. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press. Chapter 1,3, 4 and 6. (Textbook)
Journal article on land-grabs (TBA)
Optional:
Barney, K. (2008). China and the production of forestlands in Lao PDR: a political ecology of trans-national enclosure. Taking Southeast Asia to market: commodities, nature, and people in the neo-liberal age. J. Nevins and N. L. Peluso. Ithaca, Cornell University Press: 91-107. (In course pack)
March 12: Agrarian transformations and rural resistance
Scott, J. C. (1986). Everyday forms of peasant resistance. Everyday forms of peasant resistance in South-east Asia. J. C. Scott and B. J. T. Kerkvliet. London and New York, Routledge: 5-35. (Coursepack)
Polanyi, K. (1962 [1944]). The great transformation: the political and economic origins of our time. Boston, Beacon Press. Pp. 68-76 (Coursepack)
Hall, D., P. Hirsch, et al. (2011). Powers of exclusion: land dilemmas in Southeast Asia. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press. Chapter 7 (Textbook)
Desmarais, A. A. (2008). "The power of peasants: reflections on the meanings of La Via Campesina." Journal of rural studies 24. (webCT)
Optional:
Li, T. M. (2000). "Articulating indigenous identity in Indonesia: resource politics and the tribal slot." Comparative studies in society and history42: 149-97. (webCT)
March 19: Gender issues in rural development
Rocheleau, D. and D. Edmunds (1997). "Women, men and trees: Gender, power and property in forest and agrarian landscapes." World Development 25(8): 1351-1371. (webCT)
(Other readings TBA)
March 26: Student mini-conference
April 2: Student mini-conference
April 9: Student mini-conference