INTL 445/545 SYLLABUS Social Change and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa Fall 2012 Tuesdays 4:00-7:50 p.m. 240C McKenzie Hall Instructor: Ana E. Schaller de la Cova Email: aschall@uoregon.edu Office: 304 PLC Hall Office Hours: Tuesdays 2:30-3:30 + by appt. COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course examines development and social change in Africa from the late colonial period to the present. As we explore ideas and policy surrounding development, modernization, and progress on the continent, we will engage key issues of urbanization, monetarization and subsequent commodification, gender, class, and generational change. This is a reading-intensive course which draws from a range of disciplinary work (anthropology, history, political science, and cultural studies), as well as a diverse selection of feature films. The goal of the course is to expose students to a more complex and critically-informed understanding of the dynamics and challenges of economic and social transformation in Africa. TEXTS: All readings are posted on the course s Blackboard page. Hard copies of most course books and films are also on reserve at the library. Students are encouraged to purchase the book The Anti- Politics Machine, by James Ferguson, as we will be reading it almost in its entirety toward the end of the quarter. COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING: Class participation and attendance represent 20% of students final grade. Attendance will be taken at each class. Students are expected to come to class having carefully read the day s readings and be prepared to discuss them. Students will be asked to provide discussion questions and participate in short group presentations at various times throughout the quarter. Undergraduate students are required to write reviews of 3 of the 4 films screened in class. Reviews are due one week after the film screening (except for the first film) and should be 1 full page, single-spaced. Film reviews constitute 24% of undergraduate students final grade (8% per film). Graduate students are required to write reviews of all 4 films. Their film reviews should also be 1 full page, single-spaced and will count as 24% of their final grade (6% per film). 1
Students are required to write one short paper which constitutes 20% of their final grade. Undergraduate papers should be 5 pages, double-spaced. Graduate papers should be 8 pages. A final research paper will count for 36% of the final grade. Undergraduate papers should be 12 pages, double-spaced. Graduate papers should be 18 pages. Papers are due at the beginning of class in hard copy form. Late papers will be graded down by one letter grade and should be emailed to the instructor, not put in the instructor s box or under her office door. Papers that are more than one day late will not be accepted. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with and abide by University of Oregon standards of academic conduct at all times. The entire text of the Honor Code as it relates to academic conduct can be found online at http://uodos.uoregon.edu/studentconductandcommunitystandards/academicmisconduct/ tabid/248/default.aspx. Plagiarism, as well as giving, seeking, obtaining or using unauthorized assistance and/or information on class assignments and exams constitutes academic misconduct and is unacceptable. Non-academic use of laptops and smartphones in class is not allowed and offenders will be asked to leave the classroom. COURSE SCHEDULE: Week 1: Introduction to Course Tuesday, September 25 Syllabus distributed. Film Touki Bouki, Djibril Diop Mambety (1973; 85 min.) Week 2: From Colonialism to Development Tuesday, October 2 Cooper, Frederick. 2002. Africa since 1940: The Past of the Present; pgs. 11-26, 30-44, 62-65, 85-132. Cooper, Frederick. 1997. Modernizing Bureaucrats, Backward Africans, and the Development Concept In Cooper, Frederick and Randall Packard, eds. International Development and the Social Sciences: Essays on the History and Politics of Knowledge. Berkeley: U of California Press; pgs. 64-92. 2
Week 3: Development Policy and Ideas Touki Bouki review due. Tuesday, October 9 Escobar, Arturo. 1995. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton: Princeton U Press; pgs. 3-54 and 212-226. Finnemore, Martha. 1997. Redefining Development at the World Bank In Cooper, Frederick and Randall Packard, eds. International Development and the Social Sciences: Essays on the History and Politics of Knowledge. Berkeley: U of California Press; pgs. 203-227. Karp, Ivan. 2002. Development and Personhood: Tracing the Contours of a Moral Discourse In Knauft, Bruce, ed. Critically Modern: Alternatives, Alterities, Anthropologies. Bloomington: Indiana U Press; pgs. 82-104. Week 4: Urbanization Tuesday, October 16 Epstein, A.L. 1967. Urbanization and Social Change in Africa. Current Anthropology. 8(4): 275-295. Berry, Sara A. 1983 Work, Migration and Class in Western Nigeria: A Reinterpretation in Cooper, Frederick ed. Struggle for the City: From Peasant to Worker in Africa. Beverly Hills: Sage. Excerpts from Lambert, Michael C. 2002. Longing for Exile: Migration and the Making of a Translocal Community in Senegal, West Africa. Portsmouth: Heinemann Press. Film Jaguar, Jean Rouch (1967; 110 min.) Week 5: Monetarization Jaguar review due. Final paper assignment distributed. Tuesday, October 23 Bohannon, Paul. 1959. The Impact of Money on an African Subsistence Economy. The Journal of Economic History. 19(4): 491-504. Excerpts from Guyer, Jane. 1994. Money Matters: Instability, Values, and Social Payments in the Modern History of West African Communities. Portsmouth: Heinemann Press. Shipton, Parker. 1997. Bitter Money: Forbidden Exchange in East Africa In Grinker, Roy R. and Christopher B. Steiner, eds. Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Blackwell; pgs. 163-189. Film Mandabi, Ousmane Sembene (1968; 90 min.) 3
Week 6: Gender and Social Change Mandabi review due. Tuesday, October 30 Carney, Judith A. 1996. Converting the Wetlands, Engendering the Environment: The Intersection of Gender with Agrarian Change in Gambia In Peet, Richard and Michael Watts, eds. Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements. London: Routledge; pgs. 165-187. Grosz Ngate, Maria. 1997. Introduction In Grosz Ngate, Maria and Omari H. Kohole, eds. Gendered Encounters: Challenging Gendered Hierarchies and Social Boundaries in Africa. London: Routledge; pgs. 1-22. Moss, Barbara A. 1997. To Determine the Scale of Wants of the Community: Gender and African Consumption In Grosz Ngate, Maria and Omari H. Kohole, eds. Gendered Encounters: Challenging Gendered Hierarchies and Social Boundaries in Africa. London: Routledge; pgs. 85-110. Buggenhagen, Beth Anne. 2001. Gendered and Generational Visions of Wealth and Value in Senegalese Murid Households. Journal of Religion in Africa 31(4): 373-401. Film Xala, Ousmane Sembene (1975; 123 min.) Week 7: The Informal Sector Xala review due. Short paper assignment distributed. Tuesday, November 6 MacGaffey, Janet. 1991. The Real Economy of Zaire: The Contribution of Smuggling and Other Unofficial Activities to National Wealth. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania Press; pgs. 7-40. Excerpts from Hansen, Karen T. 2000. Salaula: The World of Secondhand Clothing and Zambia. Chicago: U of Chicago Press. Week 8: Education and Youth Tuesday, November 13 Excerpts from Brenner, Louis. 2001. Controlling Knowledge: Religion, Power, and Schooling in a West African Muslim Society. Bloomington: Indiana U Press. Excerpts from Coe, Catie. 2005. Dilemmas of Culture in African Schools: Youth, Nationalism, and the Transformation of Knowledge. Chicago: U of Chicago Press. 4
Excerpts from Stambach, Amy. 2000. Lessons from Mount Kilimanjaro: Schooling, Community, and Gender in East Africa. New York: Routledge. Week 9: Case Study Development in Lesotho Short paper due. Tuesday, November 20 Ferguson, James. 1994. The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press; pgs. xiii-9, 23-134. Week 10: Case Study Development in Lesotho cont. Tuesday, November 27 Last day of class. Ferguson, James. 1994. The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press; pgs. 135-288. Thursday, Dec 6: Final papers due at 1:00 p.m. via email. 5