GI409      Half Unit
Conceptual Foundations in Gender, Development and Globalization

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

This course precedes the GI 420 course for students on the MSc Gender, Development and Globalisation programme. Therefore, this course should be offered in AT and GI 420 in WT. However, students outside the MSc GDG programme may take either GI 409 (this course) and GI 4120 without taking the other course. 

This course will provide students with a knowledge of two key interconnected and intersecting literatures: gender and development and gender and globalisation.  We begin by defining and theorising gender, development and globalisation and their operation in material spaces, policy and practice.

The course considers gender approaches to development such as Women in Development (WID), Women and Development (WAD), and Gender and Development (GAD).  A particular focus is on how global development is associated with widening social, spatial and gender inequalities, illustrated by case studies of global integration and uneven development.  Specific reference is made to household inequalities, social protection programmes, and microfinance schemes. The final session brings the course to a conclusion by addressing some alternative visions of development and social change in the context of a globalised world.

15 hours of seminars and 15 hours of lectures in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

All weekly lectures will be delivered in person and will cover roughly one hour, to be followed by Q&A (capped at thirty minutes). Weekly seminars run for 1.5 hours and will be facilitated in person. You will be asked to engage actively in seminars, often working with other students. It is expected that you come to the seminar prepared to discuss the assigned essential texts for each week and your reflections on them. Recommended and further readings provide a wider sense of the field and help start your own research and essay preparation. Please note that these reading lists are not exhaustive. and you will find many other relevant titles in the library, as well as in academic journals. You can build on the reading lists provided here by searching through the content of more recent editions of recommended journals or find articles by specific authors referred to on these lists. For essays, you are expected to draw on recommended and further readings in addition to the essential ones. Many of the readings for the course are interconnected and useful beyond the week they are listed for.

You will receive feedback on formative work within two weeks of submission and are encouraged to make an office hour appointment to discuss this. You are also encouraged to use office hours to discuss your summative assessments. The course is Moodle supported, which means that the syllabus, reading lists, and some additional resources are online. Students are expected to check Moodle and their LSE emails regularly to ensure they are up to date with any course changes.

Essay (1500 words)

• Albertyn, C., García, H.A., Campbell, M., Freeman, S. and de Assis Machado, M.R., eds. (2023). Feminist Frontiers in Climate Justice: Gender Equality, Climate Change and Rights. Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Agarwal, B. (2016) Gender Challenges (Vol 1, 2 and 3). India: Oxford University Press.
• Benería, L. Berik, G and Floro, M.  (2015) Gender, Development and Globalization: Economics as if All people Mattered, London: Routledge. (2nd Edition).
• Brassett, J., Elias, J., Rethel, L. and Richardson, B. (2023). The international political economy of everyday life. Oxford University Press.
• Chant, S.H. ed., (2011). The International Handbook of Gender and Poverty: Concepts, Research, Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Devaki, J and Elson, D (2011) Harvesting Feminist Knowledge for Public Policy, IDRC, London: Sage
• Escobar, A. (2011) Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, Princeton Princeton University Press
• Li, T.M. (2007). The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics. Duke University Press.
• Fraser, N., Arruzza, C. and Bhattacharya, T., (2019). Feminism for the 99%. Verso.
• Marchand, M. and Runyan, A. (2011) Gender and Global Restructuring, second edition London: Routledge.
• Visvanathan, N. et.al. (2012) The Women, Gender and Development Reader, London: Zed Books.
• Walby, S. (2011) The future of feminism. Cambridge: Polity Press.

In addition, a range of institutional reports will discussed in the course, including:

• ILO (2024) World Employment and Social Outlook. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/publications/flagship-reports/world-employment-and-social-outlook-trends-2024
• UNDP (2022) Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025. Available at: https://genderequalitystrategy.undp.org/
• UN Women (2019) Progress of the World’s Women: Families in a changing world. https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2019/06/progress-of-the-worlds-women-2019-2020
• UN. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda

Essay (100%, 3000 words)