GI420 Half Unit
Feminist Perspectives on Transnational Development
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Asiya Islam
Availability
This course is compulsory on the MSc in Gender, Development and Globalisation. This course is available on the Global MSc in Management, Global MSc in Management (CEMS MIM), Global MSc in Management (MBA Exchange), MSc in Development Management (Political Economy), MSc in Development Management (Political Economy) (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Gender, MSc in Gender (Research), MSc in Gender (Rights and Human Rights), MSc in Gender (Sexuality), MSc in Gender, Media and Culture, MSc in Gender, Peace and Security, MSc in Gender, Policy and Inequalities, MSc in Human Geography and Urban Studies (Research), MSc in Human Rights, MSc in Human Rights and Politics, MSc in Political Science (Global Politics), MSc in Regional And Urban Planning Studies and MSc in Urban Policy (LSE and Sciences Po). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
Students should apply by 10am UK time on Friday 26 September 2025. Offers will be made after 10am on this date and will continue until all places are filled.
All students on the MSc Gender, Development and Globalisation (for whom the course is compulsory) will be given a place. Priority is then given to home department students and then to those who have the course listed in their programme regulations who apply in the first 24-hours (by 10:00am, Friday 26 September 2025), space permitting. Please note the timing of your request within the first 24-hours will not impact chances of being accepted onto the course. Requests received after this timeframe, or outside option requests, will be allocated randomly if space remains.
Please do not email the Course Convenor with personal expressions of interest as these are not required and do not influence who is offered a place. Contact gender@lse.ac.uk with any queries.
Requisites
Mutually exclusive courses:
This course cannot be taken with GI407 or GI409 at any time on the same degree programme.
Course content
The course engages with feminist perspectives on transnational development agendas. It begins by exploring the relationship between gender, development, and globalisation, and introducing decolonial feminist approaches to understanding this relationship. The course then delves into specific development arenas such as reproductive and sexual rights, anti-trafficking and sex work, environmental disasters, land rights and food justice, and urban and technological transformations. Throughout, the course critically reflects, using decolonial feminist approaches, on the underlying logics and genealogies, institutional structures, and governance mechanisms involved in transnational development agendas. In paying attention to how feminist scholars and activists envision social change, the course also explores counter-hegemonic movements and feminist struggles over recognition, redistribution and representation.
Teaching
15 hours of seminars and 15 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
One essay of 1500 words to be handed in midway through the WT.
Indicative reading
Basu, A. 2010. Women's Movements in the Global Era: The Power of Local Feminisms. Westfield Press.
Bhattacharyya, G., 2018. Rethinking racial capitalism: Questions of reproduction and survival. Rowman & Littlefield.
Browne, J., Cave, S., Drage, E. and McInerney, K. eds., 2023. Feminist AI: Critical Perspectives on Algorithms, Data, and Intelligent Machines. Oxford University Press.
Fletcher, A.J. and Kubik, W., 2017. Women in Agriculture Worldwide. Routledge.
Hoang, K. K. 2022. Spiderweb capitalism: how global elites exploit frontier markets. Princeton University Press.
Hoang, L. and Yeoh, B. eds., 2015. Transnational labour migration, remittances and the changing family in Asia. Springer.
Kocabıçak, E., 2022. The political economy of patriarchy in the global South. Routledge.
Marchand, M.H. and Runyan, A.S. eds., 2010. Gender and global restructuring: Sightings, sites and resistances. Routledge.
Merry, S. E. 2014. The Seductions of Quantification: Measuring Human Rights, Gender Violence, and Sex Trafficking. University of Chicago Press.
Rai, S.M. and Waylen, G. eds., 2014. New frontiers in feminist political economy. London: Routledge.
Tripp, A.M, Casimiro, I., Kwesiga, J. and Mungwa A. (eds.) 2009. African Women's Movements: Transforming Political Landscapes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Assessment
Essay (100%, 3000 words)
Key facts
Department: Gender Studies
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 54
Average class size 2024/25: 18
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication