SP412      Half Unit
Non-Governmental Organisations, Social Policy and Development

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

Students will benefit from having some experience of work within NGOs and/or relevant government departments or donor agencies working with NGOs.

The course focuses on the specialised field of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) within the field of social policy and development, and considers theoretical and policy issues.

Main topics include the history and theory of NGOs; the changing policy contexts in which NGOs operate; NGO service delivery and advocacy roles in policy; NGO relationships with other institutional actors including government, donors and private sector; challenges of NGO effectiveness and accountability; NGO organisational growth and change; and conceptual debates around civil society, social capital, social movements and globalisation.

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 teaching will be in accordance with the LSE Academic Code which specifies a minimum of two hours taught contact time per week when the course is running in the Autumn Term (AT) and/or Winter Term (WT). Social Policy courses are predominantly taught through a combination of in-person lectures and In person classes/seminars. Further information will be provided by the Course Convenor in the first lecture of the course.

Mock exam

• Bebbington, A., Hickey, S. and Mitlin, D. (2008) Can NGOs Make a Difference? London: Zed Books; 
• Beck, E. (2017) How Development Projects Persist: Everyday Negotiations With Guatemalan NGOs. London: Duke.
• Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. (1996) NGOs, Performance and Accountability: Beyond the Magic Bullet. London: Earthscan;
• Glasius, M, Lewis, D. and Seckinelgin, H. (2004) eds. Exploring Civil Society: Political and Cultural Contexts, London: Routledge;
• Holmen, H. (2010) Snakes in Paradise: NGOs and the Aid Industry in Africa. Sterling VA: Kumarian;
• Howell, J. and J. Pearce (2001) Civil Society and Development: A Critical Exploration. London: Lynne Rienner;
• Lashaw, A., Vannier, C. and Sampson, S. (2017) eds. Cultures of Doing Good: Anthropologists and NGOs. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press;
• Lewis, D. and Kanji, N. (2009) Non-Governmental Organisations and Development. London: Routledge;
• Lewis, D. (2014) NGOs, Management and Development. London: Routledge.

Exam (65%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period

Course participation (10%)

Essay (25%) in Spring Term Week 2

Students will have a midterm assessment in WT worth 25% of the mark involving a 2000 word essay in response to a choice of questions; for 65% of their mark students will sit an in-person exam of 2 hours in ST wherein they choose to answer 2 questions from a selection of 8-10. Class participation makes up the remaining 10% of the overall course mark.