Anthropology of Development

This seminar provides a critical exploration of development through anthropological perspectives, interrogating it as a historical project, an ideology, and a set of contested material practices. The course investigates how development paradigms emerge, circulate, and are transformed across different contexts, analyzing both institutional structures and everyday experiences. Through an interdisciplinary approach, we will consider how development intersects with broader social, political, economic and historical processes. As a reading seminar, this course requires attendance, preparation of texts before each session, and active participation in collective discussion.

The seminar prepares students to engage thoughtfully with key debates in development theory and practice while cultivating advanced skills in critical reading, analytical discussion, and interdisciplinary research.

This course is conducted as a participatory seminar centered on close reading and critical discussion. We will collaboratively analyze theoretical texts and ethnographic materials through guided discussion. Learning activities emphasize comparative analysis of development paradigms across different contexts, with students developing skills in textual interpretation, conceptual framing, and critical debate through active engagement with course materials and peers. The seminar engages a diverse range of materials including ethnographic accounts, theoretical texts, primary documents, and audiovisual material.

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

Cf. Virtual University

Course notes

• Université virtuelle

Contacts

omar.suliman.jabary@ulb.be

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• Oral presentation
• Group work
• Other
• Written report

Oral presentation

Group work

Other

Written report

Language(s) of evaluation

• english