SP50326: Conflict, development and peacebuilding
[Page last updated: 01 August 2022]
| Academic Year: | 2022/23 |
| Owning Department/School: | Department of Social & Policy Sciences |
| Credits: | 12 [equivalent to 24 CATS credits] |
| Notional Study Hours: | 240 |
| Level: | Masters UG & PG (FHEQ level 7) |
| Period: |
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| Assessment Summary: | CW 100% |
| Assessment Detail: |
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| Supplementary Assessment: |
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| Requisites: | |
| Learning Outcomes: | By the end of this unit students will be able to:
* critically understand the concepts of conflict, peace, and security; * critically evaluate contrasting theories on the relationship between conflict and development; * critically understand how development and humanitarian responses to conflict have changed over time; * critically assess contemporary humanitarian and peacebuilding responses to conflict. |
| Aims: | * To introduce students to the main theoretical approaches to the study of conflict and development. * To introduce students to debates surrounding contemporary conflict and the changing character of war. * To introduce students to academic and policy debates surrounding contemporary and historical development and peacebuilding interventions in conflict settings. |
| Skills: | * Ability to understand and analyse critically a range of issues relating to conflict, development and peacebuilding. * Ability to write articulately, concisely and persuasively about issues relating to conflict, development and peacebuilding. * Ability to research independently issues related to conflict, development and peacebuilding. |
| Content: | The course will introduce students to the main conceptual debates surrounding the field of conflict and development. It will provide some historical perspective to the analysis of contemporary conflict and introduce students to key academic debates concerning the relationship between development and conflict. Students will explore a range of theoretical perspectives on the causes of violent conflict. In doing so, they will be exposed to a range of disciplinary perspectives and approaches from politics, sociology, international relations, and economics. Finally, students will be introduced to the major theoretical approaches to peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction - engaging with debates around how the transition to peace is affected by processes of democratisation and economic liberalisation.
Provisional list of topics that will be covered: 1. Key concepts: conflict, peace and development, 2. War and historical change, 3. Development theory and conflict, 4. Economic dimensions of conflict, 5. The role of ethnicity and religion, 6. Environmental factors and climate change, 7. Regional dimensions and the geography of conflict, 8. Liberal and illiberal peacebuilding, human security, and beyond, 9. Political transitions to peace, 10. Economic transitions to peace, 11. Conflict response in practice: humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding approaches. |
| Programme availability: |
SP50326 is a Designated Essential Unit on the following programmes:Department of Social & Policy Sciences
SP50326 is Optional on the following programmes:Department of Social & Policy Sciences
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Notes:
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