RDS-30806 Governance, Livelihoods and Resources

Vak

Studiepunten 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

RDS-50303

Expected knowledge on:

BSc Rural (Development) Sociology or equivalent, participation MAK, Introduction to rural development (Arce) and Sociological theories of rural transformation (Visser)

Continuation courses:

MID

Contents:

This course sets out to discuss different approaches to issues of governance from an anthropological perspective, with special reference to the work of Michel Foucault on governmentality. Foucault defined governmentality (a neologism) as the ongoing efforts of authorities to develop appropriate ways of governing families, children, livelihoods, and populations, while avoiding the direct exercise of power on the lives of individuals.
Governmentality thus aims to promote the health, capacities and happiness of individuals who are assumed to be free to organize their own lives within the confines of liberal principles of law and society. Of course, the assumptions underlying (neo)-liberal ideas of governance are biased towards western notions of freedom, individualism, citizenship, etc. These are not only highly ethnocentric - as they don't take account of a wealth of differing cultural definitions of what it is to be a person, a citizen, a man, a woman, etc. - but also tend to serve the dominant interests of western or westernized elites.
The course deals with the question what happens when such programs and techniques of governmentality encounter livelihoods, authority structures and modes of resource use that do not accord with the underlying notions of (neo)-liberal governance. Thus, how are rationales, programs and techniques of governmentality in the 'developing' world accommodated to practical purposes and cultural meanings that differ widely from the 'letter and spirit' of the original plans?

Aims:

This course aims:to 1 Develop insight into, and a critical perspective on programs and techniques of governmentality in a variety of fields of intervention such as 'development', 'the economy', 'morality'; and
2. Show how these notions and techniques are subverted, appropriated and re-signified by local populations, and subsequently incorporated within their livelihoods and modes of resource use in an often unexpected way.

Activities:

There are weekly sessions of 2 course hours followed by 4 course - and discussion hours. Per week a particular topic is dealth with. As this course is prepared at MSc level, active participation of the student is expected. Students are requested to read the lecture material in advance.

Examination:

Written examination and a presentation in class.

Literature:

A syllabus will be available before the start of the course, at the secretariat of Rural Development Sociology, The Leeuwenborch, 3rd floor.