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2015/2016  KAN-CCBDO1004U  Governance and Development

English Title
Governance and Development

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Quarter
Start time of the course Autumn, First Quarter
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for BSc og MSc in Business, Language and Culture, MSc
Course coordinator
  • Peter Wad - Department of Intercultural Communication and Management (ICM)
Main academic disciplines
  • International political economy
  • Methodology and philosophy of science
  • Sociology
Last updated on 11-08-2015
Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors: Having completed the course the students should be able to address and answer research questions within the field of governance and development by way of:
  • critically define and discuss the appropriateness of concepts, theories and discourses of societal governance and development with a view to industrialization, poverty reduction, income inequality and overall sustainable development.
  • critically define and discuss the coherence or contradictions between theories and approaches that address the problem areas of governance and development of countries in the Global South taking the particular governance of a country to be basically a political process of institutional change within a global political economy of instability and transformation.
  • critically assess and validate the methodological foundation of academic and practically-oriented knowledge about societal governance and development with particular focus on research philosophies of development, macro-social comparisons and analytical tools for issues pertaining to the field of governance and development.
Course prerequisites
Bachelor degree – Knowledge of the political economy of
globalisation and development is an advantage, but not a pre-condition.
Examination
Governance and Development:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Written sit-in exam
Individual or group exam Individual
Assignment type Written assignment
Duration 4 hours
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Autumn and Autumn
Aids allowed to bring to the exam Limited aids, see the list below:
  • Written sit-in-exam on CBS' computers
  • Books and compendia brought by the examinee
  • Allowed dictionaries
  • Allowed calculators
  • Notes in paper format brought by the examinee
  • Access to personal drive (S-drive) on CBS' network
  • Access to all information on CBSLearn
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
If the number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination warrants that it may most appropriately be held as an oral examination, the programme office will inform the students that the make-up examination/re-take examination will be held as an oral examination instead.
Course content and structure

The aim of the course is to enhance the student’s knowledge about governance of development processes and outcomes in countries and regions of the Global South. This includes conceptual and theoretical insight about the structures, institutions, policies and practices that frame or articulate governance of the economy and wider society by powerful organisations and groups, in particular the government and state agencies vis-a-vis domestic and foreign business groups, labour unions, ethnic and civil society networks and movements. Societal governance is basically understood as a political process that shapes social institutions and business regulatisons,and the outcome is related to the conceptualisation and achievements of national development - income growth, reduction of inequality, human capabilities or sustainability - depending on the prevailing development discourse and alternatives. Key questions concern why some developing countries succeed in meeting the chosen objectives, while others seemingly fail. The focus is on the interplay between  developing country governments, state administration, business and civic actors at multiple levels of governance, locally, nationally and internationally. The course takes societal politics, governance and policies as the core dimensions for the inquiry into and understanding of the problems and solutions of economic, social and sustainable development in the Global South.The course is divided into four modules:

The first module provides an introduction to development thinking in the field of cross-disciplinary development studies and the evolution of development concepts and discourses. It focuses on the concept and processes of governance of the economy and society at multiple levels of state power framed by the global political economy. Methodologically the module examines the discourses of modernization and postmodernity in the perspective of reseach philosofies of development studies. 

The second module focuses on the challenges of economic development across industries and sectors and the strategies, policies and practices that have been formulated and applied to define and deals with these problems across space and time in the Global South. Based on empirical evidence the effects and impacts of various forms of industrial policies and state capacities are critically examined and related to concepts and theories that have underpinned the various approaches, e.g. embedded autonomy. Methodologically, the module presents and applies comparative methods for macro-political analysis.

The third module deals with the variety and dynamics of multi-level governance in the Global South. It concentrates on changing forms of governance institutions that emerge with the retreat, fragility, failure or transformation of state agencies impacted by globalisation and new constellations of political forces and alliances.This includes changes in internationalisation and decentralisation of state sovereignty, public sector reforms, public-private cooperation, multistakeholder alliances and privatisation of state authority. The module will focus methodologically on practical analytical tools for assessing the quality of governance and institutional capacity and opportunities and risks for 'good', 'bad' or 'developmental' governance'.

The fourth and final module investigates the interplay between the global political economy and developing country governments' political space for economic, social and sustainable development. This field has been transformed with the rise of e.g. the Asian giants of China and India and emergence of competitive authoritarian capitalisms in the Global South. The changing positions of specific nations or coalitions of developing countries challenge the crisis-ridden hegemony of (post)neo-liberallsm and Northern domination of international financial institutions and raise the question whether a new international political-economic order is in the making. 

Teaching methods
The course is designed to present and discuss theoretical and philosophical
perspectives on governance and development together with analytical and empirical methodologies for assessing and validating these understandings and explanations. The course is conducted by CBS faculty and external lecturers and requires the reading of around 60 pages per lecture. The teaching includes active participation of students through student’s presentations, group discussions and plenum debates, and methodological exercises. Student presenters must coordinate their input with the teachers in charge of the session. The syllabus will comprise theoretical and empirical material, in which the obligatory literature will amount to approx. 800-900 pages. All obligatory articles will be available in print (compendium) or electronically on LEARN while optional literature might be acquired through the internet or otherwise made available.
Last updated on 11-08-2015