• 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.

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.