Development Studies: Socio-economic Development from an Interdisciplinary Perspective
Saleha Erdmann
The fields of sociology and anthropology often take on the contemporary debate over culture and development...
What kinds of development work and in which cultures? What kind of culture has shaped traditional conceptions of development? (Here's a hint: starts within the West.) How has Westernization and colonialism changed Third World cultures? Is that bad or good? Or both? Is the West culturally underdeveloped? How do we conceive of culture and on how many levels (national, local, regional)? Is indigenous culture a better source of development? What are appropriate relationships between people of different cultures within development projects ?
For further reading on culture and development I recommend Jan Nederveen Pieterse's Development Theory: Deconstructions/Reconstructions (2001), Arturo Escobar's Encountering Development: The Making and the Unmaking of the Third World (1995), Stephen McMichael's Development and Social Change (2000), and Susanne Schech and Jane Haggis' Culture and Development: A Critical Introduction (2000).
My Papers:
Hiding Behind the “Other”: construction of white invisibility through contrast (Soc/An 244, Spring 2005)
Black Female Leadership in the Civil Rights Movement (Soc/An 244, Spring 2005)
Senior Project (English): The Effects of Classical Music on Urubichá (SIT Bolivia, December, 2005)
Senior Project (Spanish): Los Efectos de la Música Clásica en Urubichá (SIT Bolivia, diciembre 2005)
Courses:
ANTH 104 Introduction to Cultural/Social Anthropology (Wellesley)—fist year
SO/AN 298 IS/Culture-Economics—junior
LACB 3000 Culture & Development Seminar (SIT Bolivia)—senior
SO/AN 373 Ethnographic Research Methods—junior
SOC 211 Society & Culture in Latin America—first year
SPAN 254 Culture & Civilization of Latin America—sophomore
P SCI 398 IR/Ecofeminism—senior
SO/AN 244 Race and Class in American Culture—junior