PSCI 4500 Poverty Seminar
Schedule of Classes and Assignments

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Summary chart of key dates.
I.
September 13:
  Poverty: Natural or Eradicable?
Narration:
   Phumla Lolwana
II.
September 20:
  Gradations of Poverty. Defining and Measuring Poverty. Data and Information Sources.
Narration:
  Life on the Scrap Heap. (3 narrators)
Readings:
  Go the the UN's page for the OHRLLS (you'll see what it stands for when you get there). Click on links at the top for "Least Developed Countries", "Landlocked Developing Countries" and "Small Island Developing States". Choose the "about" link, then click on the country profiles on the left to see the list of countries. Why are the categories of LDCs, LLDCs and SIDs useful? Where are they globally? (Hint: have a map at hand.)
  Go to the site of the Center for World Indigenous Studies. Look around the site enough to get a sense of who they are, what they do, and why they do it. What is the utility of talking about a "fourth" world?
      David Hulme and Andrew Shepherd, "Conceptualizing chronic poverty," World Development 31:3 (403-423). Course reserves. Authored by researchers from the Chronic Poverty Research Centre in the UK.
      Barbara Harriss-White, "Destitution and the poverty of its politics—with special reference to South Asia," World Development 33:6 (881-891). Course reserves.
      Source Reliability
       

"Wikipedia to seek proof of credentials"
        "Wikipedia 'shows CIA page edits'"
        "Students beware" (NBC report)
        "Guide to Evaluating Web Pages."
      Plagiarism
        Plagiarism and Academic Integrity (online tutorial from Rutgers University)
        What is Plagiarism? Read this (from Georgetown University), then pay close attention to the examples -- especially the paraphrase, the "mosaic", and the "apt phrase".
        Class policy on academic integrity.
 
  Poverty guidelines for the US, 2010. (HHS)
    Poverty levels, national and state by state, 2008. (HHS)
    Whose world is lit at night? (NASA)
     
 
      After-Class Note for September 20 Class
 
September 21:
(Tuesday)
  Deadline for sending me an email stating you have read and understood the course syllabus (due by midnight -- 5% course grade penalty for failure to do so).
 
September 25:
(Saturday)
  Mini-Writing Assignment #1 (due by midnight)

 

 

Poverty is not a shame, but the being ashamed of it is.

English proverb.

Indian boy in dry rice paddy.
III.
September 27:
  Assets. Shocks and Vulnerability.
Narration:
  Seeking Out The Poor in Bombay.
Readings:
  World Bank Development Report 2000/01, Chapters 1, "The nature and evolution of poverty," and 2, "Causes of poverty and a framework for action". In these chapters, the Bank lays out its conceptual framework for understanding and analyzing poverty.
  "The Organ Trade," New York Times (May 23, 2004).
 
  2007 World Bank Indicators. The first section contains data on youth education. The second section contains a variety of common indicators regarding development and poverty. The latter are more recent versions of the data found in the back of the 2000/01 report you have.
      Remittances Profile. From the Migration Policy Institute.
 
Feature:
   Photo Journal: Filipino Nanny (BBC News Slideshow). In many countries, welfare depends on remittances - money sent from relatives working abroad. In Tajikistan, remittances are estimated to make up just under half of GDP.
     
 
      After-Class Note for September 27 Class
September 30:
(Thursday)
  Film, Rosetta (Belgium). 6:00, room 3301 FRD.
 
October 2 :
(Saturday)
  Mini-Writing Assignment #2 (due by midnight)
IV.
October 4:
  Housing. Services. Human Development.
 
Narration:
  Grace Gets Sick
 
Readings:
  The Vancouver Declaration On Human Settlements (just the declaration, not the Action Plan).
      "Services can work for poor people but too often they fail," World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for the Poor, Chapter 1. This chapter is from a later version of the World Development Report than the one you were assigned as a text for this course. [This document doesn't always read well in a browser. I recommend downloading by right-clicking and selecting "Save as..." or "Save target as...".] 13pp.
      UNDP Questions about the Human Development Index. The HDI is a commonly used index for measuring both social and economic development.
      "Thinking 'small' and the understanding of poverty: Maymana and Mofizul's story." As you read this, compare insights with those gained from reading this week's narration.
      Urban livelihoods in the slums and Challenges and options for the urban poor. Two 4pp information sheets from the International Food Policy Research Institute.
 
  The Human Development Index. (UN Development Programme)
  Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean 2006. A data map from the Inter-American Development Bank).
    Migration and Remittances Factbook. This "factbook" from the World Bank is loaded with data, but is organized and dispersed into many files.
     
 
      After-Class Note for October 4 Class
October 9:
(Saturday)
  Mini-Writing Assignment #3 (due by midnight)
V.
October 11:
  Gender. Informal Institutions.
 
Narration:
  Breaking Rocks.
 
Readings:
   Maureen Lewis and Marlaine Lockheed, "Overview," in Inexcusable Absence: Why 60 Million Girls Still Aren't In School and What to do About It
    "The Billionaire And The Tire Repairman," Planet Money.
      "Tomatoes, Tradition And The Global Economy," Planet Money.
 
Feature:
   "In Pictures: Women's Lives in Northern Iraq" (BBC News Slideshow). Women usually bear the brunt of the impact of both underdevelopment and social dislocation. This picture story is about women in the Kurdish portion of Iraq - an area plagued by both afflictions.
     
 
      After-Class Note and Discussion for October 11 Class
VI.
October 18:
  Catch-up.
 
Interlude:
  Lament (Pops Mohamed)
    "India's Economy Is Booming, But Not For Everybody," Planet Money.
     
 
      After-Class Note and Discussion for October 18 Class
 
October 19:
(Tuesday)
  Film, Children of Heaven (Iran). 6:30, room 3301 FRD.


What a devil art thou, Poverty! How many desires—how many aspirations after goodness and truth—how many noble thoughts, loving wishes toward our fellows, beautiful imaginings thou hast crushed under thy heel, without remorse or pause!

 

Walt Whitman, 1942.


Girl prostitutes in Angola.
VII.
October 25:
  Hunger and Famine.
 
Interlude:
  Somalia (Phambili)
      "The Hunger Trap," the World Food Programme. Scroll halfway down the page. (10 pp)
      "The ghastly normality of hunger," Sunday Times (August 21, 2005). A newspaper account of the famine in Niger.
    "Enough – Hunger in an Age of Plenty," a book discussion from Development Drums. (You can also download this podcast from the itunes store for free; just search for Development Drums and find this episode). The first fourteen minutes or so is general introduction and banter, and while not useless, can be skipped.
 
Feature:
   In Pictures: Life School (BBC News Slideshow). AIDS orphans in Mozambique.
     
 
      After-Class Note.
VIII.
November 1 :
  Development and Rights.
 
Narration:
  A University Education in Togo.
 
Readings:
   The DFID Key Sheet on Rights-Based Approaches.
      The Right to Development. This document comes from the UN High Commission on Human Rights and explores the link between human rights, development and poverty eradication. 24 pp.
      The Human Right to Food in Guatemala. From FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN), an NGO. Although about Guatemala, pay attention to how FIAN defines food as a human right and to what kind of obstacles that stand in the way of Guatemalans in accessing food. 26pp.
     
 
      After-Class Note and Discussion
 
November 6:
(Saturday)
  Writing Assignment #4 (due at midnight)
IX.
November 8:
  Sustainable Livelihoods.
 
Narration:
   A Loan, a Lamb and a Livelihood in Tunisia.
 
Readings:
  The UK White Paper on International Development - and Beyond. The Department for International Development is the UK's development assistance agency (akin to our own USAID). It has incorporated the sustainable livelihoods approach in its own strategy.
      Sustainable Rural Livelihoods
      "Delhi street kids bank on each other," Christian Science Monitor (December 2, 2002).
      "Bank accounts for Nepal's street kids," BBC News (June 27, 2001).
    Making Ends Meet: Understanding Livelihoods in Remote Communities Around the World. Audio Stories from the Natural Resources Institute. There are four stories, each with a written introduction (click on the title) and a 15-minute audio presentation. Pick ONE, read the intro and listen to the audio file. What are the challenges to successful livelihoods, both external to these communities and within them? Note: I will ask each of you which you listened to, after which we will discuss each in turn.
     
 
      After-Class Note and Discussion
 
November 10:
(Wednesday)
  Film, Salaam Bombay (India). 6:00, room 3301 FRD.
X.
November 15:
   The Role of the State and International Organizations.
 
Narration:
  Castle of My Skin
 
Readings:
   World Bank Development Report 2000/01, Chapters 3, "Growth, inequality and poverty"; 4, "Making markets work better for poor people"; 5, "Expanding poor people's assets and tackling inequalities."
     

Andrew Rogerson, The International Aid System 2005-2010: Forces For and Against Change. ODI, January 2004. pp 10-24.
      Millennium Development Goals: A Compact Among Nations to End Human Poverty. pp 15-25. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN's development arm.
 
  The Failed State Index 2010 (Fund for Peace)
  The Corruption Perceptions Index (Transparency International)
      Online Atlas of the Millenium Development Goals (World Bank)
      MDG Data (World Bank)
     
 
      After-Class Note and Discussion
The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied ... but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing.

John Berger, 1990.

 

Slums in Chitral, Pakistan.
XI.
November 22:
  NGO Interventions.
 
Narration:
  Poverty, Moral Idealism and Terrorism
 
Readings:
  

David Brown and David Korten, Understanding Voluntary Organizations, 2-17. Course reserves.
    "Island Time: 10,000 Brainiacs," This American Life. Listen to the introduction and the first story.
      "Small Business, Big Debts," Planet Money.
      "Good News From Haiti," Planet Money.
     
 
      After-Class Note and Discussion


Such poverty as we have today in all our great cities degrades the poor, and infects with its degradation the whole neighborhood in which they live. And whatever can degrade a neighborhood can degrade a country and a continent and finally the whole civilized world, which is only a large neighborhood.

George Bernard Shaw, 1928.


Anti-World Bank/IMF Protestor, Prague 2000
 
November 27:
  Writing Assignment #5 (due at midnight)
XII.
November 29:
  Globalization and Poverty I.
 
Narration:
   Thulisile's Water
 
Readings:
   "Overview," in Globalization, Growth, and Poverty: Building an Inclusive World Economy. World Bank, 2002. Read pp 1-22 (15-36 in the pdf file).
      Nancy Birdsall, "Inequality Matters: Why Globalization Doesn’t Lift All Boats," from the annual lecture (2005) delivered to the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research.
      Peter Evans, "The Eclipse of the State? Reflections on Stateness in an Era of Globalization,"World Politics 50.1 (October 1997) 62-87. Available on the Waldo Library Web Site. (Click on the "Journals" tab, then do a search for World Politics. Choose the third link (Project Muse), then choose volume 50, issue 1. Scroll down until you find the article.)
 
  The Commitment to Development Index. Go the the site of the Center for Global Development and review its map and data. Click on "rescale" on the map. On the map, as you float your cursor over each of the 21 most developed countries in the world, data will show up in the table to the left. Then, click on the tabs at the top and watch how the countries shrink or expand according to their contribution to each category. The corresponding indices are on the data page.
    Official Development Assistance (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development - OECD). Individual country data (you can compare how and where US aid is spent to other countries).
      After-Class Note and Discussion
XIII.
December 6:
  Globalization and Poverty II.
 
Narration:
   Phumla Lolwana
 
Narration:
   Thulisile's Water (carried over from last week)
 
Readings:
   World Bank Development Report 2000/01, Chapter 10, "Harnessing global forces for poor people".
    Listen to EITHER "Water Woes" OR "Who Owns Our Water? Profits vs. Public Interest" Each is 29 minutes long. PICK ONE.
 
  The impacts of globalization. Pick one of the following podcasts. Each is 29 minutes long. Listen to your podcast and be prepared to summarize it for the class. NOTE: Don't do a regurgitation. Figure out what the main points are - say, 3-5 points - and present them to us.
        "Deadly Extractions: Oil and Mining Interests in Africa"
        "Blocking the Highways of Globalization: Tales from Bolivia and Peru"
        "Shifting the Debate: Alternatives to Corporate Globalization"
        "Working Democracy: Participatory Movements in Latin America"
        "The Struggle for Food"
 
December 9:
(Thursday)
  Film, City of God (Brazil). 6:00, room 3301 FRD.
 
December 11:
(Saturday)
   Writing Assignment #6 due at midnight.