SDG Detail

ANTH3023 - Development Studies: Global Economic Inequality, International Aid, and Human Rights

None

Project description

Why are some countries rich and others poor? Why do billions live on less than $5 a day while the 26 richest billionaires together own as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent of the planet�s people? What, if anything, should we do about this? This unit tackles these questions anthropologically, focusing on international aid as a key means of closing the gap between rich and poor. We will focus on a number of key topics. Specifically, we will explore the history of global poverty and economic inequality, the emergence of human rights as a key vocabulary for staking claims to economic equality, and the complexity of the relationship between culture and development, examining in some detail the ways in which culture can both impede and aid development projects. Finally, we will pay some critical attention to why programs designed to help people in the developing world have sometimes fallen short of their intended goals.

Year 2022

Location Australia

Organization Macquarie University

Project aims

Project outcome

1. Analyse and articulate how and why international aid remains such a contested arena within international relations and such a problematic context for altruistic notions of help. 2. Read widely and actively participate in discussions concerning interactions between development agencies and target communities within the developing world and thereby gain a detailed picture of what international aid entails. 3. Learn to think critically and reflexively about recent debates informing development, the motivations behind international aid, what makes development assistance successful in improving lives and/or why there are often difficulties in achieving this. 4. Examine the social outcomes that emerge from programs of international aid by looking beyond the rhetoric and developing an appreciation of the complex factors that influence these outcomes. 5. Demonstrate command of anthropological knowledge and theories relevant to international aid.