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CCTP-813-01 Technology, Culture & Development
Spring only
*This course fulfills Core Theory and/or IBD requirement(s).
This course examines how culture and institutions affect the political economy of technology and development. Culture refers to collectively held attitudes, values, and beliefs. Institutions are patterns of behavior, rules, and organizations that shape human conduct and interaction. The Nobel Prize winning economist Douglass North writes: “It is culture that provides the key to path dependence -- a term used to describe the powerful influence of the past on the present and future.” The main theme of the course is to examine the embeddedness of political economy institutions and property rights in culture. In doing so, institutional partnerships (business, governments, NGOs, international organizations) are emphasized. Part I of the course provides a historical look, mainly at Europe, toward understanding the cultural and institutional factors that facilitated or hindered the industrial revolution. We will also examine the implications and lessons to be drawn from applying such factors to the developing world. Part II of the course will examine the cultural and institutional aspects of the field of development communication for poor countries in post-colonial times. Part III of the course examines development project implementation in the context of culture. Issues such as mass media marketing campaigns, microfinance, electronic commerce, and telecommunications restructurings will be covered. Students will be asked to participate in actual development projects underway in Latin America, Asia and Africa through partnerships that CCT/Georgetown has developed. There will be two other themes developed in the class. One will deal with the notion of cultural hybriditites -- the intersection of micro level cultures with national and global ones -- and the way that these influence development efforts. The other theme will explore how to translate abstract conceptions of culture and development into creative and common sense-oriented development options. While culture and development issues become increasingly important, such thinking is still in its infancy. The collection of works examining the effects of culture on development with respect to technology is even more limited. In order to be thorough in our investigation, however, we will read works which both directly and indirectly touch upon cultural issues in the development process even if they do not address institutional issues at length. We will also read works which deal with institutions and development and then investigate if they would gain from an insight into cultural issues. As would befit a transdisciplinary class, the readings are drawn from the works of economists, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, communication scholars, educationists, psychologists, international relations, and development practitioners. I have made a concerted effort also to draw upon works by scholars from the developing worlds in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
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