TD223 International development: making sense of a changing world

Module Guide

The Open University Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA First published 2012. 2012 The Open University All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS (website www.cla.co.uk). In using electronic course materials and their contents you agree that your use will be solely for the purposes of following an Open University course of study or otherwise as licensed by The Open University or its assigns. Except as permitted above you undertake not to copy, store in any medium (including electronic storage or use in a website), distribute, transmit or retransmit, broadcast, modify or show in public such electronic materials in whole or in part without the prior written consent of The Open University or in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Edited and designed by The Open University. The paper used in this publication is procured from forests independently certified to the level of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) principles and criteria. Chain of custody certification allows the tracing of this paper back to specific forest-management units (see www.fsc.org). SUP 02575 8 1.1

Contents
Welcome and introduction 1 2 3 4 5 What is the Module Guide? What is TD223 about? Module components Module aims and learning outcomes Structure of the module
5.1 Module themes 5.2 Critical thinking and reection

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6 Library resources 7 Assessment 8 Support for your studies 9 Getting started References

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Welcome and introduction

Welcome and introduction

Welcome to TD223 International development: making sense of a changing world. Studying this module will provide you with the knowledge and skills to become more informed about international development, what it is, how it happens, and why it delivers greater opportunities for some people and shrinking life chances for others. It will explore the big stories of our time, such as the rise of China, growing inequality, new technological opportunities, the management of risk and resource depletion alongside the smaller stories of ordinary people making a living and seeking to negotiate the impact of big change at a local level. You will visit some fascinating places, from the crowded, bustling streets of Shanghai and dereliction and rebirth of Detroit, to the rice paddy elds of India and a rapidly transforming Africa. But most especially, you will be encouraged not simply to view the material as an outsider looking in, but to engage with the evidence and position yourself within these evolving stories, both big and small. In this way you will begin to understand how international development is also personal.

Module Guide

1 What is the Module Guide?

The Module Guide is your reference guide and introduction to TD223. As well as being provided in print, it is available from the TD233 website. It contains everything you need to know about studying the module and how to get started. It provides a handy revision tool, giving an overview of key themes and core concepts in each block. It also tells you about the range of support available and how you will be assessed. It is worth reading through this guide now to make your passage through the module as smooth as possible.

2 What is TD223 about?

2 What is TD223 about?

This module is set at the interface between international development and international relations. This is a particularly rich and fertile space providing the conceptual and analytical tools to analyse key factors such as shifting power relations that are driving change and reshaping our world. For example, countries like China and Brazil are shedding their developing country status and becoming key international powers. These countries have established a nexus of relations with the rest of the developing world that is different from previous connections between the global North and global South. In part this is because China and Brazils developing country status is within peoples living memories, but also because the need to develop their large populations is acutely pressing. Working with these case studies and others, the module considers important debates, theories and current research and will also look at a range of actors as new centres of power emerge within states in the form of cities, and beyond states in the form of transnational corporations and social movements. At the macro or international level this module is about the poorest countries, the Haitis and Sierra Leones of this world, and why they have so far failed to develop. Paul Collier, an Oxford University Professor, has described the people in these countries as being The Bottom Billion, living on less than a dollar a day and whom development has largely forgotten (Collier, 2007). You would probably expect a module on international development to be about the poorest, but international development is also about those countries and people where development is happening at a rapid pace, the Chinas and Brazils as discussed above. China and Brazil, and other countries like them, are collectively known as the rising powers. This is because they have been able to rapidly grow their economies over the last couple of decades and take millions of their people out of poverty. This module examines how they have done it. But if there are rising powers, there are likely to be those in decline, and understanding how these power shifts occur is also important for understanding development processes. For example, you will examine whether the USA, the dominant power of the 20th century, is being eclipsed as we go forward in the 21st century. Our motif to help you answer this question is to juxtapose two cities, Detroit in the USA and Shanghai in China. Looking at these two cities will enable you to drill down and study change at the micro or granular level. You will understand how people respond to the opportunities and constraints they face in light of the phenomenal global change over the decades either side of the millennium. How people exercise their rights, needs and wants, their agency, is important for understanding change. In this way, you can also appreciate how local processes of development reect and contribute to broader processes of social, economic and political transformation. By looking at local and global processes of development, the module also emphasises the importance of scale, or the different space in which action happens that also impacts on the direction of change. Few can doubt that we are living through an era of rapid, transformative global change. Consider for a moment a few totemic trends.

Module Guide

Over 50% of the worlds 7 billion people now live in cities. This compares with 13% in 1900 and 29% in 1950 (UN, 2005). Before the 1990s, most of us didnt know what the world wide web was. Today global access to the internet is 29% (with the highest penetration in North America at 77% and lowest in Africa at 11%) (Internet World Stats, 2010). In the mid-1980s the rst telephone call was made with a mobile phone. Today there are 4.5 billion mobile phone devices globally (Wray, 2010).

There has been a radical transformation in where we live and the way we communicate. The short period of time within which we have experienced these changes perhaps suggests history is collapsing in on itself, that everything happens so much quicker now and that history is less relevant. We argue quite the reverse, that only by taking the long view can we fully appreciate the social, economic and political change that has happened. History is important for understanding development. You will have noticed that several concepts mentioned above have been included in bold power, agency, scale and history for the moment we hope you can appreciate that the relationship between international development and international relations is a complex one and that these concepts provide a useful framework to begin to explore such complexity. We will return to how these concepts help us understand, negotiate and mediate development later. Given this complexity and the range of material we could cover in a module of this kind we had to necessarily be selective. So we have chosen to focus on four key themes:
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emerging powers poverty and livelihoods security and vulnerability technology, energy and climate change.

We regard these as key issues for the 21st century. But we recognise that consequently we may not be covering other important issues in depth (for example, youth and generational issues). Therefore the module team have provided a list of further reading at the end of each book chapter to extend your understanding if you have the time and interest.

3 Module components

3 Module components

You can consider TD223 an online module, and the main module components and delivery methods are:
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TD223 website your study will be led week by week through the study planner. Module Guide this is provided online and in print for quick reference. Book 1 International Development in a Changing World (Papaioannou and Butcher, eds) this is a printed book as well as PDFs of chapters available within the relevant weeks on the study planner. Book 2 New Perspectives in International Development (Butcher and Papaioannou, eds) this is a printed book as well as PDFs of chapters available within the relevant weeks on the study planner. DVD, including the Detroit and Shanghai videos for Block 1 these videos are also embedded in the activities for convenience should you have reasonable broadband!

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TD223 website
If you are a new student to the OU you should have received a letter that gives details of how to access StudentHome (the OUs student portal), including your username and password. If you are an existing student, you will already have your personal username and password from a previous module. At a convenient moment log onto StudentHome. When you log onto StudentHome there will be a clickable link to the TD223 website where you will nd your study planner and all the online resources for the module. Accessing the TD223 website should be straightforward, but if you experience any difculties please contact the Student Helpdesk. The various online module components are outlined below.

Online activities
You will spend time engaging with both online activities and text material for this module. The online activities come in various guises and develop different study skills including critical thinking and analysing data. Many of the activities come with free-response boxes for you to write down your own thoughts which you can compare with the module teams discussion afterwards. They are a very important element of your learning to consolidate, deepen and extend your understanding and develop study skills. In most weeks there will also be an activity directing you to read a relevant chapter in your books where there will also be various activities. These include asking you to pause and reect on what you have learned, and to develop your ideas about a particular question or issue.

Module Guide

Video and audio

Video and audio programmes are integrated into your study and have been designed to bring to life particular aspects of the module and to reinforce certain learning outcomes. All video and audio are embedded in the online activities the main Detroit and Shanghai videos are 30 minutes long so these are provided on DVD as well.

The notebook
It is important throughout this module to keep a record of your notes and reections on the material as you progress. Your notes are not only invaluable for exam revision but will also be essential for interacting in forums and completing tutor-marked assignments (TMAs). To help keep your notes together we have provided an online notebook that you can use, where you can actively learn as well as archive your learning there is a link to it on the TD223 website and also within activities where we feel it may be of help. The notebook is personal to you and no one else will be able to see it, not even your tutor. While you are working through module activities online your notebook is readily available for you to write down content as well as your responses to activities where you are asked to do critical thinking and to reect. Your notes can then also be copied and pasted directly into forums and TMAs from the notebook. Alternatively, you can keep a paper notebook for your note taking and activity responses if you prefer, or use a different type of electronic notebook, for example using a word processing program, or a note making tool such a Microsoft OneNote. The key point is that you must keep regular and consistent entries, including reection on your study, the feedback you receive and the progress you make. This is also a record of your personal learning journey and will enable you to get the most out of the module and to do well in TMAs and the exam. Here is some further guidance on keeping a notebook as a reective learning journal.
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Write in your journal regularly, even if individual entries are sometimes short. Use questions or prompts to help you focus on the task. Avoid descriptive writing, take an analytical approach. Use techniques such as mind mapping or diagrams. Use colour to make these more engaging and memorable. Review the entries that youve written to see if you can nd key themes and recognise what longer-term action you might need to take (for example, to improve a particular study skill). At the end of each block, spend some time revising what you have learned and planning how you will organise your exam revision of the material. Remember that writing itself can be used as a learning tool: you can use writing to explore ideas as a way of understanding them.

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3 Module components

So the notebook is both a personal resource and a learning aid. It is a space to archive your notes, critical thinking about the module content and your responses to activities, but also a space for reection on your study and skills development. It will help you keep track of your learning over the coming months. There is more guidance on what we mean by reection later in this Module Guide.

Glossary
As you work through the module you will encounter many new ideas and concepts. Glossary terms are in bold in the printed books and consolidated in the online glossary. The online glossary includes not only terms from the books but also terms that are used in the website material. You will discover that many of the terms we use are contested, even among members of the module team. It is hoped that you will think about the meaning of these terms as your knowledge and critical thinking develops. You can annotate terms to capture your own thinking by saving them from the glossary to your notebook.

Forums
The TD223 website is your gateway to the TD223 forum where you can share your thoughts and ideas with other students and tutors. You will have access to two forums, one a module-wide forum to which all students registered on the same presentation of TD223 will have access. The other will be a tutor-group forum, which will be moderated by your tutor and to which only students within your tutor s group will have access, about 20 of your colleagues. This will be a much more intimate group than the module wide forum. The tutor-group forum will be where you work collaboratively with your colleagues when you study Block 5. A forum is a great place to discuss elements of the module, chat about general items of interest and make new friends. You will be asked to post messages in your tutor-group forum to share your thoughts with other students as you study the module. However, when you are interacting with other people online, you dont have the extra benets of body language or voice intonations to help you get your point across and appreciate the points of others. Therefore, in order for our forums to run well and for us all to enjoy online learning, there are some points of good practice that we should all think about when making a contribution. 1 Thank people for their contributions, however formative. No one is expected to have polished answers to the activities. If they did it probably wouldnt be worth them taking the module. Acknowledge their attempts to grapple with the activity. 2 Look for areas of agreement and explore these before exploring a different view. This way we can all proceed from some consensus before getting into more abstract and contested areas. 3 Try to keep your responses short and give your messages a descriptive subject line.

Module Guide

4 Please do not be dogmatic or write in capitals. Learning is a dynamic and interactive process. We all have our views about such emotive issues as poverty and development, and this is great. But we want to share these with others in the hope that we can deepen our understanding by listening to others responses, reecting upon them and also reecting on why we hold the views we do. We should not seek to impose our views on others, and should respect their right to differ. 5 We are drawn from very different parts of the world, with different cultures and perspectives. Please think about this when contributing to the forum and try to be sensitive to cultural diversity. Let us make such diversity an asset, enriching our understanding of different viewpoints. Remember it is a real person on the other end of the computer. There is more advice about how to contribute to forums in the Computing Guide, which you can access from your StudentHome page.

4 Module aims and learning outcomes

4 Module aims and learning outcomes

Aims
The module aims to explore the contested meanings and challenges of international development today, taking into account the history of the international system, the role of power and agency, and processes of development at different scales. It examines the major development issues of the 21st century, including the impact of the decline of former powers and the emergence of new ones, inequality and livelihoods, security and vulnerability, technology, energy and climate change. As you work your way through the module you will build your knowledge and understanding and develop a range of skills. The learning outcomes of the module can be divided into four types which are outlined below.

Knowledge and understanding

Ability to: 1. Explain and discuss key debates, theories and current research in international development, including conicting meanings of the concept of development'. 2. Explain the complex interactions among political, economic and social actors across the international system that impact on development. 3. Evaluate the impact of historical contexts on the development of countries and the international order. 4. Assess the role of power and agency in development, including shifting balances of power between and within countries and between other actors. 5. Analyse development processes at different scales; local, national, regional and international. 6. Demonstrate an understanding of key aspects of development: emerging powers; inequality and livelihoods; security and vulnerability; technology, energy and climate change.

Cognitive skills
Ability to: 7. Dene and apply key concepts, abstract models and theories from a range of research in order to critically evaluate competing ideas and arguments about models of international development. 8. Analyse complex situations, synthesise information, construct reasoned arguments and exercise judgement appropriately.

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Key skills
Ability to: 9. Locate and evaluate information from government, non-governmental organisations, academic and other sources. 10. Read and interpret data in a variety of formats, understanding its scope and limitations, using information technology where appropriate. 11. Construct and communicate, effectively and uently, arguments using clear conceptual frameworks and integrating both quantitative and qualitative evidence where appropriate.

Practical and/or professional skills

Ability to: 12. Apply knowledge and understanding of international and development issues to problem solving within professional practice, including informing policy debates and report writing. 13. Work in a variety of settings including independently and in collaboration with colleagues from diverse backgrounds, demonstrating effective communication and adaptability. 14. Critically reect on the origins and impact of individual viewpoint, your own and that of others, on policy formulation and decision making. 15. Consider how equality, social justice and inclusion might be incorporated into development practice alongside established concerns such as economic growth and environmental sustainability.

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5 Structure of the module

5 Structure of the module

The module is divided into six blocks that are compulsory for all students. Block 1 is four weeks long, after which we increase the workload a little with Blocks 2 and 3 being six weeks each. To give you time to consolidate your study the latter blocks are shorter and include time for reection and revision. Blocks 4 and 5 are ve weeks long, and Block 6 is four weeks. The basic unit of study is 1214 hours each week, with an additional 57 hours of independent learning that can include organising your notes, further reading, tutorials or discussion with your fellow students. The study planner on the TD223 website guides your study week by week.

Block 1: Introduction to development

Our rst block introduces you to the main debates, theories and key actors in international development and international studies. You will be asked to reect on your own understandings of development and be introduced to the history, meanings and theories of international development by juxtaposing the cities of Shanghai and Detroit through video evidence and personal testimony. In addition to studying historical timelines of change you will also draw on the other concepts of power, agency and scale which act as signposts and explanatory concepts throughout the module. Through study of this block you will begin to appreciate the contested nature of development, the diversity of actors and power relations and the interconnectedness of action and consequence. The block will also give some suggestions and prompts towards issues and topics that subsequent blocks within this module deal with (such as Asian development and the rise of new powers; poverty and livelihoods; security and vulnerability; and the impact of technology).

Block 2: Rising powers

Development as you will see in Block 1 is connected to major global transformations, such as the shifting relationships between countries, and their rising or declining ability to inuence local, national and international policy. Block 2 continues this theme by looking in more detail at what the rise of new powers in the international system means for development. It is concerned with power, the changing world order and how development is conceptualised historically and within particular spaces, with a specic focus on China, India and Brazil. These countries are growing rapidly in terms of their economies, and have subsequently gained weight in international politics. As development actors they are now playing a decisive role in shaping international development itself, affecting both developed and developing countries. The researcher John Ikenberry has said, The rise of China will undoubtedly be one of the great dramas of the twenty-rst century (Ikenberry, 2008, p. 23). In Block 2 we seek to answer what will make up these dramatic events, and yet to understand the 21st century there is a need to also look

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back. These countries have risen from somewhere and in relation to existing powers, all of which requires us to look at their histories as the economic and political balance of the international system shifts towards them. Different ways of measuring or conceptualising how much power a country has will be introduced in this block, including some basic data skills to assist you in understanding the tables and graphs that are regularly used in development policy and practice. Finally, Block 2 will also examine new centres of power at different scales in the form of cities and transnational corporations.

Block 3: Poverty and livelihoods

The role of the rising powers in the world has forced us to think about the rapid changes that are taking place, their impact, potential and risks for the future. Some of these changes, dominated by a particular model of economic development, have seen millions lifted out of poverty in emerging economies around the world. However, at least a billion people continued to live in poverty in 2011, that is, on less than a dollar a day. It is the question of why this is still the case, despite years of development programmes, to which Block 3 turns. Here we explore poverty at several levels, rst, as a world phenomenon but also acknowledging that poverty exists in developed countries, perhaps even in your own town or region. This block will explore how poverty has been reconceptualised over time which has impacted on how it is measured. Building on the data skills you will learn in Block 2, Block 3 will introduce you to more complex ways of analysing data, such as correlations. This data is instrumental in many of the explanations given for the existence and persistence of poverty, and is one of the key ways that poverty is conceptualised. However, Block 3 emphasises that it is not poverty alone that we need to focus on in development studies and policies. Linked to poverty is inequality which is produced globally and evident even in very rich countries. How inequality is measured and whether or not it matters for development will also be explored in Block 3. To combat poverty and inequality, many development programmes have focused on livelihoods. We explore here the nature of livelihoods for low income people, the role of culture in how people pursue livelihoods and livelihood strategies, and livelihoods in the wider context of international development and transnational production and distribution. Here we introduce a case study of global value chains as well as other examples to explore different types of intervention to promote livelihoods, from technological change to education, which we ask you to evaluate. Finally, Block 3 examines the contentious area of aid as a strategy to reduce poverty. The international debates around aid and its effectiveness, and the bargaining positions possible for various actors, often reect power relations between donors and clients.

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Block 4: Security and vulnerability

The connections made in Block 3, between power, aid and poverty alleviation, are developed further in Block 4 in its focus on how security concerns have entered development policies and actions. Increasingly in political debates about international relations and development, we are hearing a connection being made between poverty and conict. You may have heard similar arguments being made as a rationale for Western intervention in Afghanistan, for example. This securitydevelopment nexus will be explored in Block 4 with a focus on insecurity at different scales: from national to individual, and from global to local. Insecurity can also take many forms, including: personal fear, inter- and intra-state conict, interpersonal violence, vulnerabilities and risk to external factors from changing climate to unemployment. These different forms of insecurity have led to particular responses to diminish or eradicate it and foster development instead. These include policies of protection, the creation of political order and legitimacy, peace-building, humanitarian intervention, vulnerability reduction or resilience building programmes. The block will offer you an opportunity to understand how security and development have become interconnected and critically assess current policies as well as what should be done for the future. It does this through an examination of case studies such as human trafcking, conict in Thailand, and development in the Caribbean. In addition to international organisations and states, this block explores the role of non-governmental organisations, campaign groups, communities and movements for change within developing as well as developed societies. Block 4 will challenge you to think about better ways to respond to the challenges of development, insecurity and vulnerability.

Block 5: Technology, energy and environment

As noted in Block 4, an area of increasing concern as a cause of insecurity and vulnerability, as well as a potential ashpoint for future conict, is access to resources, particularly oil. Block 5 takes up these concerns in exploring what many argue are the dening challenges of the 21st century, namely, energy security and climate change within a dominant international development model of economic growth. While the block focuses on the energy sector, climate change also features strongly because of its close association with burning fossil fuels and the security and development issues that it raises in its own right. The block examines how technology might address these challenges, using history to contextualise the debates, the concept of scale to understand the impact of environmental degradation, and power and agency to interrogate responsibility and the ability to act, including our own. Energy use and climate change are highly contested and debated, as anyone who has followed international policy negotiations on these issues in the

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public media will surely realise. There is a large array of perspectives and no consensus at an international level on what to do. The block gives you an appreciation of this diversity, while the overall approach suggests that we must not only learn to live with, but also try to nd ways of harnessing these diverse perspectives as a resource from which we might gain greater insight. Block 5, therefore, is different from other blocks because all of your study will be done online through the TD223 website and will involve interacting with other students in your tutor group. This will enable you to gain insight into how others respond to the material and give you experience of working with diversity through a structured simulation. It is important to ag at this point that Weeks 1 and 2 of this block can only be studied as and when indicated on your study planner. This is because of the need to interact with others to produce a collaborative piece of work. We suggest you check with the online study planner when Weeks 1 and 2 of Block 5 fall and make arrangements to have internet access and pockets of time to participate regularly.

Block 6: Making development personal

While much of the work in previous blocks has focused on external processes of development, Block 6 seeks to put you at its centre by considering how to make development personal. It does this through reconceptualising development, often considered primarily an economic strategy, as a process of wellbeing. In particular, Block 6 will emphasise the concept of agency: what power do you have to make changes, in your local area and globally? Can individual viewpoints, your own and that of others, impact on policy formulation and decision making? You will consider how equality, justice and inclusion might be incorporated into development practice alongside established concerns such as economic growth and environmental sustainability. These reections will be structured as part of your exam revision. You will be encouraged to reect on the module as a whole, returning to key themes, concepts and case studies from the module.

5.1 Module themes

Throughout this brief discussion of the blocks, the questions they ask and the learning they deliver, we have sought to explicitly identify how the themes of power and agency, scale and history underpin and drive them. Among the module team we very quickly fell into collectively referring to these themes as PASH (Power Agency Scale History) great acronym dont you think? I hope that as you become more familiar with PASH it will enter your vernacular as well. PASH is an intellectual device to help you understand the complex relationship between international development and international relations. As such we call it an interdisciplinary conceptual framework, most obviously drawing on history and geography, but also fundamental to both international development and international relations. While there are four concepts, there are actually only three themes, as power

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and agency are deemed as one. This is because there is a dynamic tension between them, and their explanatory value collapses if looked at in isolation. They are a bit like left and right; each concept has little utility on its own. PASH will integrate material across the six blocks and provide a central narrative through the module. It will also provide an anchor for your critical thinking and your exam revision. But if PASH is to deliver on this, you need to have an understanding of each theme before you start studying the module and how it may indicate lines of thinking. Lets start with power and agency. Each of us has power over some aspects of our lives, and little or no power over other aspects. The power of others, be they individuals, institutions or states, shape how we live. This is explored through the module, looking at how power is exercised economically, politically, socially and culturally. What individuals, families or households can do to follow their own interests within the prevailing power structures are examples of exercising agency, making winners and losers. Power, in its many forms, is also exercised at different scales, which can be thought of as units of analysis of different sizes. For example, in this module you will come across discussion of the impact of international development at the individual, household, community, state, regional and international scales. A focus on scale enables us to identify more readily the threads and processes between these different actors and institutions. For example, the global value chain you will study in Block 3 shows how livelihood strategies at the local scale are linked to global economic processes via transnational corporations. Development never occurs in isolation, at one scale only, but is always interconnected to other people and places, near and far. Our nal theme, history is probably the most familiar to you. We all look to history to help us explain the present, be that in our personal relations (she is always late so Ill plan to arrive a little later too) or our household management (reviewing energy bills, we used that much for this period last year, but this much this year). History offers us the opportunity to consider what is happening today in light of what has happened before. It cannot provide a comprehensive explanation because the situation we are examining will never be exactly the same as that in the past, but it can help us ask some targeted and incisive questions of todays events. The other use of history is that it provides a narrative of change. A history of something pieces discrete and intimately related things together to provide a cohesive and coherent story. This makes history very engaging as it seamlessly makes the links and draws out the important bits for us. But this involves selection, and therefore a history is not a universally true account. For example, if you were drafting a timeline of the key events in your life, and your mother did the same, there would likely be differences as well as similarities. We all represent the past in accordance with our own interests and world views. Thus, history provides us with a selective narrative that identies landmark and iconic events that enable us to engage with change in a meaningful way. You will encounter historical explanation to a greater or lesser extent in all blocks. It is useful to think critically about what interests are being represented in the history and what is being left out.

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5.2 Critical thinking and reection

The term critical thinking has been mentioned already. This is a key skill we are most concerned to develop in this module. It equips you with the mental tools to examine ideas with an open mind, evaluate them against what you already know and what you learn as you progress through the module, and make a judgement about their merit. What underpins critical thinking is a commitment to being objective. Thus, when you think critically you are weighing up all sides of an argument (often there are more than two), evaluating its strengths and weaknesses. Critical thinking is the central feature of becoming an independent learner, as it is the product of you processing and responding to an argument. Thinking critically about an argument, evaluating its strengths and weaknesses and arriving at your own individual viewpoint will deepen your understanding. Moreover, critical thinking can be applied not only to international development but to any situation, for example, assessing arguments in the media, political organisations, public policies or workplace strategies, so it is a very useful skill to develop. There is a wealth of support for developing critical thinking skills available from StudentHome. Perhaps an example from the different forms of assessment you undertake is useful. Multiple choice or self-assessed questions elicit your understanding and assimilation of knowledge, or facts. This is not critical thinking. In contrast, essays and report style TMAs require you to interpret evidence, interrogate and synthesise it to form your own argument. The latter can only be achieved by critical thinking. As you probably realise if this is not your rst module, developing critical thinking skills is not instant. It will take time and effort on your part, but the more you endeavour to think critically, the greater will be the rewards, not only in terms of higher TMA marks, but also in how you process information and exercise your judgement in other aspects of your life, for example a purchasing decision, a dispute with a friend. We also would like students to develop the ability of reection. This is not the same as critical thinking. It is something else. But what? At one level, reection is thinking more deeply about your response to an argument and understanding why you made the judgement you did. Yes, your evaluation is meant to be objective, but we can rarely suspend our personal feelings, biases and prejudices that creep into our evaluations and judgements despite our best efforts. These can be based on our own backgrounds, how we were brought up, our personal beliefs and values. Reection seeks to expose these and consider them more deeply, although it is not about imposing what is right or wrong. By directly engaging with our own judgements and beliefs we can learn much about ourselves, we are more open to challenging our biases and prejudices, and we become deeper thinkers. So when you are asked to reect on your response to an activity or TMA essay, we are asking you to consider as openly and honestly as possible, how you feel about the activity, whether you can detect a preconceived idea that coloured or framed your response above and beyond the argument/material, and whether you might have lost some richness of understanding because of this. For example, how often have

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you made assumptions or generalisations about an argument youve heard someone make, or a newspaper article youve read and thought:
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Oh no, not this tired, awful argument again This is left wing/right wing drivel ... This is so unjust and unfair ...

These thoughts mean that you are less likely to fully engage with the argument because you have pigeon holed it as being less worthy than your own perspective on the issue. It could be that you are missing a rich stream of understanding as a result. By reecting on why we have this initial response, questioning it and expecting more of ourselves, we might have an opportunity to grow or even change our views. You might like to think about something you have changed your mind about recently, and reect on what it was that made you do so. The media are very intolerant of this when it comes to politicians. The slightest shift in policy and the politician is accused of a u-turn as though this was a cardinal sin. But isnt this how the majority of us think and behave most of the time. Arent we constantly shifting our views on people and shouldnt we be more prepared to shift our views on arguments? Or how often do you make assumptions about your ability to study by using sentences that start with:
. . .

Im no good at Ive always been terrible at Ill never be able to

These beliefs may echo negative comments from teachers, parents, employers or peers, or you may just believe them to be irrefutably true. They can make it harder for you to study because they undermine your condence and motivation. But by reecting on the assumptions you make about yourself you can make positive changes in your study routines. If you want to understand reection more deeply, please go to the following link http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/benets-of-reection.php.

Why is reection important?

Reection is important for two major reasons. The rst is that we have a very diverse student body taking this module, both in terms of their professional background, from taxi drivers to accountants, from care assistants to hospital consultants, as well as culture and ethnicity, with students drawn from different places and communities within the UK and internationally. Therefore, understanding your own perspective can equip you to understand the perspective of others and engage with difference more openly and constructively. This is particularly important in the context of development as it can be a contested area with people holding strong views about what is the right model. Even the module team had disagreements over the various views of development. The other major reason why reection is important is because it is a skill we will assess through the marking scheme for some TMAs. But while this is the immediate value to you, there are wider, long term benets that reection

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Module Guide

can deliver for you and your learning far beyond the connes of this module as we hope you will discover, whether in your workplace or in social relationships.

How do I do reection?
There is no single template for reection because it is highly individual. But it is important not to think of reection as yet another task to be added to your to do list and panic about it. Instead we would like you to think of it as a process that can be practised at any time you decide. So you dont have to be sitting at a computer or with a notepad and pen in order to do reection. Make it fun for yourself and see it as time out for you. You can do reection anywhere and at any time, whilst driving the car, taking a walk, gardening or exercising. We think you will appreciate that these tasks do not demand great intellectual effort, so there is spare capacity to mull things over, to reect. Think about what it means to you to be a student rather than what you actually do as a student. The emphasis is on being a reective learner rather than doing reective learning. So what are the things we would like you to reect on?
.

Reect on how you have engaged with arguments and material you have read in the module. Are you engaging with it with an open and enquiring mind as far as possible, or are you rushing to make judgements and rapid conclusions. If the latter, and remember, this means being candid with yourself, it is likely that your learning is suffering as a result. Try being more questioning and probing of why you are quick to make judgements and draw rapid conclusions, and give yourself more of a chance to arrive at a fresh view of the material. Reect on what works well in your studies and helps you to develop your skills. If you reect on what is working and what isnt working, you are more likely to try something different in areas that arent working. These adjustments may work better, which could improve your study experience, and your marks.

As the module progresses, we will introduce new areas for you to reect on such as contributing to forums and working as part of a group, and give you further guidance on how to do this at the time. But we want you to get used to reecting on your experiences as part of your everyday learning. In this way, each experience whether positive or negative will contribute to your development and personal growth. An experience that is repeated without reection is just repetition which does not help you learn.

The notebook: or what to do with the outputs from your critical thinking and reection?
As noted earlier, we want you to record both your critical thinking and your reections in either the online notebook or, if you prefer, a paper notebook. You can be as creative as you like, using not only text but audio and even video resources if you want. This is your personal learning log and we hope you will take ownership of it. The important thing is to record the outputs from your learning and reection before you forget them. Here are some of

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5 Structure of the module

the module teams nal reections on how reection can help you, and a couple of reection entries from OU students:
.

reection is understanding why you make the judgements you do on any particular issue see reection as complementary to your study use it to clarify your thoughts and focus on your development record your thoughts on any difculties or challenges you are facing think about any strategies that might help you deal with difcult tasks or assignments use it to help you think about how the module topics relate to other areas of your experience.

. . . .

This is what a couple of students generously shared about their initial forays into reection. Ive come a long way since doing my rst TMA I suppose Im starting to develop some reective skills in that Im looking back at how my study sessions have gone and having a go at identifying the strategies that work well for me. This has helped me to plan my approach to study. I found some of the material on poverty really quite upsetting, the terrible conditions people lived in and the insecurities they faced daily. But through my reection I began to realise that my pity wasnt going to help them, and perhaps was a bit of an indulgence on my part. Now I sponsor a child in Tanzania and I have an opinion about what can be done to eradicate poverty which Im eager to share.

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Module Guide

6 Library resources

As a registered OU student, you are entitled to use all of the online library resources and services available to you via the Open University Library. These include databases of academic journals and journal abstracts, electronic books, newspapers, standards, statistics and industry/market reports. Help and advice are always available from the Library Helpdesk. We recommend that you start with the Library resources section of the TD223 website where you will nd links to the Library website and information for getting help. The Library resources section of the TD223 website will always contain the most up to date resources and descriptions for the module. Many of the resources (for example databases and journals) available to you courtesy of the Open University Library are password-protected. The majority of these only require the use of your Open University Computer Username (known as OUCU) and password for access. This is the same OUCU and password you use to access StudentHome. Information can be taken from a wide variety of sources: books, journals, libraries, the internet, and so on. The Maths, Computing and Technology Information Search Guide is an online search guide, written by Open University librarians. It is intended to help you make your way through this mass of information and nd what you need. It concentrates on resources that either contain free content or are purchased by the Open University Library on your behalf so you will not have to pay to access the resources highlighted. It also links to the Open University Librarys electronic journal and electronic book pages, and to selected external websites which have been evaluated for selection. You will also be encouraged throughout the module to reference correctly. The purposes of correct referencing are both to show whose work you have drawn on to build your argument, and to give your reader the opportunity to nd your source and explore it for themselves. You will need to reference from the module books and the module website and from outside the module too. To help you do this correctly you will be able to use MyReferences, which is a resource provided by the Open University Library. MyReferences will not only teach you how to reference but will provide a quick and easy way to both record your references and to generate a list of references for inclusion at the end of a TMA.

Help and guidance

If you experience computing problems, rst refer to the Computing Guide and if this doesnt help, you should contact the OU Computing Helpdesk (email [email protected]). If you experience problems relating to library passwords, resources or services, for example if you would like help in using them or nding information on a topic, the Library Helpdesk can be contacted as follows:

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6 Library resources

http://library.open.ac.uk/help email: [email protected] telephone: +44 (0)1908 659001 fax: +44 (0)1908 653571 Mincom: +44 (0)1908 655455 post: Library Helpdesk, Open University Library, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA. The Helpdesk service is available seven days a week excluding Bank Holidays. The opening hours are detailed on the Library website. Please have your Personal Identier and module code to hand when contacting the helpdesk. All of the above information is available via the Library resources link on the TD223 website.

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Module Guide

7 Assessment

There are six TMAs, none of which are substitutable which means you are expected to do all six. Each TMA is worth approximately 16.66% of your continuous assessment score. Continuous assessment accounts for 50% of your nal grade while the other 50% is available through an end of module 3-hour unseen written examination. There is one TMA for each block which assesses the associated learning outcomes for that block. TMAs 14 have an element which asks you to reect on your engagement with the module and your study so far for which a small number of marks are awarded. TMA 05 will, in addition, incorporate an assessment of your reection on your experience of working with others to research, synthesise, present and reect on the creation of a report. TMA 06 will assess your ability to reect upon the module themes, PASH, based on a review of your learning journal. You will have a full week at the end of each block to work on your TMA. Assessment is a crucial component of your learning on this module. The module team has designed a set of varied and interesting assessment tasks which will allow you to:
. .

demonstrate that you achieved the module learning outcomes be motivated to engage with the module materials across the range of media used develop your skills as well as your understanding of the module concepts receive constructive feedback on your progress from your tutor.

. .

The TD223 Assessment Guide is your main source of information about assessments. You can nd the Assessment Guide on the TD223 website at the top of the study planner and under the Assessment resources. It will guide you on the skills you will need when preparing and writing your TMAs and the knowledge and understanding you will be asked to demonstrate. The Assessment Guide also provides guidance on:
.

the overall assessment pattern and how the TMAs and examination t together the examination referencing and good academic practice how to submit your TMAs how to use tutor feedback to help your learning.

. . . .

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8 Support for your studies

8 Support for your studies

Your tutor
Your tutor will support your learning throughout the module and will also mark your TMAs. You can contact your tutor by phone, email, or via the tutor-group forum. Your tutor will contact you before the module starts.

Tutorials
Face-to-face tutorials are offered (where possible) at strategic points during the module, for example at the start of the module, near some TMA deadlines and at the end of the module to help you with revision. However, the pattern of these sessions will vary between different regions depending on the distribution of students in your area. These sessions provide an opportunity for you, your tutor and your fellow students to meet for discussions and activities related to the module. The times and venues of the face-to-face tutorials are to be found on the StudentHome website. There may also be opportunities to engage in synchronous online tutorials using a software package called Elluminate which you will be told about through your region.

Online module forums

The electronic forums that you can access from the TD223 website enable you to communicate electronically with your tutor, other students in your tutor group (the tutor-group forum (TGF)), and all other students studying the module (the TD223 forum). You are encouraged to engage with your TGF from Block 1 onwards and some TMAs will assess your TGF contributions. Your TGF will be at the centre of your learning in Block 5.

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Module Guide

9 Getting started

It is very important that you give some consideration to how you are going to nd the time to study this module. TD223 is a 60-point module which means that you are expected to spend between 12 and 14 hours studying module material, and a further 57 hours studying independently (reading, organising notes, interacting with other students or your tutor, for example). But your study time will be varied. The module has been planned so that there is time to carry out all the necessary activities and to give you a week to prepare each TMA. The study planner on the TD223 website will show you how the different activities t into the study weeks of the module and is your guide to your study. A very useful, tried and tested way of planning your Open University study is to devise your own study timetable, either weekly or two-weekly. How you complete this will depend on your own life and the commitments you have to family, work, leisure, and so on. Try lling in a weekly study timetable similar to Table 1.
Table 1 A weekly study planner
Mon Morning Afternoon Evening Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Try to be realistic about the time you have available and to anticipate any possible distractions, commitments or times when you will not feel like studying, maybe immediately after you get home from work or rst thing in the morning. Again, all these things will depend on you some students nd 57 a.m. the best possible time to study! The important thing is to make the plan realistic for the life that you lead. One of the best reasons for planning out your study time is that it enables you to feel free at the times youre not scheduled to study. If you dont plan you may nd that you constantly have a nagging feeling that you ought to be studying. So lets review what you should have done to this point.
. . .

check that you have received all your materials in this mailing check you have your username and password go to StudentHome and the TD223 website.

Now youre ready to begin. We hope you enjoy studying TD223 International development: making sense of a changing world and look forward to your feedback.

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References

References

Collier, P. (2007) The Bottom Billion. Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Ikenberry, G.J. (2008) The rise of China and the future of the West, Foreign Affairs, vol. 87, no. 1, pp. 2337. Internet World Stats (2010) http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm (Accessed 6 March 2010). UN (United Nations) (2005) Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects: the 2005 Revision. Working Paper No. ESA/P/WP/200 http://www.un.org/esa/population/ publications/WUP2005/2005wup.htm (Accessed 8 December 2011). Wray, R. (2010) In just 10 years, the mobile phone has transformed the way we communicate, The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/01/ 25-years-phones-transform-communication (Accessed 1 January 2010).

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