Population and Development
For this specialization we advise you to register in the Major Social Policy for Development (SPD), but other Majors also give access to this specialization.
The interdisciplinary specialization examines the inter-relationship between population and social development by drawing on theory and evidence from population studies, economics, anthropology, sociology, history and human ecology. It provides a framework for understanding the relationship between demographic factors (e.g. fertility, mortality, population structure and migration) and social policy with the objective of contributing to social development in all its manifestation such as human development, social and gender equality. It also investigates the politics of gender in relation to issues such as control of sex and sexuality as well as reproduction, and their implications for social policy design and social development. Following the works of UNRISD, this course approaches social policy from the broad perspective of a collective and societal intervention in order to not only provide social welfare in the short term but also to make a transformative impact on social institutions and social relations that underpin long term welfare of population and development of a country. Note that social policy has been an integral part of the debate on social and economic dimensions of development. PSD addresses some of the key questions of development studies:
Is population growth the cause poverty in developing countries?
- Why are certain populations more vulnerable to risk, social exclusion and deprivation?
- Why do gender relations matter for social policy and social development?
- How do unequal power relations affect people’s well being and social development?
- Should social policies target the poor and vulnerable, or have a universal approach to the reduction of poverty and vulnerability?
There are no entry requirements for PSD specialization. But you are advised to review some of the key concepts and approaches on social policy by reading the indicative readings of the core course (term I) of Major in Social Policy for Development.
Teaching Staff:
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Wendy Harcourt is senior lecturer in social policy at the International Institute of Social Studies of the Erasmus University, The Hague and editor of the quarterly journal Development. At the ISS she teaches on gender, social policy and body politics and is a member of the newly founded Sexuality Research Initiative. She received the 2010 Feminist and Women’s Studies Association’s Prize for her book on Body Politics in Development: Critical Debates in Gender and Development (2009). She has edited four other collections including Women and Politics of Place with Arturo Escobar (Kumarian Press 2005) She has just completed the edited collection ‘Women Reclaiming Sustainable Livelihoods, Spaces Lost Spaces Gained’ (Palgrave) to be published in 2012 and is completing a monograph on ‘Gender and Environment: an introduction’ for Zed Books. She is editor of two book series: “Gender and Environment” (Zed Books) and ‘Gender, Development and Social Change’ (Palgrave). Her on going work include an International Handbook on Transnational Feminism for OUPA with Rawwida Baksch and as author of an IDS Bridge Pack on Gender and Social Movements. She is actively engaged in global feminist politics through her work with international networks Women in Development Europe (WIDE), European Feminist Forum, the Feminist Dialogues, EADI gender working group, Punti di Vista and Trans-dignity.
For more information, see: www.iss.nl/harcourt
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Karin Astrid Siegmann works as a Senior Lecturer in Labour and Gender Economics at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS). She holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics. For the past decade, her research has been concerned with the intersection of global economic processes with local labour markets, stratified by varying degrees of formality of work, gender, as well as other axes of identity. Her work has identified gendered labour dimensions in a number of critical fields such as global production networks, international migration and financial crises. The geographical focus of her work has been South Asia and Pakistan, in particular. Besides, she has a keen interest in methodologies and epistemologies in development research.
For more information, see: www.iss.nl/siegmann
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Mahmood Messkoub is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, teaching on social policy and population issues. As an economist he also taught for many years in the UK (at universities of Leeds and London). His publications include articles on the social impact of adjustment programmes, population ageing, migration, and social policy. His current research interests are in the area of economics of social policy and population ageing, migration and universal approach to social provisioning. He has acted as a consultant and advisor to Handicap-International, ESCWA, ILO, UNFPA and the World Bank.
For more information, see: www.iss.nl/messkoub
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Auma Okwany is lecturer in Social Policies and the convenor of the post-graduate Diploma in Children Youth and Development at the ISS. She is the coordinator of the ISS-ICDI collaboration for Child and Youth Studies (ICCYs). Her teaching and research interests center on the relationship between policy, practice and theory in childhood and youth more broadly and in education reform efforts in particular with a focus on factors that define exclusion for disadvantaged groups. She is a team member of the post-graduate diploma in poverty analysis, delivered in Tanzania in partnership with two research institutions based in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. She earned a PhD in Educational Policy Studies from Indiana University in the USA.
For more information, see: www.iss.nl/okwany
Loes Keysers is lecturer in Women and Development Studies.
For more information, see: www.iss.nl/keysers
Population and Development Courses
Population, people and resources: generations and regeneration
This course will provide participants with theoretical and conceptual frameworks for the understanding of the inter-relationship between generations and social development, through the study of changes in demographics (fertility, mortality, age structure and migration) of a country, social relationships among generations and their implications for development policy design and implementation. The course centres on the inter-relationship between population and generation, reproduction of labour and social regeneration and reproduction and the role of development in this inter-relationship. The social reproduction here is more about renewal and change than maintaining the existing social, cultural and economic structures which could not only limit economic development but also constrain capabilities, freedom and human development.
It is a truism that development is about how to change ‘people’ lives, and hopefully improve them. This truism ends as soon as one asks who the ‘people’ are (who should be the object of development) and what the policies should be. This is fundamentally about the design and implementation of development policies that should be aimed at people who are differentiated on the basis of demographic, gender, race, class and other social and economic categories.
The course is designed around four blocks, which reflect our approach to the inter-relationship among population, generation, social policy and regeneration/reproduction. In block one participants will be introduced to the basic concepts of population studies. Block two explores the relationship between population structure and its generational implications in terms of age, shared experience, gender. Block three focuses on population as a resource, its work and employment implication as well as its relationship with other resources such as land and the environment. In block 4 we explore some of the education and health policies that are essential to regeneration/reproduction of individual and societies. Different models of social provisioning (private and state/public, residual and universal) will also be discussed and their implications for equality of access and outcome analysed.
Indicative readings
Cole, J. and D. Durham (eds.) (2007) Generations and Globalization: Youth, age, and family in the new world economy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Pp. 1-28.
Crook, N. (1997) Principles of Population and Development – with illustrations from Asia and Africa. Oxford: OUP.
Gould, W. T. S. (2009) Population and Development. London: Routledge.
Kaboub, F. (2007) 'Employment Guarantee Programs: A Survey of Theories and Policy Experiences', Levy Economics Institute Working Paper No. 498. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.
Livi-Bacci, M. (1992) A Concise History of World Population. Oxford: Blackwell.
Mkandawire, T. (ed.) (2004) Social Policy in a Development Context. Basingstoke: Palgrave /Macmillan, and Geneva: UNRISD
Body Politics in Development: the intersections of population policies, sexual rights and well-being
The Course will illustrate how body politics informs the broader social, political and economic discourse of development. It will cover a wide range of issues in relation to body politics: reproduction, care, violence and violation, sexuality and technology. In unpacking and understanding body politics, the course will examine how bodies are taken up in development discourses and practices around population, health, sexuality and social policy will allow students to re-center embodied experiences in development processes and policymaking.
It will examine body politics in four areas. The first area focuses on a gender analysis of population and development policy. It will trace the discourse around population from the 1990s UN conferences through to the Millennium Development Goals and now the emerging Sustainable Development Goals. The second area will focus on the care crisis – looking at how caring for ageing, ill and young people is a gendered issue in body politics that needs much more focused social policy. The third area will focus in detail at sexuality and gender-based violence in gender and development discourse, examining social health issues as well as addressing the complex issues of military violence, religious fundamentalism, sex work and sexual tourism. Lastly the Course will explore technologies and well-being looking at disabilities, assisted birth technologies, and the new biotechnologies that are shaping new ways of understanding choices around health and well-being in social policy.
