PS 245, Fall 2009
The Politics of Third World "Development"
Professor Michael Maniates

This same page is also available at: http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/m/mmaniate/ps245

Page maintained by Michael Maniates.  Last update 13 December 2009.

Powerpoint #1: "Waylaid" by the Debt Crisis (to steal Isbister's use of "waylaid")
Powerpoint #2: The Debt Crisis drives "structural adjustment," which in turn opens up the Third World to booming Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) -- which gets us back to the "bomb under the world" while alerting us to yet another reason for the growing economic divide between Asia and Africa
Powerpoint #3: Climate Change as a further engine of regional inequality (Africa is most at risk), gender inequality (women will bear the brunt), and overall poverty.

Bottom Line: Specific, identifiable forces give us a world of poverty and inequality. Particular organizations (e.g. One.org), specific programs (the HIPC initiative), and increasingly visible movements (e.g. "Fair Trade") are fighting these forces. Things could get worse, and in some ways they are: witness the differential in FDI in Africa and Asia, and see how increased climatic variability is already harming the most vulnerable among us. But it needn't be this way. Change happens, for good or for ill. It happens when a relatively small number of people push their agenda forward. We can be part of that change, whether we think of ourselves as conservative or liberal. It isn't difficult, it isn't at odds with environmental conditions or "scarcity," it isn't impossible because of some "fundamental human nature" that paints us as selfish and small, motivated only by money or crisis. It's at our doorstep. Come to the dance.

Authors Analyze, Criticize Foreign Aid Agencies in New Books

Indian Farmer Suicides
More Indian Farmer Suicides

UC Irvine Campus Map
Aldrich Park
Sproul Plaza 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
UC Berkeley Map

Global Climate Zones
Global Vegetation Zones
Global Soils

Population PowerPoint
Largest Cities and Growth Rates
World's Largest Cities
Population Reference Bureau: Urban Agglomerations (Teachers Guide)
World Population Highlights 2007: Urbanization
Future World Population Growth to be Concentrated in Urban Areas of the World

The Colbert Report: Jeffrey Sachs
MDGs 2009

John Polanyi

Environmental (or Ecological) Space Powerpoint

It's a Big Mac Attack!
Article
TV Commercial

Disposable Diapers in China?

BigPictureSmallWorld Movies

The Women's Crusade, NYTimes, August 19, 2009
Just When Africa's Luck Was Changing, NYTimes, August 1, 2009
The Daughter Deficit, NY Times, August 19, 2009
Economic Troubles Roil Africa, NYTimes, August 18, 2009
Just When Africa's Luck Was Changing, NYTimes, August 2, 2009
An Indian Says Farewell to Poverty, With Jitters, NYTimes, August 8, 2009
Study Finds that Prices for Crops Ease, NYTimes, June 17, 2009
Developing a Greener World, NYTimes, June 7, 2009
Smart Step to Help India's Rural Poor, NYTimes, August 27, 2009
Do-It-Yourself Foreign Aid, NYTimes, August 18, 2009

The Essentials
o  Syllabus

Reference Material
HDR 2005