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Syllabus

P000053 Rural environments in transition: Development and governance in the global north, 7.5 Credits

Subjects

Rural Development

Education cycle

Postgraduate level

Grading scale

Language

English

Prior knowledge

Accepted as a PhD student.

Objectives

The course provides a foundation for addressing rural development as a field of scientific enquiry which includes questions of rural transformation and environmental politics. The course centers on rural areas in the global North, with rural Europe and Sweden as a particular focus.

Upon completion of this course, the students will be able to:

• relate the student’s individual research topic to a selection of key topics (rural structural transformations, rural governance, territory and access, gender relations, migration and indigenous perspectives) within the fields of rural and environmental relations and development;
• recognize different dimensions of change across diverse rural geographies in Europe;
• critically apply theories and analytical concepts, relevant for the selected key topics, to analyze rural areas in the global north and Europe in particular.

Content

The course introduces students to the advancements of research on rural development in the global north, and addresses critical questions facing rural areas of today in relation to attempts of development. This includes providing an understanding of the past decades of rural restructuring and agrarian change, questions of ownership of and access to resources and the shift from government to governance characterizing rural and environmental politics, as well as the gendered, ethnic and classed nature of all these issues. The focus of the assignments throughout the course is to help the students to develop their abilities to analyze their own research questions in relation to a broad understanding of rural development.

Additional information

This course is part of the research school People, Society and Sustainability, a joined research school between the Department of Economics and the Department of Urban and Rural Development.

Course-coordinators and teachers: Patrik Cras & Seema Arora-Jonsson.

Teachers: Ildikó Asztalos Morell, Kajsa Kuoljok, Katarina Pettersson, Arvid Stiernström & Cecilia Waldenström.

The course is designed so that you will have classes at SLU, campus Ultuna, one week and classes at Runö in Åkersberga the following week, followed by participation at the national rural conference held at the same location. You will also have one week to write your reflections and prepare your presentation.

Responsible department

Department of Urban and Rural Development