Comparative Development Studies

Raymond A. Jussaume, Jr. / Maria Fonte

This course will provide students with an overview of the last several decades of theoretical development in Rural Studies and Development Studies leading up to, and including, a review of the concept of Sustainable Development.

Students participating in this course are expected to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to analyse the complex and dynamic processes of sustainable development. It is our educational goal that participating students enhance their understanding and critical sense of reality of the ecological, economic, social and political systems from a multidimensional and multidisciplinary perspective.

This course consists of two different, but mutually intersecting sessions.

The first session (Prof. Maria Fonte and/or Prof. Ivan Cucco, Universita di Napoli Federico II, Italy) will review various practices, discourses and policies on sustainable rural development in the agro-food economy, with special attention to Europe, from rural sociology and/or economic geography approaches.

The second session (Prof. Raymond A. Jussaume Jr., Michigan State University, USA) consists of two parts. In the first part of the session, students will review the main theoretical traditions of development sociology, especially modernization theory, dependency theory, and world system theory. As part of this review, the students will also review some of the main empirical examples used to debate these theories, such as the comparative development of Lain American and East Asian societies. In the second part of the session, the students will be required to apply the concepts they have learned to their own empirical interests and to share these with other class participants.

Development, Transitions and Real Utopias:
Frameworks for the analysis of local food, with a focus on Europe.

Prof. Maria Fonte (University of Naples Federico II)

This series of four seminars aims at offering students a room to discuss different frameworks for the analysis of the current 'crisis' and 'turn' in the global agro-food economy. What is wrong with the present agrifood system? What is the future food system we would like to aim at? What strategies and forms of governance may be better suited to lead us to the desirable future? The articles proposed to reflexion offer different theoretical perspectives on how to direct agro-food economy toward sustainability and social justice. The course wants to stimulate students' participation in order to develop a comparative perspective at global level on these topics.

1) Recent themes in the development of agriculture: quality turn, rural development, alternative food networks 

  • Renting, H. Marsden, T. and Banks, J. 2003. Understanding alternative food networks: exploring the role of short food supply chains in rural development, Environment and Planning A (35): 393-411.
  • Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, Ye Jingzhong, Sergio Schneider, 2010. Rural development reconsidered: building on comparative perspectives from China, Brazil and the European Union, Rivista di Economia Agraria, 2: 163-190.
  • Fonte, M. 2002. Food systems, consumption models and risk perception in late modernity, International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, Volume 10, issue 1 (2002), pages 13-21
  • Fonte, M., I. Cucco, 2015. The political economy of agriculture in Italy, Pp.264-294 in Bonanno, A. and Busch L. Handbook of the International Political Economy of Agriculture and Food, Edgar Elgar.

2) How to conceptualize change: Transitions, Social Practices and Real Utopias

  • Geels, F.W., Schot, J., 2007. Typology of socio-technical transition pathways. Research Policy 36, 399-417.
  • Warde, a. 2014. After taste: Culture, consumption and theories of practice, Journal of consumer culture, 14(3): 279-303.
  • E. O. Wright 2006. Compass points. Towards a Socialist Alternative, New Left Review 41:93-124.
  • Frank W. Geels , Andy McMeekin, Josephine Mylan, Dale Southerton, 2015. A critical appraisal of Sustainable Consumption and Production research: The reformist, revolutionary and reconfiguration positions, Global Environmental Change, 34 (2015): 1-12.

3) Local Food in the transition: a real utopias project? Critique of the present and prefiguration of the future social structure of the agrofood system

  • Fonte, M., 2010. Introduction: food relocalisation and knowledge dynamics for sustainability in rural areas. In: Fonte, M., Papadopoulos, A.G. (Eds.), Naming Food After Places, Food Relocalisation and Knowledge Dynamics in Rural Development. Ashgate
  • Henk Renting, Markus Schermer and Adanella Rossi, 2012. Building Food Democracy: Exploring Civic Food Networks and Newly Emerging Forms of Food Citizenship, International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, Vol.19 (available at https://www.ijsaf.org/contents/19-3/index.html).
  • Hinrichs, C. 2015. Fixing food with ideas of "local" and "place" J Environ Stud Sci DOI 10.1007/s13412-015-0266-4.

4) Democratising Food: foodshed, food councils and new forms of governance

  • Kloppenburg JR, Hendrickson J, Stevenson GW (1996) Coming into the foodshed. Agric Hum Values 13: 33-42
  • Blay-Palmer, A. (2009) The Canadian pioneer: the genesis of urban food policy in Toronto, International Planning Studies vol. 14, 4
  • Marsden, T. (2013) From post-productivism to reflexive governance: contested transitions in securing more sustainable food futures, Journal of Rural Studies, 29
  • Fung A. & E.O. Wright (eds.) (2003) Deepening Democracy. Verso: London
  • Expo 2015, The Milan Charter

Comparative Development Studies: Situating Sustainability within Development

Raymond A. Jussaume, Jr.

1) Introduction: Situating Sustainability within Development

  • Clapp, J. (2012). Food. Cambridge, England: Polity Press. You are expected to read chapter 3, 4, 5 and be well prepared before coming to the classes.
  • Ostrom, Elinor. 2009. A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems. Science. 325: 419-422.

2) Classical Approaches to Conceptualizing Development

  • Matunhu, J. 2011. A Critique of Modernization and Dependency Theories in Africa: A Critical Assessment. African Journal of History and Culture. 3(5): 65-72

3) Why does "Underdevelopment" Persist?

  • Pretty, J. & H. Ward. Social Capital and the Environment. World Development. 29(2): 209-227.

4) Planning and Evaluating Development Strategies

  • Wright, E. O. 2012. Transforming Capitalism Through Real Utopias. American Sociological Review. 78(1): 1-25.

5) Reprise: Situating Sustainability within Development

  • Sen, A. 2013. The Ends and Means of Sustainability. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. 14(1): 6-20.

Assignment:

  • Jussaume, R. & D. Ervin. (Forthcoming). Understanding Weed Resistance as a Wicked Problem to Improve Weed Management Decision. Weed Science.
  • This is a "forthcoming" article Prof Jussaume has co-authored. One of the "final assignments" for the students is to develop a critique of this article based on class discussions. He will explain in more detail during the first day of class. He expects your very critical appraisals of this piece...