Kursinformation

Countries across the Global South have experienced significant economic and social transformations over a relatively short period of time. Such rapid transformations, to what is sometimes labelled ‘modernity’, have been understood in range of different ways. In this course, we consider a new framework for analysing and understanding development and social change. An emergent narrative that builds on concepts of ‘wellbeing’ offers new insights into development and social change for the social sciences and for policy makers. This perspective on change is founded more strongly than has been the case for most of the previous frameworks in how people experience change. In adopting a notion of wellbeing as a way of assessing progress there are a number of important challenges to confront. Foremost amongst these are defining wellbeing in a way that comprehends the profound interdependence of the person and their society and also in a way that acknowledges cultural difference. The course will consider inter alia the range of different ways that societal change can be described or represented: in statistical terms, in terms of accounts of institutional change, in narrative terms describing changes in peoples’ lives. The course will use a range of different types of material – from academic studies to literature to film – to explore how different people report their experience of social change.