240135 VS Anthropological perspectives on urbanization and development in the 21st century (3.3.3) (2014W)

The assumption that more people will live in cities than ever before constitutes a very powerful discourse that undergirds governance practices all over the world. Although urbanization and development have always been imbricated in terms of how economic growth and social welfare have been understood and practiced by states around the world, current development programs give precedence to urbanization in ways that pose particular and new challenges to the livelihood of people, be they in the city or the countryside. Anthropological considerations will serve to explore how the relation between urbanization and development has been altered in and through contemporary practices. This introductory course aims to historically situate the transformations which are specific to this latest round of spatial politics and tries to account for the kind of social and cultural variations it produces on the ground and to what extent this can result in increased social inequalities and wealth disparities.