Curriculum

According to Paul Valéry „the future is not what it used to be“. We can study the past, and we can understand it to a large extent and interpret it in different ways, but we cannot change it. On the contrary, we can never certainly predict or know the future, but through our thoughts, words, and actions, we can influence it to a certain extent. The discipline dealing with the study of possible futures is called foresight and its aim is not to predict the future, but to think about it, debate on it, and partially influence it in a desirable way. It is open to alternative futures; the future can evolve in different directions. Foresight is also participatory; it does not concern a narrow circle of experts but involves a number of diverse actors. And it is multidisciplinary; a problem cannot be properly understood if it is greatly reduced in order to fit into boxes of individual scientific disciplines. During the introductory course two methods of foresight will be discussed: the Delphi method and using visions in foresight. And two specific topics are included: world population prospects and challenges of migration.

According to the UN World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) sustainable development is such that „meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In its broadest sense, the strategy for sustainable development aims to promote harmony among human beings and between humanity and nature“. During the course the following topics will be tackled and discussed: human values compatible and incompatible with sustainable development; economic aspects of sustainable development; technological aspects of sustainable development; political and institutional aspects of sustainable development, consumption and production patterns; indicators of sustainable development; promoting sustainable development (summits, strategies); sustainable retreat or collapse as alternatives to sustainable development.

The course is about the measurement, problems, and prospects of development in the globalized world. While the focus of the course is on developing countries, many topics are relevant also for advanced countries. The course takes a broad picture and provides an analytical overview of a dozen development issues, including the geographical dimension and the role of national and international policies. The topics covered in the course typically include the concept and measurement of (sustainable) development; regional aspects of development; poverty and inequality; human resources (population, health and education); and trade and finance (trade and industrialization, microfinance, and development aid). Though development issues are viewed mainly from an economic perspective, the course is taught in a non-technical way (the knowledge of introductory economics is therefore an advantage, but not required).

Covering the following topics: i) life on Earth and human environment during cultural evolution; ii) characteristics of selected contemporary global problems and; iii) problems of global environmental governance, the students learn about the concept of sustainable development and present model of human environment. The second part of the course is focused on interactions between human society and the environment in economically less developed countries through inquiring into the following topics: i) the complexity of (theoretical) relations between poverty, development and the environment; ii) environment and development challenges of drylands iii) environment and development challenges of developing tropics; iv); policies and practices focusing on nature conservation and human development (namely traditional exclusionary conservation, community-based approaches and market-based conservation).

The course Development Theories and Anthropology critically analyzes various development theories and discourses that evolved over time and influenced the development thinking and practice. In particular, this course examines the historical context, the theoretical assumptions, the key arguments and the policy implications of development theories and processes. It also highlights how theories and processes shape the research agenda and empirical studies in the field of development, how these theories criticize one another, and how their criticism have led to reformulation with the changing situations in the late 20th and the early 21st century. The course covers the reflections on development alternatives, including indigenous worldviews and endogenous development approaches. After the completion of the course, students will be expected to understand different perspectives and theories of development, the importance of history, power and culture in development practices, and to discuss implications of different theories for development policy in practice.

Grounded in the current theoretical debates, the aim of this course is to provide the orientation and allow for the critical analysis of the selected concepts related to the internal political processes on country level as well as the issues related to the wider international politics and security that have impact on such internal processes and vice versa. It specifically focuses the contemporary debates on modern states formation, political regimes, democracy designs, building of democratic institutions and good governance, transitions and the role of external actors in such processes, etc.

The main aim of the course is to introduce the students to qualitative and quantitative aspects of academic research, including the philosophy and theory of science, ethics of research and the indicators of quality. It also intends to create space for the students to understand and command the variety of concrete qualitative research techniques of data collection and analysis and to introduce them to the application of elementary quantitative tools for analysis of development issues. Students are going to be introduced to ATLAS.ti for qualitative research and they are going to use STATA software in order to be able to work with various datasets to analyze key development issues.

The aim of the course is to provide students with an overview of geographical, socio-economical, political and environmental issues related to development in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The course analyzes specific development opportunities and challenges in these regions.

This course offers insights into the politico-economic analysis of international development policies. Students will obtain an overview on the state of the art of empirical research on development aid and other international development policies. The course discusses the determinants of aid allocation, up-to-date methods for evaluating aid effectiveness at the macro and micro level, the role of conditionality, and potential reasons for the ineffectiveness of aid projects. It also covers non-state development actors, international development organizations, and so-called new donors such as China and India. Students learn to analyze international development policies with politico-economic theories and empirical methods. More specifically, the course covers the following topics (e. g. bilateral aid giving, multilateral aid giving, emerging donors and lenders, poverty targeting and political capture of aid within countries, aid effectiveness, side effects of aid, aid and migration, trade policies, debt relief, humanitarian assistance).

This course examines development economics issues from a micro perspective. The focus is on understanding the measurement, causes, and consequences of poverty at the household level. After successful completion, students will understand poverty in developing countries, including its measurement and key determinants. The objective of the course is that students can explain the linkages between poverty, hunger, gender inequality, and fertility; analyze how market failures in markets for land, labor, capital, and insurance can trap households in poverty; derive appropriate policy recommendations to tackle poverty traps; use regression analysis and interpret results to assess determinants of poverty and ways to overcome it.

The course deals with common quasi-experimental approaches for measuring causal effects in developing economics. The content focuses on the distinction between correlation and causality and provides students with a statistical toolkit which will allow them to plan and conduct their own independent research. Special attention will be paid to the specific assumptions necessary for each technique to measure causal effects and common threats to identification (such as selection bias). The course will also train students in R, an open-source programming language that is increasingly used for econometric analysis. Students will learn how to use quasi-experimental techniques in a practical manner by solving assignments in R, writing a referee report, and presenting their own quasi-experimental research idea.

The course deals with different aspects of relevant economic topics in the field of development economics on the basis of a current issue.

The course aims to lead debates on contemporary issues in international development taught by guest lecturers.

The module consists of economic valuation of the environment and presents the non-market valuation techniques, especially stated preference approaches which are becoming more and more popular. Sustainable development economics II provides economic tools to analyze and provide policy recommendations on important topics of sustainable development. The course also deals with climate change economics and environmental economics.

The goal of this course is to study the econometric methods used for macroeconomic analysis (time series and panel data analysis). After an introduction on the various forms of data transformations, we will study the notions of stationarity, unit roots, and the corresponding tests. Next classes will focus on cointegration, and how to build models and interpret results. Finally, we will analyze methods and models applicable to panel data.

The course aims at: be able to critically engage with the key policy debates in international development cooperation and be able to identify constraints that may impede implementation of pro-development policies. The course of international development applies political economy theories and concepts to real cases of development policy reflecting upon the different nature of collective action problems underlying many obstacles for development (coordination, disagreement, defection, distribution ) and the potential and limitations of institutional/technical solutions for these problems.