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 extend 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 extend. 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 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) the sustainable development is „development 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 included 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 of 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 analyses 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 includes 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 about 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 also 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 module economic theory and policy consists of two courses: Financing for Development covers public and private funding available for development, Development Policy II analyzes the successful development policies implemented in emerging countries with a specific focus on East Asia.

The module consists of four courses. Poverty and Inequality deals with the issues related to defining and measurement of poverty. Long-Run development provides answers to the question of why some countries are so rich and others so poor. Development Microeconomics covers fundamentals of microeconomics a focuses on impact analysis. Decentralization analyses the process and the consequences of transferring political responsibilities and financial resources.

The module Sustainable development II. consists of two courses. Economic valuation of the environment presents non-market valuation techniques. Sustainable development economics II provides economic tools to analyze and provide policy recommendations on important topics of sustainable development.

The module consists of four courses. Econometrics focuses on core estimation techniques and main econometrics tests. Statistical modelling for categorical outcomes introduces methods for count or categorical outcomes. Survey Techniques provides both theoretical underpinnings and practical knowledge to build samples to implement surveys in developing countries. Questionnaire design covers the most up-to-date technologies to design a questionnaire and collect high-quality data.

The course is intended to provide students with an overview of development economics mainly from a microeconomic perspective. The central aim of the course is to present basic analytical and empirical tools to understand household decisions and the functioning of markets and institutions in developing countries. The course will first give an overview of economic development and discuss its measurement.

The course offers students the opportunity to get acquainted with the fundamental features of the international cooperation for development. The first part presents the major actors in international cooperation and the major politics and achievements which have been devised during the last thirty years. The second part examines the general theme of financing for development with a specific focus on recurring financial crises and the issue of sustainability of foreign financing.

The course focuses on developing countries and aims to describe the main features of food security and food security policies in the current context and to understand the role of agricultural development. The specific focus is on food security, agriculture, and climate change.

This course will teach the students to use statistical software STATA for econometric analysis. Students will learn to use STATA for data management, data analysis, and graphical presentation. Together with STATA, the basic tools of programming in Matlab will be presented (loop, cycle for, function, etc.) with a focus on time series analysis.

The course offers an introduction to the quantitative methods commonly used in policy analysis. It introduces solutions to policy development problems through analytical techniques and practical tools appropriate to professional work. Appropriate software such as GAMS, STATA and Excel is used.