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Gendering Extractive Economies (DEVT90057)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
Overview
Availability | August |
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Fees | Look up fees |
Human societies have been dependent on harvesting and extracting resources from the earth. From the wind, water, sun, land, and all the way to the depth of the earth, communities around the world have extracted resources for sustaining their lives or to make profit. Adopting a gender framework, DEVP 90057 focuses on gender relations both in communities involved in extractive economic regimes and within extractive industries. In this class, we will examine how processes of resource extraction are complex, where relations are often shaped by violent conflicts, resistance, and continuous negotiations among different actors. What do the ongoing extractive economic practices tell us about gender relations in our contemporary society? What kinds of cost do communities pay where extractive resource regimes have taken over their land? What kinds of social and political order come up in these communities? Why is it important to make a case for gendering extractive resource practices? Do extractive resource companies value male and female workers equally? What are the risks of ignoring gender issues in the extractive economy discussion? Do men and women have equal decision-making power during for accessing resources and economic opportunities? Taking case studies from mining, fishing, plantation, agribusiness, and juxtaposing human rights campaigns from indigenous movements and local communities resisting corporate companies and industries, this subject aims to provide students with analytical tools to critically engage with the interconnections between extractive economic regimes, development and gender in the 21st century.
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this subject students should be able to:
- engage with key questions and debates in extractive resource economies;
- understand the interconnections between extractive economies and emerging themes of ‘development and progress’;
- have insight into the interrelationship between extractive economies and changing land relations;
- understand the importance of gender relations in extractive economic regimes;
- understand the contemporary political economy of extractive economies and examine who suffers/benefits, and the different debates; and
- gain a dynamics academic grasp of extractive economies and develop critical perspectives on the role these economies play in development more broadly.
Generic skills
On completion of this subject students should:
- be able to construct coherent and convincing argument about extractive economy through a gender framework;
- learn to develop written and verbal communication skills keeping the relationships between extractive economy, development, and gender;
- be able to critically appraise the theoretical debates on extractive economy and gender in the global north and south as well;
- develop the ability to analyze development projects, particularly in areas related to extractive economy, development, and gender;
- acquire skills and ability to shift perspective between academic and policy perspectives; and
- apply research to treat the knowledge, language and workings between the policy and development world and the academic world, on their own merit, while identifying tensions and connections between them.
Last updated: 3 November 2022