Week 6: The roads not taken: Alternatives to development
DVST 6901: The global politics of development (Semester 2,
2026)
September 7, 2026
Radical critics of development as growth have inspired the search for alternatives.
Main reading: Martinez-Alier (2014); McMichael (2014)
Other reading: Freire ([1970] 2005)
Notes
Notes to be added later.
Keywords
food sovereignty, Via Campesina
Learning outcomes
- Understand the role of radical thought and grassroots activism in providing concrete alternative agendas for development
References
Freire, Paulo. (1970) 2005. Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Translated by Myra Bergman Ramos. 30th anniversary edition. New York:
Bloomsbury Academic.
Martinez-Alier, Joan. 2014. “Between Activism and Science:
Grassroots Concepts for Sustainability Coined by Environmental Justice
Organizations.” Journal of Political Ecology 21: 19–60.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1259/e240225ad5367058eb06071efb4bbeb7f1f9.pdf.
McMichael, Philip. 2014. “Historicizing Food Sovereignty.”
The Journal of Peasant Studies 41 (6): 933–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2013.876999.