Week 12: Reparations as a new global politics of inequality
DVST 6901: The global politics of development (Semester 2,
2026)
October 26, 2026
Development has always been a contest between rival worldmaking projects. What if we conceived of change not as intervention but as reconstruction and transition to a new global system?
Main reading: Beckles (2025); Beckles, Chitre, and Richardson (2026); Bell and Biholar (2026)
Other reading: Morena, Krause, and Stevis (2019); Táíwò (2025)
Notes
Notes to be added later.
Keywords
reparations, reconstruction, climate debt
Learning outcomes
- Be able to explain how political questions of development can be reshaped when placed in wider historical frames of reference, particularly those highlighting legacies of slavery and colonialism
- Take a stand on the need for a new world order with new institutions based on different ideas of justice, obligation, and community
References
Beckles, Hilary. 2025. “The Struggle for Reparations in the
Caribbean.” In The Black Atlantic’s Triple Burden,
edited by Adekeye Adebajo, 383–93. Manchester: Manchester University
Press.
Beckles, Hilary, Smit Chitre, and Eugene T Richardson. 2026.
“Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and the Potential Impact on
Human Well-Being.” BMJ Global Health 11 (Suppl 1):
e017217. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2024-017217.
Bell, Karen, and Ramona Biholar. 2026. “The Role of Reparations
for a Decolonized Just Transition: Perspectives from the Anglophone
Caribbean.” Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy
22 (1): 2681709. https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2026.2681709.
Morena, Edouard, Dunja Krause, and Dimitris Stevis. 2019. Just
Transitions: Social Justice in the Shift Towards a Low-Carbon
World. London: Pluto Books.
Táíwò, Olúfẹmi O. 2025. Reconsidering Reparations: Why Climate
Justice and Constructive Politics Are Needed in the Wake of Slavery and
Colonialism. Chicago: Haymarket Books.