The discipline of Global Development Studies examines development, inequality and justice especially in the global South. We explore social, political, environmental and cultural changes and continuities from a multidisciplinary perspective. Global Development Studies diverse South-North relations in the globalising world. In Finland, Global Development Studies exists as a separate discipline only at the University of Helsinki, where it is a highly popular, well-established social science discipline.
Global Development Studies scholars combine different theoretical, methodological, and analytical lenses. We interpret cultural, political, economic, environmental, and social change, with a view to understanding and explaining complex processes of global transformations. These are analysed from the perspectives of historical as well as contemporary contexts first and foremost – although not solely – in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The areas that Global Development Studies primarily studies were connected to the world economy through colonialism and to the global system as possessions of European colonial powers. The study of the global South entails historical and contemporary global connections (capitalism, colonialism, aid, trade, etc.), and the domination, hierarchies and inequalities attached to them. Global Development Studies is interested in the effects of globalisation, environmental change, and development policy on the opportunities of people in the global South to make choices about their lives.
Global Development Studies is a dynamic, pluralist, and popular multidisciplinary and internationally oriented discipline at the University of Helsinki . Its current focus areas include the following:
Head of discipline: Professor Markus Kröger
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