TAFAHUC15U How to understand ’Corruption’: policy making and the socio-cultural aspects of economic practices

Volume 2013/2014
Content
Since the 1990’s corruption has become a key notion in development politics. Policy making actors seem to have an implicit agreement about what corruption is about and how to eradicate it. As Anti-corruption politics have become a condition for receiving development aid, almost every African country now has an anti-corruption commission or at least a clearly formulated policy on the subject. During the last decades, the academic study of corruption has developed from being essentially an object of political science and economics to occupying an important place within anthropology and related disciplines. Whereas those first disciplines focus mainly on quantitative data, models of governance and state building, the latter highlights the importance of understanding local meanings of practices labelled ’corruption’.

The course aims at providing students with an overview of the multiple approaches to the topic and an understanding of the conceptual contribution of each discipline. The focus will be on both the development within each discipline and trends within current research. Through the course we will discuss how different academic fields contribute to our understanding of “corruption”, but also how the academic study of corruption often opens up new understandings of social, economic and political structures in Africa that may be relevant for both academic perspectives and for actors in the field.

The course will combine readings from anthropology, political science and development studies as well as (to a lesser extend) economics. The readings will be both theoretical and empirically oriented literature (with case studies from West and East/Southern Africa).
Learning Outcome

Academic goals
The aim is for the student to acquire the following qualifications:

  • Ability to select, in consultation with the instructor, a relevant sub-topic within the overall focus area of the thematic course. The sub-topic will often be empirical in nature and geared towards specific conditions inAfrica, but it can also be more theoretical.
  • Ability to independently and critically select relevant literature on the sub-topic to be studied.
  • Ability to independently and critically analyse the sub-topic in question and to place it within the overall context of the thematic course in question.
The course combines lectures and classroom discussions, including student presentations.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Course Preparation
  • 272
  • Exam
  • 120
  • Total
  • 420
Credit
10 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Exam period
June 2014
Criteria for exam assesment

The grade of 12 is given at the exam when the student demonstrates:

  • Confident ability to identify and define a sub-topic and an issue of relevance to the overall theme of the thematic course.
  • Confident ability to independently and critically select relevant literature on the sub-topic to be studied.
  • Confident ability to independently and critically analyse the sub-topic in question and the chosen literature.
  • Confident ability to conduct an interdisciplinary analysis of the sub-topic in question and to place it within the overall theme of the thematic course in question.
  • Confident ability to communicate academic material in a clear, concise and well-argued manner.
Credit
15 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination, 45 min.
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Exam period
June 2014
Criteria for exam assesment

The grade of 12 is given at the exam when the student demonstrates:

  • Confident ability to identify and define a sub-topic and an issue of relevance to the overall theme of the thematic course.
  • Confident ability to independently and critically select relevant literature on the sub-topic to be studied.
  • Confident ability to independently and critically analyse the sub-topic in question and the chosen literature.
  • Confident ability to conduct an interdisciplinary analysis of the sub-topic in question and to place it within the overall theme of the thematic course in question.
  • Confident ability to communicate academic material in a clear, concise and well-argued manner.