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Introducing global development issues

Updated Tuesday, 6 June 2023

Global development is at a critical turning point. This video will explore the key challenges and what you can expect to learn from the OpenLearn courses.  

These courses are derived from the Open University modules DD870 Understanding global development and DD871 Key challenges in global development.

These OpenLearn courses are a set of two, introducing you to ideas of global development and the interconnectedness of the world when it comes to understanding the most pressing social, economic, political, and environmental issues of our times.

You will learn about key global development issues such as migration, socio-economic security, technological innovation and environmental sustainability. You’ll be introduced to a conceptual framework called PASH (power, agency, scale and history) that will help you to make sense of these issues and consider how we might better respond to them.

You will identify how the four key challenges of conflict, governance, justice, and transformation cut-across all areas of global development. These touch upon all people, yet in different ways. 

Such challenges provoke unsettling questions as well as promote alternative visions of what is meant by development.

  • How do we negotiate conflicting interests? 
  • How should resources be managed? 
  • What can guarantee equality and fairness? 
  • What kind of good change do you want? 

The courses can be studied independently, but we recommend you start with Introducing global development and then follow this with Introducing key global development challenges.

 

This content is associated with the Open University courses DD870 Understanding global development and DD871 Key challenges in global development.

 

 

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