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An image to illustrate Introducing global development: poverty, inequality, sustainability module
What is global development in the 21st century? How does development take place? How can we reflect on our understanding of the world to change it? Drawing on case studies and thinkers from across the globe, this module answers questions like these. It explores how power and politics shape the globally interlinked nature of development challenges. Using a range of study materials, you'll explore the interconnections and interrelationships between poverty, inequality, and sustainability in the rapidly changing context of development. You'll learn practical skills for undertaking academic research, including constructing arguments, examining data sets and writing effective campaign material.
This module helps you understand the nature and processes driving development whilst providing social sciences concepts, skills, and approaches to engage and intervene in (unresolved) development challenges. The three main interconnected themes of poverty, inequality, and sustainability as well as their intersections relating to contemporary development issues are explored through six blocks.
Block 1 focuses on the core question: What is global development? By examining the multidimensional nature of this question, the block engages with the significance of historical and geographical perspectives and the role of politics in development. It explores questions such as how we got here and who does development. Featuring two bespoke documentary films shot in Scotland and Guyana for the module, you will engage with what it means to think about development in context. This block will also recap note-taking, summarising, and referencing skills while introducing you to actor mapping.
Blocks 2 to 4 explore the contemporary nature and impact of poverty, inequality and sustainability, including weeks themed around livelihoods, gender, race, and climate change. These blocks develop your understanding and critical thinking about poverty, inequality and sustainability as development concepts. You'll explore how applying particular ideas has had deep implications for development practice (e.g. through structural adjustment policies or NGO practices). Across these blocks, you'll be introduced to different theories of politics and power that can help explain how development happens. You'll develop skills in examining different forms of evidence about poverty, analysing and writing advocacy and campaign documents, and writing and delivering presentations. You'll also have the opportunity to engage with more bespoke documentaries exploring how historical racial inequalities have shaped global development, alongside different perspectives on sustainable development and the search for climate change solutions in Scotland and Guyana.
Blocks 5 and 6 frame the nature of the over-arching ‘development challenge’ by presenting the three themes together – and presenting these to you as debates to be had rather than particular positions. Block 5 looks at a set of contemporary global development issues – health, water and technology – and relates them to our understanding of poverty, inequality and sustainability. The module concludes by providing an opportunity to reflect, consolidate and review your learning, combining themes, concepts and case studies from across the module. As you review, we ask what decolonising development really means.
At the end of the module, you'll clearly understand what social science perspectives contribute to understanding and intervening in global development challenges, as well as a skill set of real value in both academic and vocational contexts.
You will acquire and apply knowledge and understanding of key development concepts, theories and debates, applying these to your understanding of contemporary development issues. You'll apprehend the nature of development issues not only through theory but also through examples from people’s everyday lives in the global North as well as the global South. This will help you explain and evaluate the relationship of power and politics with poverty, inequality and sustainability, with the ability to assess their impact on real-world development issues.
As well as building your interdisciplinary social science knowledge, you'll develop practical and transferable skills. These include critical thinking, report and essay writing, making presentations, ICT skills, collaborative working skills, and synthesising and applying knowledge. You'll also learn how to:
This module offers a comprehensive grounding in the study of development at OU level 2 and provides opportunities to develop skills relevant to your current or future career. The module provides a broad set of transferable skills and aptitudes relevant to many career pathways, ranging from critical writing skills to developing your ability to think reflectively about your views and work with others.
Studying this module, as part of a social sciences qualification, could open up employment opportunities in a wide range of occupations in politics, business, banking, insurance; education, health professions, administration, law; social services, voluntary and campaigning organisations, the media; public relations; public service organisations and government (national and local); planning and environmental management; criminal justice system; and social welfare organisations.
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Course work includes:
You’ll be provided with two printed module books and have access to the module website, where the majority of the module content is delivered, which includes:
You can study this module on its own or use the credits you gain towards an Open University qualification.
D229 is an option module in our:
Introducing global development: poverty, inequality, sustainability starts once a year – in October.
This page describes the module that will start in October 2026.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2035.
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.
There are no entry requirements. As this is an OU level 2 module, you are expected to have the skill set equivalent to having completed an OU level 1 module. We recommend that you start with our key introductory module, Global challenges: social science in action (D113). This interdisciplinary OU level 1 module, with its integrated teaching of key study skills, provides a firm foundation for OU level 2 study.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the module, please speak to an adviser.
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying D229 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our Disability support website.
StartEndRegister byEngland fee
03 Oct 202630 Jun 202710 Sep 2026£4,088
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