Understanding global development

The new dynamics of prosperity, poverty and inequality generate difficult questions for development activists, practitioners and researchers around the world. How do we secure the social and economic wellbeing of the many and not just the few? Can we pursue economic growth while sustaining environmental resources? Does technological innovation let us live in more socially and environmentally sustainable ways? Addressing questions such as these requires advanced understanding, innovative ideas and critical thinking. If you want to build these capacities, then this module is for you.

This module enables you to understand and respond to key issues in global development in whatever context you are working more effectively. You'll be able to reflect critically on dominant approaches to development and explore development alternatives, enhancing your capacities to negotiate development effectively and work towards more socially and environmentally sustainable futures.

Vocational relevance

The module will have particular relevance if you’re working or want to work in development-related fields in the UK or around the world. It serves as a gateway for anyone who wishes to enter the field of global development and as a challenge to the thinking and practice of anyone who is already established in the field. With its breadth of focus across development theory and practice, the module is designed to equip you with the capacities to undertake a wider range of careers in development-related fields, including academic and applied research, the design and management of development projects and interventions, and development policy analysis and formulation.

Module

Module code
DD870
Credits

Credits

  • Credits measure the student workload required for the successful completion of a module or qualification.
  • One credit represents about 10 hours of study over the duration of the course.
  • You are awarded credits after you have successfully completed a module.
  • For example, if you study a 60-credit module and successfully pass it, you will be awarded 60 credits.
60
Study level
Across the UK, there are two parallel frameworks for higher education qualifications, the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Northern Ireland and Wales (FHEQ) and the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). These define a hierarchy of levels and describe the achievement expected at each level. The information provided shows how OU postgraduate modules correspond to these frameworks.
OU Postgraduate
SCQF 11
FHEQ 7
Study method
Distance learning
Module cost
See Module registration
Entry requirements

Find out more about entry requirements.

What you will study

This module introduces the key theories, approaches, and processes shaping contemporary development. You'll explore the major development issues of our times, including migration, socio-economic security, environmental sustainability, technological innovation, and the politics of development, and examine the global frameworks shaping our responses, most notably the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

You'll be provided with a comprehensive and critical overview of dominant development thinking and practice, as well as gain exposure to new approaches that recognise the global nature of contemporary development issues and their relevance to ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries alike. In exploring development practices and processes across the global ‘North’ and ‘South’, you'll be equipped with the conceptual tools to critically understand and respond to key development issues. This will involve recognising the importance of taking a historical perspective and being attuned to the different scales at which development unfolds, from the local to the global levels. Questions of power and agency are also central to this, enabling you to comprehend and negotiate the contested nature of development and the ways in which change occurs.

This module balances development theory, policy and practice, using case studies to reveal how development thinking, interventions and processes operate in diverse and challenging contexts. There are five main blocks of study that build on one another to deepen your learning as you progress through the module as follows:

Block 1 introduces you to the latest debates in development thinking and practice, highlighting how contemporary development issues are increasingly seen to be global in scope, connecting and affecting countries across the ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ worlds.  The block moves on to critically examine the SDGs as the leading example of global development thinking in practice, asking what constitutes a global development issue, who decides, and how responses are formulated. Crucially, it ends by introducing an analytical framework based on concepts of Power, Agency, Scale and History (PASH) as a key tool for understanding and responding to major development issues explored through the module.

Block 2 builds on this by further developing the Scale and History elements of PASH and using them to explore the key development issues of socio-economic security and migration. In doing this, it critically examines the analytical value of different historical and scalar approaches and how they can be used to understand global development issues. It focuses on global development issues, such as migration and socio-economic security, as processes occurring at a range of intersecting scales (from the individual and household to the international and global) which are shaped by historical events and economic models such as structuralism and neoliberalism.

Block 3 follows by developing the Power and Agency elements of the PASH analytical framework and uses them to explore the key development issues of environmental sustainability and technological innovation. It looks at the major theoretical ideas and perspectives underpinning notions of power and agency and how these can be usefully employed in analysing the inherently contested political processes shaping development issues and attempts to make change happen.

Block 4 brings together your learning from Blocks 2 and 3 to explore how the four elements of PASH intersect and can be utilised together in making sense of and responding to global development issues. It does this through a particular focus on the key development issues of the global politics of development and the politics of 'doing' development.

Block 5, as the final block, provides space for you to review and consolidate your learning from the module, allowing you to look back on what you have learnt and to prepare for the end-of-module assessment. 

Woven throughout these blocks is a comprehensive skills development programme that equips you with both the capacities to study at postgraduate level and the ability to independently examine and critically interrogate development thinking, policy and practice. You will have opportunities to develop and practise digital literacy and academic writing and reading skills and also to create a network of peers. You will be part of a cohort of development scholars and practitioners around the world, and your collaborations and debates with peers will be an important part of your development as a critical and reflective problem solver.

Teaching and assessment

Support from your tutor

This module provides the support and guidance needed for distance learning, working at a postgraduate level, potentially for the first time, and the academic skills to enable you to progress through this module. You'll be a member of a tutor group and have a tutor to work with you and your group. You and your tutor can stay in touch by email, phone and through the tutor group forum. The tutor group forum also gives you an opportunity to meet the other students in your group and discuss key issues arising from the module. Your tutor may also flag issues to the whole group – whether about module content or points of information about the study process. Your tutor will organise online tutorials and provide details about the schedule. Finally, the tutor will mark your assignments and give feedback on them.

Contact us if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.

Assessment

The assessment details for this module can be found in the facts box.

Course work includes

4 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs)
End-of-module assessment

Future availability

Understanding global development starts once a year – in October. This page describes the module that will start in October 2025. We expect it to start for the last time in October 2031.

Regulations

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.

Entry requirements

There is no educational requirement for this module. It will be beneficial if you hold a bachelors degree from a UK university or the equivalent. If you do not have a degree, you will need to be adequately prepared for postgraduate study. Your spoken and written English must be of an adequate standard, as you will be required to write essays and reports at a high level.

If you are unsure whether your previous study or experience will sufficiently prepare you for this module, please contact us for advice.

Register

Start End Fee Register
04 Oct 2025 Jun 2026 Not yet available

Registration closes 18/09/25 (places subject to availability)

Register
This module is expected to start for the last time in October 2031.

Future availability

Understanding global development starts once a year – in October. This page describes the module that will start in October 2025. We expect it to start for the last time in October 2031.

Additional costs

Study costs

There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as set books, a computer and internet access.

Ways to pay for this module

We know there’s a lot to think about when choosing to study, not least how much it’s going to cost and how you can pay.

That’s why we keep our fees as low as possible and offer a range of flexible payment and funding options, including a postgraduate loan, if you study this module as part of an eligible qualification. To find out more, see Fees and funding.

Study materials

What's included

The study planner forms the central spine of the module website and structures your study week by week. It contains the teaching material, which includes readings and audio-visual materials. The activities in the teaching material will often ask you to reflect on your own experiences. At certain points you will be asked to share your comments and views with other students on this module and your tutor.

Computing requirements

You’ll need broadband internet access and a desktop or laptop computer with an up-to-date version of Windows (10 or 11) or macOS Ventura or higher.

Any additional software will be provided or is generally freely available.

To join in spoken conversations in tutorials, we recommend a wired headset (headphones/earphones with a built-in microphone).

Our module websites comply with web standards, and any modern browser is suitable for most activities.

Our OU Study mobile app will operate on all current, supported versions of Android and iOS. It’s not available on Kindle.

It’s also possible to access some module materials on a mobile phone, tablet device or Chromebook. However, as you may be asked to install additional software or use certain applications, you’ll also require a desktop or laptop, as described above.

If you have a disability

Written transcripts of any audio components and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) and Microsoft Word versions of online material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader (and where applicable: musical notation and mathematical, scientific, and foreign language materials may be particularly difficult to read in this way). Other alternative formats of the module materials may be available in the future.

To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our disability support pages.

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