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A image to illustrate Understanding global development module
This module explores key issues in global development, addressing the challenges of the new dynamics of prosperity, poverty, and inequality that generate difficult questions for development activists, practitioners and researchers. It will enable you to understand and respond to key issues in global development more effectively in diverse contexts. 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.
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 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, 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.
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.
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 can stay in touch with your tutor by email, phone and through the tutor group forum. This forum gives you an opportunity to meet the other students in your group and discuss key issues arising from the module. Your tutor may 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.
Course work includes:
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.
You can study this module on its own or use the credits you gain towards an Open University qualification.
DD870 is a compulsory module in our:
DD870 is an option module in our:
Understanding global development 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 2031.
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 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.
Written transcripts of any audio components, 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, 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.
StartEndRegister byEngland fee
03 Oct 202630 Jun 202717 Sep 2026Not yet available*
*This start date is open for pre-booking, which means you can reserve your place ahead of the fees being confirmed. We’ll publish updated 2026/27 fees and funding information on the 25th of March.
If you study this module as part of an eligible qualification, you can apply for a postgraduate loan to support your study costs. To find out more, see Postgraduate loans in England.
Studying with The Open University can boost your employability. OU courses are recognised and respected by employers for their excellence and the commitment they take to complete. They also value the skills that students learn and can apply in the workplace.
Over 30,000 employers have used the OU to develop staff so far. If the module you’ve chosen is geared towards your job or developing your career, you could approach your employer to see if they will sponsor you by paying some or all of the fees.
You can pay part or all of your tuition fees upfront with a debit or credit card when you register for each module.
We accept American Express, Mastercard, Visa and Visa Electron.
Please note: your permanent address/domicile will affect your fee status and, therefore, the fees you are charged and any financial support available to you. The fee information provided here is valid for modules starting before 31 July 2026. Fees typically increase annually. For further information about the University's fee policy, visit our Fee Rules.
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