This module builds upon the conceptual framework and development issues that you encountered in Understanding global development (DD870). The learning resources will enable you to use the key challenges of conflict, governance, justice and transformation to critically re-think and deepen your understanding of the theories, approaches and issues introduced in the previous module.
The module is divided into an introductory block that maps out the challenges and skills you'll focus on, followed by four main blocks that build on one another to deepen your learning as you progress through the module. These blocks are as follows:
Block 1 introduces you to the ways in which conflict, governance, justice, and transformation can be seen as key challenges that cut across all development issues, processes and interventions. You'll also deepen your critical reading and thinking skills, particularly in terms of working effectively with the complexity of development in a wide range of contexts.
Block 2 examines the challenge of conflict, exploring the different ways it is understood and the multiple impacts it has on development. You’ll learn why conflict is considered a key challenge in understanding and addressing global development issues. You’ll also consider how conflict is inherent to development processes. This widens the scope of conflict to include factors such as social hierarchies, access to and control over resources, inequalities, deprivation, and discrimination, as well as historically unresolved conflicts.
Block 3 takes up the challenge of governance, referring to systems for managing collective action problems, for allocating and exercising authority, and for distributing resources within and between societies. Within global development scholarship and practice, much attention has been devoted to getting governance ‘right’ as a way of bringing about development. However, this raises some difficult questions, such as who is empowered by prevailing governance arrangements and who is not? Thus, governance is also often a focus of contestation and conflict.
Block 4 introduces the challenge of justice as central to all debates about global development. You’ll discover its importance in understanding and responding to the impact of systemic inequalities on development, and in terms of building just institutions and public action. You'll also critically examine competing theories of justice and the challenges involved in assessing what a more just world might look like.
Block 5 examines the challenge of transformation in terms of framing and pursuing ‘good change’ and understanding historical transitions of one kind or another. The idea of transformation conceptually guides large-scale visions of development, such as the SDGs and the wider 2030 Agenda. But who decides what kind of transformation should take place, and how is it possible to achieve it? In confronting such questions, you’ll engage with competing understandings of transformation that produce competing visions of development and how it should be pursued.
The final block enables you to review and consolidate your learning from the module as well as giving you an opportunity to prepare for the end-of-module assessment.
The four main blocks (Blocks 2-5) feature ‘exploration weeks’ that provide greater scope to use the respective block challenges to investigate global development issues that are of particular interest and relevance to you. You’ll learn essential skills of independent enquiry whilst exploring how each challenge intersects with the development issue of your choice. Enhancing your study skills and investigative capacities will be beneficial to your academic and professional aspirations, equipping you to join a cohort of development scholars and practitioners around the world.
This module is an essential step in preparing you academically for the dissertation module, Researching global development (DD872), if you intend to complete our MSc in Global Development.
The module will have particular relevance for you if you are 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, such as in 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 it. You will 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 up issues to the whole group, whether about module content or points of information about the study process. Your tutor will also organise online tutorials. Finally, the tutor will mark your tutor-marked assignments and give you feedback on them.
Course work includes:
You'll have access to a module website, which includes:
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 and your tutor.
You can only study this module as part of specific Open University qualifications.
DD871 is a compulsory module in our:
Key challenges in 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 2032.
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.
| Start | End | Register by | England fee |
|---|
| 03 Oct 2026 | 30 Jun 2027 | 17 Sep 2026 | Not 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. |
There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as set books, a computer and internet access.
If your income is not more than £25,000 or you receive a qualifying benefit, you might be eligible for help with some of these costs after your module has started.
There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as set books, a computer and internet access.
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.
If you study this module as part of an eligible qualification, you can apply for a postgraduate loan to help with your tuition fees. To find out more, see Postgraduate tuition fee loans in Northern Ireland.
If you study this module as part of an eligible qualification, you can apply for a postgraduate loan to help with your tuition fees. To find out more, see Postgraduate loans in Scotland.
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 Wales.
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