This lecture will discuss the post-independence push towards industrialization in many developing countries. This emphasis followed from economic growth models that saw capital investment as the key to realizing economic growth with the presumption that improved social conditions would follow. Our discussions and activities of these “top-down” approaches will consider the case of the Akosombo dam project in Ghana and the Green Revolution in India. We will discuss the importance of institutional and political embeddedness of technology in its eventual working. We will conclude the class with various critiques of this approach that will point to the politics involved in framing a development problem and setting up a technology solution for it.
The in-class activity will involve groups of students debating for/against the topic of whether the Green Revolution led to development.