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11.945 Issues in Industrialization
Analysis of Field Research Findings: Comparative Industrial Development and
Policy Reform
Fall 1998
MIT 11.945 (3-0-9) Professor Meenu Tewari
T: 2:30-4:30 Room 3-405b, mtewari@mit.edu
Room 5-134 Office hours: T, R: 5:00-7:00
Course Objectives:
This course is designed for students who have already conducted field
research and are currently engaged in the process of analyzing their
findings and writing up their research. The course grounds the process of
analyzing students field research findings within a critical examination
of current debates and controversies surrounding issues of local
industrialization, regional economic development, labor market processes,
the informal economy and shifts in bureaucratic practices with respect to
local industrial development.
The themes examined include: the rise of regional industrial clusters,
export and domestic market performance, technical change, the social
construction of distribution networks, revitalization of inner city
neighborhoods through revised manufacturing and commercial policies aimed
at informal firms, labor market responses to industrial restructuring and
tightening immigration laws, and links between economic growth and
environmental protection policies. Based on focused readings (on average
one reading per session) and discussions of students research projects,
the course will mine the individual projects and readings to look for clues
to a more informed understanding of the social and political processes
surrounding the economic pressures facing firms, workers, and local
bureaucrats. It will examine the implications of this understanding for
policy responses aimed at improving incomes, deepening the human and social
capital of communities, and fostering diversified and locally rooted
economic growth. Comparisons across the individual student research
projects will also help shed light on the controversies and contradictions
inherent in this process of locally-based economic change.
The course is designed more as a workshop, and high levels of class
participation are required. Students must come prepared to discuss the
week s readings, as well as give feedback on each others research
projects. In the first half of the course students will complete three
short assignments. The second half of the course is built around the
preparation and discussion of each student s draft research paper. Grades
for the class will be based on the assignments, regular attendance of
class, involved participation in giving feedback on each others projects,
and the improvement in the quality of work and progress made over the
course of the semester.
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