Critical Social Inquiry 0229 - Economic Development

In the last two centuries, the gap in living standards between the richest and the poorest countries has grown enormously. Why? What strategies to halt and reverse this growing unevenness have worked best, and why? Some of our focus will be on poverty traps (vicious circles of poverty) and how to escape from them. Topics will include most of the following: What is development, and what is a rights-based approach to development? Food, land, farming, land reform, and cooperatives; project aid; violent conflict; corruption and predatory behavior; financing of development at the household level (microfinance, migrant remittances) and national level (foreign investment, foreign aid, export orientation, taxation, borrowing); and ways to gain access to advanced industrial and other technologies. Students will do in-depth research in teams on a topic like one of these, focusing on a country and time period, and will be offered the option either of writing a longer research paper, or else of constructing a game based on the real choices that actors face, and justifying its realism by summarizing evidence in a shorter paper.

Power, Community and Social Justice Writing and Research Quantitative Skills Students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time.