While the majority of modules in this specialization engage with questions of inequality in the Global North, this course focuses on Global North-Global South relations to understand differences in economic output, income, and standards of living between and within regions and countries of the Global South. This requires us to identify colonial and imperial relations as critical for understanding the economic success of Europe and the United States in the past and present. The course will illustrate how the colonial legacies shape our mental perceptions of the world and our understanding of political economic “development” as well as people and societies in the Global South. The course will show that the “development” of the Global North was predicated and inextricably linked to the “under-development” of the Global South, that those linkages caused the Great Divergence between the “West and the Rest”. These relationships also resulted in the reconfiguration of social structures, communities, institutions, and ecologies in countries and regions of the Global South that go a long way to explain the often high levels of inequality experienced in many of those countries.  

This is a Global Mindset course. We challenge you to critically reflect on your interpretations and perceptions of the global political economy and attempt to view the world through the eyes of somebody living in the Global South. The course will also force you to reflect on and understand the interconnectedness of global social and economic systems but also appreciate the differences and idiosyncrasies of countries, societies, and people. And finally, the course hopes to foreground and make visible the histories of “the people without history”. 

After completing this module students should:

• Have obtained a broader understanding of inequality beyond income and wealth
• Understand the relationship between spatial, horizontal and vertical inequality
• Be able to explain global inequality as outcome of processes of combined and uneven development
• Be able to better understand how EU/US global economic dominance and higher levels of wealth are predicated on (post)colonial and imperial relations with the Global South
• Understand that vertical and horizontal inequalities within countries are shaped through historical and current relations with other countries 

Specific for Global mindset:

• Read, speak and write in English
• Critical reflexivity regarding one’s own perspectives, experiences and behaviour, in particular in relation to cultural, social and political norms
• Ability to constructively deal with diversity and treat other people with respect, irrespective of their status, culture or personal preferences
• Knowledge on the interconnectedness of global social and economic systems and to reflect on these connections
• Ability to reflectively understand global social and economic systems and their interdependencies as well as their differences

This course is a PI  = physical presence requirement: 100%

Interactive lectures, independent readings, critical in-class discussions

Assessment components

• Active participation: 20%
• Weekly examination of learning progress reports 40%
• Final exam 40%

Grading scheme

1.   =  90-100            
2.   =  80-<90              
3.   =  70-<80                   
4.   =  60-<70         
5.   =  <60                

Enthusiasm, willingless to challenge pre-conceived notions of "development" 

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Sozioökonomie der Ungleichheit - Kurs I und II

Lecturers:
juergen.essletzbichler@wu.ac.at
pooja.patki@wu.ac.at

Teaching Assistant:
rebekka.kasser@wu.ac.at