“At this point in time, the world is the scene of a struggle between an old world which is dying yet seeking continued primacy and a new world which is seeking to be born” (Gramsci, 1975 [1930])

We have arrived at a critical conjuncture in human history, where the old political-economic hegemonic system centered around, first Britain and then, the United States, is in decline, but a, possibly, new world order centering around Asia and China is not born yet.  This course will provide a historic-geographical account of the uneven development of the global economy, the rise and fall of countries and regions over the last 500 years and the various theoretical and conceptual building blocks that help us understand how we arrived at the current conjuncture.

Rather than telling a story of European civilizational superiority with economic innovation and trade spreading outwards to “develop” the rest of the world, this course will demonstrate that colonial and imperial relationships with the non-(Western) European world generated the necessary wealth that made possible the industrial revolution in the UK in the first place. Once industrial capitalism was established firmly in Europe and people met their needs for survival primarily through market exchange (rather than subsistence), the structural logic of capitalism unleashed the coercive laws of competition forcing companies to “accumulate for accumulation’s sake” transforming entrenched social relations, modes of provisioning, and patterns of thinking about the world. From those transformations emerged the most productive and innovative but also socially unequal and ecologically damaging social-ecological provisioning system in human history.

The course starts to have a look at where we are and then tracks backwards to examine how we got here. The course will not only describe (how, when, where) but also introduce key theoretical concepts (division of labor, productivity, cumulative causation, path-dependent evolution, unequal exchange, development and dependency theories, Keynesianism, Neoliberalism, Regulation theory, etc.)  that help us understand why things happen in particular historical and geographic contexts, why the world evolved geographically and historically unevenly, and how development in one part of the world has been related to (under)development in other parts of the world.

At the end of the course, students should

• Understand that Economic Development proceeds unevenly over time and across space;
• Be able to apply key socio-economic concepts and theories to explain historically and geographically uneven economic development in general;
• Identify historically and geographically specific political, social and institutional contexts to understand the relative success or failure of particular countries and regions;
• Understand economic processes as embedded in political, social, cultural and environmental contexts and elaborate on the role of institutions to shape economic evolution in those contexts.

Presence in at least 80% of units is mandatory. Students are able to miss 2 units (9/11=81.8%) including those missed because of illness or other excusable reasons. Students are required to catch up with missed content. The session on 15/1 is an extra unit in case one of the previous units has to be cancelled for unforeseen circumstances. You should keep the unit in your calendar. In session 11 (7/1) a written in-class exam will take place. Notice that the exam might move to 15/1 if required. 

The course material will be delivered in form of brief introductory lectures by the instructor to situate the readings and weekly topics. It is expected that students have read the mandatory texts and are able to answer questions or pose questions about the material.  

Following the lectures, students will work as teams on a variety of in-class activities related to the mandatory readings and slides. This will entail that all students have read the mandatory readings and acquired a good grasp of the content in order to participate in those in-class activities.

In final unit, all students will write an in-class closed-book exam on the content of the previous units.

Prior to the first session, a detailed syllabus with weekly topics and readings will be provided on Canvas.

• Active participation on reading-based in-class activities/assignments (eg. presentations; leading discussions; etc.): 30%
• Participation points: 25%
• Final Exam: 45%

 Students are expected to accumulate points in all three assessment criteria in order to pass the course. For all in-class activities and the final exam, AI-based software is not allowed, will be considered cheating and you will receive an incomplete grade. 

Grading scheme:  

>=90% = 1 (excellent)

>=80% - <90% = 2 (good)

>=70% and <80% =3 (satisfactory)

>=60% - <70% = 4 (sufficient)

< 60% = 5 (fail)

In order to participate for this course, WU students must also enroll in the complementary specialization “Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft”. Please register also for the course “Einstieg für Komplementärfach: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft“ (in WiSe 2026/27 it has the LV number 1600). Extra places are assigned to incoming students.

In case of a waiting list, students who are excused for the first unit will be dropped from the course in order to free up space for students on the waiting list. Students will be added to the course based on the place on the waiting list (first-come, first-serve principle).

Please log in with your WU account to use all functionalities of read!t. For off-campus access to our licensed electronic resources, remember to activate your VPN connection connection. In case you encounter any technical problems or have questions regarding read!t, please feel free to contact the library at readinglists@wu.ac.at.

Background Readings:

Beckert, S. (2025) Capitalism - A Global History

Dunford, M. (2026) Rethinking Uneven Development. Edward Elgar.