We are living through a period of rapid economic change manifested in the globalization, neoliberalization, financialization and urbanization of economic activity, the emergence of new motor industries, rapidly occurring climate change and environmental destruction and increasing inequality at the national and international scales. This course shows how these processes are shaped by and shape the economic landscape, how a stretching of economic relations across the world implied by globalization simultaneously requires the investment of capital in particular places resulting in rapid urbanization, in nodes of economic activity from which those global flows of money, people and commodities are managed. The result of the myriad of decisions made by states, multi-national corporations, workers and consumers is a world characterized by uneven economic development. Some countries, regions, cities benefit from those processes while others loose. Trying to explain uneven spatial development is one of the hallmarks of economic geographic research and in this course we will see what this means in relation to the real world economy.

After completing this course students should be able to

• appreciate the relevance of a spatial approach to Economics
• realize how economic geographic research complements economic research
• comprehend why globalization does not lead to the end of geography
• get some grounding in contemporary issues in economic geography
• understand that markets and economy are always embedded in historically and geographically differentiated social, political and environmental relations
• recognize that market institutions are created and shaped by powerful actors (MNCs, states, workers, consumers, etc.) and not just “out there”
• appreciate the complexity of business decisions caused by global value chains and institutional diversity

Students are required to attend 70% of all classes (you can miss a maximum of 7 hours of class time)

• independent critical reading of compulsory literature (before each respective class)
• brief lectures
• videos
• weekly online quizzes to review reading material
• class-discussions
• case study analysis
• in class data analysis and interpretation 

There is a total of 100 points (excl. bonus points):

• 10 in-class online quizzes (5 points each)
  • about the compulsory readings of the week (listed in the table of content or the folder of each week)
  • in the classes 2 to 11
• Final exam (50 points)
  • A minimum of 25 points has to be reached in the final exam in order to pass the course.
• In class group work and class participation (1 bonus point per week possible)

More information on the contents can be found under "Literature".

Grading:

There are no specific requirements for attending this course.