Economic and social development (Chaire Marie et Alain Philippson)

We put a lot of emphasis in this course on the clarification of concepts used by development economists and sociologists to describe and analyze the economic and institutional situation in developing countries and Europe. We explain why these concepts were developed and what type of reality they are (un)able to capture. Concepts treated are ‘the poverty line’, ‘the multidimensional analysis of poverty’, ‘human development’, ‘the demographic transition’, ‘autocratic versus democratic institutions’, ‘the greed versus grievance theory of conflict’.

Next to teaching the core concepts of our respective disciplines, we plan a few sessions together in class where we confront insights from the sociology of the welfare state and the sociology of migration in Europe with the economics of development and poverty in developing countries. It makes a lot of sense to look at these two sides of the same coin in globalized economy, where events who seemingly happen far away have a profound impact on our own societies. We will apply this to the European Refugee Crisis.

This course contributes to the Human Development pedagogical pathway of the Sustainable Development initiative that seek to provide an integrated training in sustainability.

The course has two parts: development economics and sociology of the welfare state. In the first part we study the economics of poverty, population growth, economic and political institutions, the delivery of health and education in developing countries, violent conflict. In the second part we study the sociology of poverty and inequality in Europe and focus on the topics of migration, multiculturality and segregation.

lectures and guest lectures

Contribution au profil d'enseignement

From the 'Profile d'Enseignement':

Compentency : ‘acquérant les outils méthodologiques de base (mathématique, statistique, économie, modélisation, informatique, comptabilité, etc.)’;

• Competency :‘ analysant une situation à travers différents canevas disciplinaires (gestion, finance, comptabilité, droit, économie, etc.)

• Comptency : ‘faisant constamment preuve d’esprit critique’;

• Comptency : ‘démontrant une rigueur scientifique de travail et d’analyse’;

• Comptency: ‘maîtrisant les langues étrangères (anglais, néerlandais/allemand)’

Références, bibliographie et lectures recommandées

will be discussed in class

Contacts

The professors for this course are Philip Verwimp and Dirk Jacobs 

philip.verwimp@ulb.ac.be dirk.jacobs@ulb.ac.be

https://sites.google.com/site/philipverwimp1/

During academic year 2024-2025 Philip Verwimp is being secunded by Yvan Guichaoua
Dr Yvan Guichaoua - Brussels School of International Studies - University of Kent

Campus

Solbosch

Méthode(s) d'évaluation

• Examen écrit
• Autre

Examen écrit

• Question ouverte à réponse courte

Autre

Marks will be earned at the final exam that will consist out of two parts, respective to the two parts of the course. There is no intermediate evaluation nor essay. However, there is a group work, which will also be marked.

Construction de la note (en ce compris, la pondération des notes partielles)

For the exam part, 50% of the grade correspond to each part of the exam. The group work is also taken into account for the score, al least in the first session.

Langue(s) d'évaluation

• anglais