Ekonomisk historia: De framväxande ekonomiernas utveckling

Over the last decades, global growth dynamics have shifted towards the economies of the non-Western world. The world is no longer divided between the West and the Rest. Nor is the Rest to the same extent marked by stagnation. In the course, growth dynamics of the developing world during the last decades are explored in a comparative and historical perspective. The question of why some developing economies have been able to set in motion catching-up processes, while others remain stagnant, will be discussed aided by historical-theoretical perspectives with the main focus on countries in Pacific Asia, Africa South of the Sahara and Latin America. It will be theoretically and empirically assessed to what extent the growth of the so-called global South might be sustained. The course is divided into two parts. The first puts heavy emphasis on readings and lectures on analytical perspectives of development and catching up from the viewpoint of classical, although current, questions such as: the role of agricultural transformation, growth-inequality, market integration, possibilities for and experiences of industrial policy, technology transfer, social capabilities, market-state relationship, governance and domestic resource mobilization, poverty/human development. The second part of the course is more student-driven and is devoted to seminar assignments where highly topical themes are discussed on the basis of available empirical data. Examples of questions to be addressed might be: south-to-south investments flows, the impact of China, the extent to which growth is commodity-driven, issues of improving competitiveness and productivity, forces behind poverty reduction. The content of the course is delimited of both teaching and literature.