Module description
This module explores Latin American development trajectories by analyzing the economic, social, and political history of the region from the twentieth century to the present.
It is composed of ten weekly sessions organized in chronological order. One hour will be allocated to lecturing on the region as a whole. The seminars will be devoted to discussing particular case studies.
The module analyses structures of production and exchange, political dynamics, and social struggles, as well as regional and country-specific reactions to international economic and political influences. It assesses the region’s democratic record and seeks to explain why poverty and inequality have been so persistent.
The central aims of this module are to provide students with a solid understanding of Latin America’s past, and to prepare them to engage critically with contemporary challenges of development.
Assessment details
class presentation (20%) and 2,500 learning journal (80%)
Educational aims & objectives
- Provide students with a solid understanding of Latin America’s past and how it shapes its present.
- Show how levels of inequality, poverty and democracy have waxed and waned over the last century.
- Show how domestic struggles between and within social classes and modes of production contribute to historical change.
- Show how international pressures from foreign governments and global markets constrain and shape the decisions of national actors.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this module:
- Students will be able to identify the central themes in the political economy of development in Latin America from early the twentieth century, up to the present.
- Students will be able to place the Latin American experience in a global context and understand the external constraints and influences operating on the region, its national governments, and its peoples. This will permit a thorough consideration of the regional and national economic and political performances in the period under study.
- Students will have deepened their understanding of key concepts such as neo-colonialism, globalization, liberalism, populism, state led-development, authoritarianism, state terrorism, economic opening and integration, and democratic transition by applying them to concrete Latin American cases.
- Students will have acquired a solid understanding of the historical roots of Latin America’s challenges and opportunities in the twenty-first century.
Teaching pattern
1 hour lecture and 1 hours seminar over 10 weeks or a 2 hour long workshop