The Political Economy of Development (944M1)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

The module examines the political economy of development, focusing on how changes at the international level affect developing countries' national-level strategies for interaction with and integration into the global economy. You will focus on the performance of the world economy as a whole, and on international systems for production, trade, finance, including the principles and rules upon which interaction on a world scale is based. You will consider how countries and firms are integrated into the world system and the barriers and opportunities they face in upgrading and moving up the global income ladder. You will examine how labour has been affected by, and affects, the process of globalisation, and in contrast to most thinking in international political economy, address these issues from the perspective of the low and middle-income countries.

You will gain an understanding of how less developed countries (LDC) have been, and are being integrated into the world system, consider how the nature of the world system influences the form of integration, and discuss alternative forms of integration that lead to more favourable developmental outcomes for LDC's.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 267 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2022/23. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.