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HIST-S171

Economic history and economic geography



BROCHURE

academic year

2024-2025

2025-2026

Course teacher(s)

Julien del Marmol (Coordinator) and Hugo Perilleux

ECTS credits

Language(s) of instruction

english

Course content

Economic geography

The course will examine territorial inequalities at global and from a historical perspective. The course is based on an alternative theoretical basis to the dominant models: classical liberal, new economic geography , institutional economic geography or the network paradigm. This alternative is focused on the historical construction of development inequalities understood within the framework of the development of capitalism and the succession of its growth regimes. On the one hand, through the extension and deepening of market relations, capitalism transforms the global space and sets up a division of labor on a global scale which has nothing natural but is based on relations of strength to constantly renewed springs. On the other hand, the succession of stable growth regimes (mercantilist – competitive – Fordist – flexible) periodically redesigns the economic geography (and the conditions for economic success). At the conclusion of the course (rather than in the introduction), we will present the other models of economic geography to clarify their respective contributions and better explain the theoretical positioning that has been proposed.

Economic history
The course focuses on a number of the following themes: productive systems; industrial revolutions; production, trade and consumption patterns; globalized economic spaces; social policies; financial and monetary framework; crises and recoveries: (States and economy); organizational phenomena; knowledge society.

Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)

Economic geography
The educational approach must provide knowledge instruments that can constitute a useful basis for the development of independent learning. It goes without saying that this involves the need to develop a critical mind; It is still necessary to specify the instruments by which a lecture course in economic geography can achieve this. In this regard, I consider several important areas:

give students simple conceptual benchmarks for measuring inequalities (GDP/inhabitant, etc.) as well as numerical benchmarks. At the end of this course, a student should know that Japan is approximately as rich as Europe but that the Chinese are still almost 5 times poorer than the Belgians (World Bank figures in PPP)! He must know that agriculture represents less than 5% of developed economies, that fertility in the Maghreb is now similar to that of Europe, or that extra-European trade does not exceed 25% of EU GDP after several decades of globalization. Armed with such benchmarks, the student is not only able to challenge well-established clichés but must also be able to question the meaning to be given to the figures;
twist the neck of preconceived ideas about development, in particular the role of geographical determinism and demography in the question of development. The first of these ideas can be read in this often-heard phrase: “the country is rich but its population is poor”. By showing, for example, that economic development has almost never relied on the export of raw materials, we can get rid of the first idea. By discussing the complex relationships between demographic growth and economic development, we can exclude the idea that underdevelopment is explained by excess birth rates in poor countries;
the course must establish the concept of scale – at the heart of any geographical approach and too often neglected by non-geographers working in the territory – and thus show that the same apparent problem (territorial inequalities of wealth in this case ) can have different springs depending on the scale at which it is approached; finally, show the benefit of an approach that takes history into account: inequalities are constructed, reproduced and recomposed from a historically constructed space.

Economic history

This course aims to provide general training in economic history. The emphasis is placed on the long-term evolution of globalising economic systems, with a particular focus on the economic development of European societies in touch with world history.

Teaching methods and learning activities

Economic geography
1. The conditions of a lecture do not allow the development of an ideal pedagogy based on autonomy and interactivity. This therefore requires, beyond the necessary clarity of the speech, to construct the presentation starting from concrete benchmarks. As far as possible, the courses will be constructed according to the following scheme: setting up questioning; progressive construction of a response from documents (photographs, maps, tables, graphs); gradual implementation of concepts; more theoretical synthesis in conclusion.

2. Exam preparation exercises are also distilled into the course

Economic history

Ex-cathedra course.

Course notes

Syllabus
Université virtuelle

Contribution to the teaching profile

Economic geography
Apply fundamental concepts, tools and models in economics and management to formulate a well-defined problem and propose a multidisciplinary solution relevant to the economic context (Introduction)
Display critical thinking, logical and abstract reasoning and develop an independent approach to learning (Introduction)

Economic History
Apply fundamental concepts, tools and models in economics and management to formulate a well-defined problem and propose a multidisciplinary solution
Display critical thinking, logical and abstract reasoning and develop an independent approach to learning

Other information

Contacts

Economic History: Julien del Marmol (teacher)

Economic geography : Gilles Van Hamme

Campus

Solbosch

Evaluation

Method(s) of evaluation

written examination

written examination