Economic and social development (Chaire Marie et Alain Philippson)

The course has two complementary 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, migration, multiculturality and segregation. Each time we make links with the challenges related to sustainable development. 

This course is to be situated within the initiative Sustainable Development of the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (« Sustainable Development@SBSEM »).

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.

The course is part of the Human Development section of the Sustainble Development programme.

lectures and guest lectures
group work

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

will be shown in class and on université virtuelle

Course notes

• Université virtuelle

Additional information

this course is taught in English

Contacts

Professors are Philip Verwimp (philip.verwimp@ulb.be) and Dirk Jacobs (dirk.jacobs@ulb.be)
Maria Spiliotopoulou is teaching assistant (maria.spiliotopoulou@ulb.be)

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• written examination
• Group work
• Other

written examination

• Open question with short answer

Group work

Other

The written final exam will have two parts corresponding to each respective part of the course. There is no intermediate exam or essay. However, the group work (on sustainable development) does count for the score in the first session. The course instructors reserve the right to invite any student to an additional oral interview in order to verify their personal mastery of the content of the submitted examination, particularly when inconsistencies identified in the examination prevent the instructor from properly assessing the student's level of knowledge and competence in relation to the intended learning outcomes of the course.

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

For the exam part, half of the score is determined by the two respective components of the course. The group task is also taken into account for the evaluation, at least during the first session. 

Language(s) of evaluation

• english