Learning objectives
a) Knowledge and comprehension abilities
The student will learn and understand the economic, social, institutional and political- regulatory processes that characterize the global economy development.
b) Ability to use knowledge and comprehension
The student will use the studied issues to understand the economic processes complexity, also with regard to the other disciplines.
c) Judgment autonomy
The student will be able to evaluate the economic processes and develop a critical analysis of the powerful factors that characterize their evolution.
d) Communicative skills
The student will get a lexical and conceptual property essential for the education and the communication of a triennial student in economic issues.
e) Ability to learn
The student will try out an innovative didactic method based on teamwork and cooperative learning.
Prerequisites
None
Course unit content
Why some countries are rich and others poor? What have been the factors that between 18th and 19th centuries allowed both to Europe and North America to complete the great leap towards industrialization and social development? And what are the reasons that in current decades are allowing the rise of countries whose development (India, China, Brics) is redesigning the world geography of wealth?
The course presents and analyses the factors – geography, globalization, technical progress, economic policies, institutions – that caused the economic development of the different areas of the world.
The course has a global approach and analyses the rise of the Western World and the spread of the industrialization in America, with the consequent change of the international hegemony. Moreover, it will be analysed the cases of Russia and Japan – emblematic cases of late development – without forget Africa, the affirmation of “Asian tigers” and the current rise of China.
The globalization phenomenon is addressed in an overall way and illustrates, in addition to the economic one, the political, cultural, ecological, and ideological dimensions.
The course is split in two parts.
(1) In the first, concluded by an intermediate test, are presented, and analysed the issues of globalization and modern global economic development.
(2) In the second, there are different options. It will be possible to participate to teamwork as well as to follow a course about the history of starvations in the world.
Full programme
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Bibliography
Compulsory:
(1) Robert C. Allen, Storia economica globale, Bologna, il Mulino, 2013.
(2) Manfred B. Steger, La globalizzazione, Bologna, il Mulino, 2016.
Books of your choice:
(1) Giada Messetti, La Cina è già qui, Milano, Mondadori, 2022.
(2) Chiara Saraceno, Il welfare. Tra vecchie e nuove disuguaglianze, Bologna, il Mulino, 2021.
(3) Stefano Vicari, Maria Pontillo, Adolescenti che non escono di casa. Non solo Hikikomori, Bologna, il Mulino, 2022
(4) Andrea Goldstein, Quando l'importante è vincere. Politica ed economia delle Olimpiadi, Bologna, il Mulino, 2024.
(5) Giovanna Sissa, Le emissioni segrete. L'impatto ambientale dell'universo digitale, Bologna, il Mulino, 2024.
Teaching methods
The course is split into two parts, each about 50% of the time.
The first part is based on frontal lessons. This part will be concluded by an intermediate multiple-choice test.
The second part offers several possibilities:
(a) students who pass the intermediate test with at least 23/30 are allowed to participate to TEAMWORK. Students (under the supervision of the teacher) will form small teams, will choose a topic preparing and presenting in the classroom a short Power Point presentation provided with short English abstract. In this phase the students will have to attend a minimum of 70% of the lessons.
(b) students who pass the intermediate test with a mark between 18 and 22/30 in the intermediate test can follow the additional course on famine (Storia delle carestie) held by prof. Claudio Bargelli taking a multiple-choice test.
In both cases, (a) and (b), the marks obtained will be merged in a final mark. Even the students with an intermediate test mark equal or greater than 23/30 are allowed to follow the course of “Storia delle carestie”.
In all other cases (intermediate test not taken or failed; Storia delle carestie test failed; failure to reach the minimum frequency threshold; refusal of the mark), it will be necessary to take the full exam since the first winter session.
The teaching material used in the lessons, as well as any videotaped and/or additional materials, will be published on the Elly platform.
Assessment methods and criteria
1. Intermediate test + presentation in classroom (teamwork)
Intermediate test
Knowledge and understanding abilities will be assessed with a multiple-choice test (30 questions, 15 minutes). The questions will be conceived in order to check the ability to learn and to make cross-connections. This part of the exam will be worth 50%. The books to be studied are: 2 compulsory books.
Classroom presentation (Teamwork)
The classroom presentation will be checked by the following elements (each of them will be worth 20%): a) originality and innovativeness of work (ability to carry on the proposed topic with originality compared to the literature and documentation used); b) precision and effectiveness of the slides (style, language); c) quality and precision of the abstract (in presenting the aims, the sources, the results); d) coherence between sources, analysis and synthesis; e) coherence between investigation questions and proposed analysis (i.e.: if I want to study the skin quality of the shoes that I’m using I can’t analyse the cotton of my shirt). This part of the exam will be worth 50%.
The marks will be merged in a final mark (each of which will be worth 50%).
The teacher will also evaluate the participation of the students to the classrooms, during the lesson or the presentation of teamwork, assigning an extra bonus.
2. Intermediate test + Storia delle carestie (prof. Bargelli)
Intermediate test
Knowledge and understanding abilities will be assessed with a multiple-choice test (30 questions, 15 minutes). The questions will be conceived in order to check the ability to learn and to make cross-connections. This part of the exam will be worth 50%. The books to be studied are: 2 compulsory books
Storia delle carestie (Prof. Bargelli)
This part has 30 hours of lessons and wills focus on the history of famine, analysing many case-studies. The knowledge will be checked with a final multiple choice test.
All the students are allowed to follow this part, and particularly those who have obtained an intermediate test mark ranging from 18 to 22.
The specific program and the bibliography will be communicated by the teacher at the beginning of the lesson.
The final mark will be the result of a weighted average of the two tests, each of which will be worth 50%. The teacher will also evaluate the participation of the students to the classrooms, during the lesson or the presentation of teamwork, assigning an extra bonus.
(3) Final exam
Final written exam
Knowledge and understanding abilities will be assessed with a final written exam (multiple choice and/or open questions). At the discretion of the teacher, any oral in-depth analysis will be possible.
The books to be studied are: 2 compulsory books + 1 book at choice (among the 5 indicated).
The final mark will be 30 cum laude when all the parts of the exam (written text or oral exposition; teamwork or other forms of cooperative work) are more than excellent for completeness, clarity, brightness, vividness and organization of the answers, capacity of multidisciplinary connections.
Other information
Any extra readings and activities will be communicated at the beginning of the course and published on Elly site.
2030 agenda goals for sustainable development
4. Quality education
5. Gender equality
12. Responsible consumption and production
