Leeds International Summer School STUDY ABROAD OFFICE LISS1017 Wealth and Poverty: The Making of the Modern World Module leader: Dr Winnie Bedigen Email: w.bedigen@leeds.ac.uk Other module staff: Andrew Morton
Module summary The module examines the profound socio-economic and political effects of the Western colonialism on the making of the modern world and what some of the responses to colonialism have been from peoples in the Global South. It thereby introduces some key features of the global political economy, past and present, including the role of subordination, domination and violence in the processes of surplus production and appropriation and the demand for social justice and social change throughout the history of the making of the modern world. The module is based on the premise that colonialism had profound effects on the formation of the modern world and that this historical knowledge is necessary for an understanding of its contemporary condition. Objectives To examine the drivers, characteristics and repercussions of European colonialism and to explore the role that colonialism in the Americas, Africa and Asia played in the making of the modern world. A particular link will be made between the expansion of colonialism and the development of industrialisation in Europe. The module also explores what the impact of colonialism has been in the modern world and what its continuing legacies may be. The module furthermore pays attention to similarities and differences regarding some key features of the global political economy, past (during the era of colonialism) and present, e.g. the issue of forced labour (i.e. modern day slavery). Throughout the module students will be introduced to some of the relevant key concepts in social sciences to further the analysis. Learning outcomes - To have an appreciation of the historical factors underlying differences in levels of social and economic development between countries in the industrialised 'North' and those in the developing 'South' - Be familiar with the processes of subordination and domination which facilitated both the expansion of European industrialisation and the incorporation of colonised regions into the emerging world capitalist economy - Understand the relationship between colonialism and the development of capitalism - Understand the role of subordination, domination, violence, and theft in the production and reproduction of wealth and poverty Teaching methods Delivery type Number Length hours Student hours On-line Learning 1 15 15 Seminar 8 3 24 Fieldwork 1 8 8 Visit 1 10 10 Private study hours 43 Total Contact hours 57 Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) 100 2
Private study 15 hour preparatory VLE work before the module starts: readings, 3 short preparation tasks. 43 hours private study during module: readings, preparing for daily seminar discussions, assessment preparations. Methods of assessment Assessment Notes type Essay 1500 words 70 Presentation Group presentation 30 % of formal assessment Late Penalties University rules on penalties for late submission of coursework require 5 full marks to be deducted for each calendar day that passes after the date of required submission. If coursework is not submitted by the end of 14 calendar days following the prescribed deadline, a grade/mark of zero will be returned for that component. Module outline Week One Day 1: The making of the modern world: colonialism, capitalism and inequality Day 2: The Americas Day 3: Transatlantic slave trade and slavery Day 4: India/Africa Day 5: Trip to Manchester Week Two Day 6: Africa Day 7: Culture and development Day 8: Gender, rights and empowerment Day 9: Presentations and final exercise Books Isbister Promises not kept: poverty and the betrayal of Third World development Stavrianos Global rift: the Third World comes of age Wolf Europe and the people without history Waites Europe and the Third World: from colonization to decolonization, c.1500-1998 Allen and Thomas Poverty and Development into the 21st Century Anievas and Nisancioglu How the West Came to Rule: The Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism White A Global History of the Developing World 3
Readings Day 1 readings Bernstein, H. (2000), ch.11. Colonialism, capitalism, development, in T. Allen & A. Thomas, eds. Poverty and Development into the 21st Century Isbister, J. (2003) Promises not kept: poverty and the betrayal of Third World development, ch.4: Imperialism Hoogvelt, A. (2001) Globalization and the Postcolonial World: The New Political Economy of Development, ch.1 The history of capitalist expansion readings Stavrianos, L.S. (1981) Global Rift: The Third World Comes of Age, ch.1: Introduction McMichael Development and social change: a global perspective, ch. Instituting the development project Day 2 Newson, L. (1996) The Latin American Colonial Experience in D. Preston, ed. Latin American Development: Geographical Perspectives Keen (1996) A History of Latin America, chapter The economic foundations of economic life Galeano, E. (1973) Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, part 1.1 'Lust for gold, lust for silver Bujra, J. (2000) Diversity in pre-capitalist societies, ch.7 in T. Allen & A. Thomas, eds. Poverty and Development into the 21st Century Bakewell, P.J. (2004) A history of Latin America: c. 1450 to the present, ch.5 Day 3 Shillington, K. (2012) History of Africa, 3rd ed., ch.12 The Atlantic Slave Trade, sixteenth to eighteenth century Williams, E. (1964) Capitalism and Slavery, ch.3 'British Commerce and the Triangular Trade' Blackburn, R. (1997) The making of New World Slavery, ch.12 New World Slavery, Primitive Accumulation and British Industrialization Patniak, U. (2006) The Free Lunch: Transfers from Tropical Countries and Their Role in Capital Formation in Britain during the Industrial Revolution, in Jomo, ed. Globalization under hegemony: the changing world economy Solow and Engerman (1987) British capitalism and Caribbean slavery: the legacy of Eric Williams, Introduction Wolf (1997) Europe and the people without history, ch.7: The slave trade 4
Waites (1999) Europe and the Third World, pp. 47-58 & pp. 102-7 Rediker (2007) The Slave Ship, Life, Death, and Terror in the Slave Trade Inikori and Engerman eds.(1992) The Atlantic slave trade: effects on economies, societies, and peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe, Introduction Day 4 Davis, M. (2001) Late Victorian holocausts: El Niño famines and the making of the Third World, ch. 10 India: The modernization of poverty Wolf, E. (1997) Europe and the people without history, ch.8: Trade and Conquest in the Orient Hall-Matthews, D. (2005) Peasants, famine and the state in Colonial Western India, ch. Rural Moneylending, Credit Legislation and Peasant Protest : Fieldhouse, D. K. (1982) The colonial empires: a comparative survey from the eighteenth century, ch.12, pp.271-286 Day 5 Pakenham, T. (1994) The scramble for Africa, 1876-1912, ch.8 Waites, B. (1999) Europe and the Third World, ch. 6 The economic and social consequences of Modern Colonialism in Africa Stavrianos (1981) Global Rift: The Third World Comes of Age, ch. 14 Day 6 Waylen (1996) Gender in Third World Politics, ch.3 Colonialism Etienne (1997) Women and men, cloth and colonization: the transformation of productiondistribution relations among the Baulé (Ivory Coast), in Grinker and Steiner, eds. Perspectives on Africa: a reader in culture, history, and representation Green (1991) Faces of Latin America, ch.2 Promised Land: Land ownership, power and conflict Koopman (1984) Women in the rural economy; past, present and future, in Stichter, ed., African women south of the Sahara. pp. 3-22. O Hanlon, R. (1999) Gender in the British Empire, in Brown and Louis, eds. The Oxford History of the British Empire, Volume IV: The Twentieth Century Kay (2000) Latin America s Agrarian Transformation: Peasantization And Proletarianization In Bryceso et al., eds. Disappearing Peasantries: Rural Labour In Africa, Asia And Latin America Bernstein, H. (1992) ch.3 Agrarian Structures and Change: India, see sections: intro, 3.1, 3.2, in Bernstein et al. Rural livelihoods Day 7 Young, T. (2010) Africa, chapter Independent Africa: Success and Failure 5
Freund, B. (1998) The making of contemporary Africa: the development of African society since 1800, ch.10 Tropical Africa, 1960-1980: Class, State and the Problem of Development Gruffydd Jones, B. (2009) Explaining Global Poverty, ch. The presence of the outside Hargreaves, J.D. (1996) Decolonization in Africa, ch.8 Darwin, J. (1999) Decolonization, in Winks, ed. The Oxford history of the British Empire, Volume 5: Historiography Worsley (1984) The three worlds: culture and world development, Chapter V, section: Decolonization Spybey (1992) Social change, development and dependency: modernity, colonialism and the development of the West, ch.9 The Identification of the Third World and the Recognition of Dependency 6