Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2025 - IS 220 D100

Wealth and Poverty of Nations (3)

Class Number: 4205

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 3 – Dec 2, 2025: Fri, 12:30–2:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Dec 8, 2025
    Mon, 3:30–6:30 p.m.
    Burnaby

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Analyzes some of the historical reasons for the great divergence in world economic development, and undertakes a cross-country, cross-regional perspective of world economic development using a historical approach to long-run economic growth. Breadth-Social Sciences.

COURSE DETAILS:

Global inequalities of wealth and economic development are a defining feature of the contemporary world. Whether measured within or between countries of the global South and global North, inequalities of wealth, income, and carbon output all matter greatly for today’s world and the prospect of continued human life on Earth. But how can we begin to define such inequalities, explain patterns of continuity and change in them over time, and effectively address them? What have social scientists and historians argued are the causes of economic inequalities within countries and between countries of the global North and South? This course adopts a historically-informed, social scientific lens to probe such questions regarding continuity and change in these types of inequality. It is required for students pursuing the “International development, economic, and environmental issues” concentration of SFU’s International Studies major. In the concentration, students study the causes and consequences of global wealth and poverty, the ways in which the global economy works, development strategies and policies, and environmental problems including the climate crisis. As such, our course lays a conceptual and empirical foundation for deeper explorations of these core themes in later, upper-level courses within the concentration.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

By the end of the course, students:

  • gain familiarity with social scientific conceptualizations of global economic inequalities;
  • gain familiarity with social scientific arguments regarding degrees of historical change and continuity in global economic inequalities;
  • gain familiarity with social scientific arguments about theorized causes of contemporary global economic inequalities, as well as ways of addressing them;
  • develop skills in synthesizing and assessing such arguments through analytic writing

Grading

  • Tutorial Attendance and Participation 10%
  • Paper (1 x 20%) 20%
  • Exam #1 - during lecture period on day TBA 35%
  • Exam #2 - location, day and time during the Exam Period TBA 35%

NOTES:

Students are required to attend all lectures, participate actively in all tutorial meetings, and complete all assigned readings before the class for which they are assigned. Final grades will be calculated according to the above formula.

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

All of the reports, articles, book chapters, and other textual sources we read are freely available in digital form online through our Canvas website, or through the SFU library website at www.lib.sfu.ca. We will read sizable portions of the following sources.

REQUIRED READING:

Chancel, Lucas, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman, et al. 2021. “World Inequality Report 2022”. World Inequality Lab.

Lange, Matthew. 2009. Lineages of Despotism and Development: British Colonialism and State Power. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Parthasarathi, Prasannan. 2011. Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600-1850. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Piketty, Thomas. 2022. A Brief History of Equality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.