Economic Conditions of Civilization Development

Timetable

Module aim (aims)

1 students will acquire or expand knowledge about the most crucial economic and civilizational processes from the time of geographical discoveries to the beginning of the 21st century, as well as about the principles of periodization and stages of economic and civilizational development
2 students will learn about the significance of the connection between political, economic, social and cultural aspects in the development process of industrial and post-industrial societies
3 students will develop valuable skills such as gathering information, analyzing socioeconomic issues from multiple perspectives, drawing conclusions, and effectively communicating and defending their opinions
4 students will develop a respectful understanding of differing viewpoints on the causes, paths, and outcomes of past and present socio-economic processes

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Syllabus

1. Economy and civilisation – terminology and periodization.
2. Technical, scientific and economic grounding of geographical discoveries.
3. Genesis and development of capitalism from the 15th to 17th centuries. Merchant capitalism.
4. From agrarian revolution to green revolution.
5. Industrial revolutions and their economic and social outcome.
6. Mechanisation of transport and communication – world is shrinking.
7. Processes of urbanisation and industrialisation of cities in the 19th and 20th centuries.
8. Industrial and postindustrial society.
9. Selected socio-economic systems functioning from the 19th to 21st centuries.
10. Gray rhinos, black swans and dragon kings, or the crises of civilization.
11. Economic, social and cultural globalisation and deglobalisation at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.
12. Problems and civilisational risks in the modern world.

Reading list

Obligatory

1. Boldizzoni F., Hudson P., Routledge Handbook of Global Economic History, Routledge, 2016.
2. Kishtainy N., A Little History of Economics, Yale University Press, 2017.

Optional

1. Cole J., Symes C., Western Civilizations: Their History and Their Culture, W.W. Norton & Company, 2020.
2. Ferguson N., Civilization: The West and the Rest. Penguin Publishing Group, 2011.