Economic Insecurity in Developing Countries

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Despite important progress in alleviating poverty in low- and middle-income countries, technological change, automation, and rising levels of training required for employment pose a great challenge for reducing economic insecurity and precarity as well as the future of work in these countries. A major challenge in attaining these goals is the tension between the global diffusion of innovation paradigms and national cultural traditions. This course will draw on concrete examples from countries such as India, Peru, The Philippines, Mexico, Indonesia, and Kenya and on conceptual tools from across disciplines (economics, anthropology, sociology, and history) to provide students with the needed intuitions for examining the interplay between global economic transformations and the institutional and cultural characteristics of emerging societies. Throughout the course, we explore as well some of the ramifications for racial, ethnic and gender inequality resulting from these global economic changes and from the policy strategies adopted to address them.