This course engages in a critical analysis of development, poverty, and inequality in the world. Drawing on a range of perspectives and inter-disciplinary approaches, the course examines alternative definition of what development is, and theories that explain why some countries and people within countries are faring better than others. The course is intended to deepen students’ substantive knowledge of historical trends in the world economy while critically interrogating assumptions embedded in various theories of “development”. The course focuses on the social, political and economic determinants of opportunity and exclusion in the global economy; analytic and descriptive measurement; global trends; and policy implications. Topics covered include: paradigms of development, inequality amongst individuals and groups, different concepts and measures of poverty, intersections of multiple forms of marginalization, socioeconomic dimensions of stratification, growth, globalization, the role of the state and other institutions, and determinants of and debates about the meaning of development.