Successful completion of this course will provide the following learning outcomes:

A basic understanding of social and cultural processes that influence the path of
development at local and regional scales

An appreciation of the diversity of strategies used to achieve sustainability in the
developing world caring for environmental health

A greater cognizance of the role of socioeconomics in the everyday functioning of
Third World countries, and its crucial role in informing progress, innovation,
conservation policy and decision making for democratic conflict resolution and
environmental mediation

An awareness of the dynamic nature of sociocultural systems, with emphasis on
administrative regimes and patterns of production and marketing in a globalized 
world.

An ability to recognize the interactions between human action, trends of the
geopolitics of developing country, and past/future global environmental change


This course meets the following General Education Abilities by accomplishing the
specific learning objectives listed below:

Communicate effectively through writing.  This is met by a series of writing 
assignments associated with supplemental reading and data analysis.
 
Communicate effectively through speech.  This is met by oral presentations, 
discussion leading, and classroom participation.

Critical Thinking is central to the learning objectives of this class, and is
developed through homework assignments, lecture, classroom discussion, and inquiry-
based learning efforts.

Moral Reasoning (Ethics) is an important element of this course, as it explores 
affluence/poverty, developed vs. developing countries, and the dilemmas posed by 
forces of economic development and globalization.  Moral reasoning is developed 
through lectures, writing assignments, classroom discussion, and inquiry-based 
learning activities.

Disparities of wealth... Rich and poor nations

Finding an appropriate world... First to fourth worlds

Measure of disparities... GDP, PPP, HDI

Causes of disparities... Dependency theory

Frontier ecology and colonial human predicament

Mercantile colonialism and liberal solutions

Postcolonial approaches and structuralist solution

Neocolonial strings attached and neoliberal solution

The new South and south-south debates

Sustainable development in rich countries

Sustainable development in poor countries

Economic integration and free trade, barriers, tarifs and quotas