Module Information

The proposed module is informed by the lecturer’s research and teaching in economic history and allows students to engage with an important body of historical work otherwise largely unexplored in the department’s coverage. The proposed module will allow students both to access a good range of historical work in this area as well as to engage with current research on the topic. The topic is also one that has a wide applicability and will encourage comparative reflection in ways that may appeal to students studying a variety of degree schemes.

Historians in recent decades have identified a dramatic change in the fortunes of the European west relative to often older and more established countries and economies, especially in east Asia. Given the strong political, economic and social foundation to countries such as present-day China, Japan, and India, why, they have asked, did western Europe come to out-perform Asian countries by the onset of the modern era? Historians and economists point to a range of potentially significant factors including cultural and political differences, access to resources, investment in technology and the flexibility of capital, colonialism, consumption and so on. The module will present opportunities to review prevailing structures in a range of European and Asian settings and will offer a broad view of development across a significant temporal and spatial range. The divergence studied here can be measured in terms of population, health, education, growth domestic product and similar core measures of relative success. All of these significant elements will be considered as part of this module. In a concluding section, there will be some reflection on the value and integrity of these measures as well as their significance for our understanding of the modern and contemporary positioning of European economy and society vis-à-vis modern Asia.