We have come a long way since Francis Fukuyama confidently proclaimed "the end of history" thirty years ago. Today’s world is in considerable turmoil. Rising inequality and precarity, economic and environmental crises, populism, political upheaval, and war seem to characterize our time.

This two-part course examines social inequalities and conflicts with an emphasis on their embeddedness in space and the environment. Topics include urban protest, "left-behind places," and unequal exchange between the Global North and the Global South. The aim of the course is to gain an understanding of inequality and current conflicts, in order to assess the potential for policy intervention.

This is the second part of the course which focuses on the supervised development of a research project based on the content of the first part. While the two parts are assessed separately, they should be interpreted as an integrated unit.

There are three portions to students’ grades:
•    Presenting and discussing the project at different stages of its development - 30%
•    Peer feedback - 10%
•    Final Group Paper - 60%

Grading rubric:

1: 90+ points

2: 75-89 points

3: 60-74 points

4: 50-59 points

5: 0-49 points