The Pro Humanitate Center and the Lilly Grant will sponsor a Vietnam summer study abroad program during second summer session 2009. It will begin on July 6 in Winston-Salem, where students will spend two weeks in intensive study. Program participants will then travel to Vietnam (July 20-August 11) where they will participate in a service project in a small village and engage in cultural travel.
Two courses will be offered. POL 252/114: World Political Economy: Vietnam in Comparative Perspective taught by Dr. Peter Siavelis, Associate Professor of Political Science and ESE 101/320: Social Entrepreneurship taught by Dr. Betsy Gatewood, Director of the University Office of Entrepreneurship.
Course Description for ESE 101/320
The purpose of this course is to explore the process of entrepreneurship through a liberal arts lens. You will explore the impact of entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship on society, applying insights to a particular case: Vietnam. The course is designed to give you exposure to basic entrepreneurial and business skills in a format that encourages dialogue, develops critical thinking skills, and promotes self-awareness and personal development. The class will encourage you to creatively embrace new ideas, critically evaluate opportunities, and design a venture.
We will spend the semester exploring the definition of entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship and the process and principles behind that definition. For general purposes we initially define entrepreneurship as
A process through which individuals and groups use knowledge and resources to identify and pursue opportunity, leverage resources, and initiate change to create value for oneself and others.
Course Format
The course will be conducted as a seminar during Summer Session II. We will meet for twelve days on the Wake Forest campus. The rest of the course will be conducted on the ground in Vietnam for three weeks. Formal class meetings in the country will be focused on data gathering and critical analysis of the entrepreneurial environment of what we are observing empirically, and how what we are seeing is informed by the material covered previously in class. At the end of the trip there will be a 5 day optional tour to Vientienne, Laos and Siem Reap, Cambodia.
This course will be taught using a combination of mini-lectures and class discussions centered around case studies. ‘Cases’ are readings or narratives that describe either a “real-world” or fictional example of an entrepreneur and their journey with the entrepreneurial process and new venture creation. The value of this type of student-centered learning depends on every member of the class coming to each class session prepared and willing to contribute to the class discussion.
Requirements and Evaluation:
Students will be expected to fulfill the following requirements:
1). Students must attend the seminar, complete the core readings, and participate in class discussions. Attendance and the quality of participation will be taken into account when determining final grades.
2). Students in anticipation of the trip to Vietnam will design a for-profit or not-for-profit venture that incorporates unique aspects of Vietnam. Students should research the Vietnamese economy, culture, and history to identify a potential venture model. During the trip to Vietnam, student teams will gather market, customer, competitor, supplier, financial, etc. data necessary for a feasibility analysis that will due after the trip.
3). There will be a final exam on the material covered during the course
4). Students will be required to travel with the group to Vietnam and participate in all activities as an energetic and engaged member of the group, not limited to but including a required pre-arranged service project during the trip.
Course Description for POL 252/114
The purpose of this course is to introduce the major ways of organizing polities and economic systems around the world and then applying insights to a particular case: Vietnam. I want to stress that this is not an economics course, nor is it purely a political science course. Instead, the point of departure is that politics and economics are intimately related in very complex ways. This course will explore those interrelationships by analyzing the different ways to organize political and economic systems, and how the design of these related systems plays out globally, in particular countries and for the lives of everyday people. The course will conclude with a case study applying these insights to Vietnam, a unique model that combines market economics with non-democratic political structures.
Course Format
The course will be conducted as a seminar during Summer Session II. We will meet for twelve days on the Wake Forest campus. The rest of the course will be conducted on the ground in Vietnam for three weeks. Formal class meetings in the country will be less focused on written work and will be centered on discussions of what we are observing empirically, and how what we are seeing is informed by the material covered previously in class. At the end of the trip there will be a 5 day optional tour to Vientienne, Laos and Siem Reap, Cambodia.
For classes conducted on campus, there will be a series of required core readings. All students will be responsible for preparing these readings, which will explore the significance of the issue at hand and set forth the main questions for debate. In addition, students will be assigned one of the selected readings and be responsible for presenting their findings to class four times during the first twelve meetings of the course, on a rotating basis. The professor will facilitate discussion by commenting on student presentations and posing questions.
Requirements and Evaluation:
Students will be expected to fulfill the following requirements:
1). Students must attend the seminar, complete the core readings, and present their interpretations of selected readings to the seminar. Attendance and the quality of presentations will be taken into account when determining final grades.
2). Students should stay up to date on current news stories from the local press having to do with the issues the course addresses and particularly issues related to contemporary global politics, and economics and politics in Southeast Asia and Vietnam.
3). There will be a final exam on the material covered during the course
4). Students will be required to travel with the group to Vietnam and participate in all activities as an energetic and engaged member of the group, not limited to but including a required pre-arranged service project during the trip.
5). Students will be required to turn in a 15 page journal. The journal will not just recount activities in which the student has been engaged, but will also concentrate on concrete empirical observations and examples of how the academic work we completed before leaving for Vietnam plays out on the ground in the country for everyday people.
Major themes and Course Program
I. Introduction
The course will begin with a brief introduction reviewing the evolution of the discipline of political science. We will define politics and political science, explore the different subfields of the discipline, focusing particularly on the major approaches to studying the origins of democracy. We will explore the different approaches taken by political scientists and economists and explore major controversies in the world political economy.
II. Democracy and Authoritarianism
This portion of the course will explore distinct ways political systems have been organized historically in the world. It will point to the difficulty in establishing democracy historically and recount the several different sub-types of authoritarian regimes. We will focus particularly on comparative communist regimes.
III. Three Theoretical Lenses: Liberalism, Mercantilism and Marxism
Students will be introduced to the major theoretical strains that have been advanced to understand the relationship between economics and politics. We will discuss each vision’s view of domestic politics and international politics.
IV. Comparative Economic Systems: The Tension between the State and The Market
This section will begin with a discussion of the key differences between command economies and market economies. We will then explore the strengths and weaknesses of each form of economic organization.
V. The Challenge of Development: Development Theory
This section will build on the previous discussion of different types of economic systems to focus particularly on the challenges of development. We will discuss each of the theories advanced to explain why some countries have developed successfully and others have been challenged economically. We will discuss political culture, economic modernization and dependency approaches.
VI. The Challenge of Development: Export Led Growth Vs. Import Substitution Industrialization
Outside Europe and the United States, distinct perceptions of the optimal models of economic development have evolved. In this section we will contrast the import substitution industrialization model with the export led growth model and explore which has been more successful in Asia and in comparative perspective.
VII. Political Regime and Economic Development
A debate rages in the development literature concerning whether democratic or authoritarian regimes provide the best context for economic success in the developing world. We will explore that debate and examine the records of different regimes.
VIII. The Political Economy of Non-democratic systems: China, Cuba, Vietnam
This section explores the political economy of non-democratic systems with a special focus on communist systems. We will explore the experiences of three major remaining “communist” systems (China, Cuba and Vietnam) and explore the pace and record of reform in each of these countries.
IX. The Political Economy of Vietnam
In this section we will apply the insights we have gained from the previous sections of the course to an analytical examination of the contemporary political economy of Vietnam.
X. Conclusion
What does the Vietnamese case tell us about comparative political economy?
For additional information about the program, courses, and costs, students should contact Mary Gerardy at gerardym@wfu.edu or call 758-5229. Students may register for the program on the Center for International Studies website at http://www.wfu.edu/cis/. The deadline for registration is Monday, March 16.