In this course, we will critically examine the historical roots and contemporary manifestations of poverty and development in the global South, especially Southeast Asia, and the global North of the US and Germany. We will focus especially on the politics and economics of resource extraction and development in the coal mining peripheries of the Appalachian mountains of the US, the Ruhr area of Germany, and the Kalimantan (Borneo) provinces of Indonesia. As such, while this course is listed in sociology, it incorporates ideas from other disciplines, including economics, history, geography, and political science. This course will cover empirical data on poverty and theories of development and poverty. It will build on the “first world” US extractivism and poverty and compare that with German Ruhr area.