Admission requirements
This course is only open for students that are enrolled in the Minor Ecology, Migration and Tolerance: Limits to Cooperation.
Description
This course examines the transformations in global political economy that have propelled the convergence of multiple ecological crises: from environmental degradation and resource depletion, to resource conflicts and human displacement, mass species extinction, and anthropogenic climate change. Investigating historical and contemporary processes of global economic restructuring, this course focuses on capitalism as both an economic/social system and an ecological regime, premised on the progressive incorporation of non-human nature as a commodity and the object of managerial knowledge.
At the heart of this investigation is the question of social power: who has it, why and how is it used? The course is based on the understanding that patterns of resources access and use, technological development, and socio-ecological transformation are always socially and historically constituted, through uneven, power-laden dynamics. The course thus looks at how and why certain ways of organizing and producing nature-society interactions become dominant (while others become marginalized or excluded), with which uneven socio-economic impacts.
To answer these questions, this course addresses different approaches to the political economy of the environment, including Environmental and Ecological Economics, along with EcoMarxist, Ecofeminist, Post-growth and Decolonial perspectives. Students will apply these perspectives to examine specific case studies: land and food security, waste production and management, deforestation and extractivism, privatization of public space, gentrification through eviction and slum growth, capital encroachment and expansion of zoonotic diseases, etc. Correspondingly, the course puts special emphasis on the strengths and weaknesses of contemporary responses to these crises (from technological fixes like geo-engineering, gene-modification and assisted evolution to regulatory mechanisms and grassroots approaches to decarbonize economies), illuminating the distributional effects of different forms of environmental governance, as well new and imaginative ways of conceptualizing nature/society relationships to avoid ecosystem collapse.
Course objectives
Upon completion, students will be able to:
Analyze and understand key concepts and theories in nature-society relations;
Identify and engage with different approaches to the study of ecological transformation, environmental conflicts, and crises;
Use a political ecology lens to explain and evaluate the ways environmental management interventions are designed, and the way environmental crises are framed;
Apply a political ecology lens to explain, evaluate, and gain awareness of current socio-ecological issues and developments in historical, geographical, and cultural context;
Develop critical thinking about the politics of environmental change;
Conduct independent research in the field of political ecology, thereby showing the ability to comprehend and apply relevant theoretical insights and generate solutions;
Effectively communicate project-based research results in correct academic English in various oral and written formats;
Work with peers at in-class group assignments, provide constructive feedback to, and formulate criticism of, the work of others and the ability to assess the value of such criticism and feedback on one’s own work and incorporate it.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
- Lectures (eight) /seminars (four) are held every week, with the exception of the Midterm Exam week.
Assessment method
Assessment and Weighing
| Partial grade | Weighing |
|---|---|
| Attendance and participation | 10% |
| Research proposal | 10% |
| In-class assignments | 20% |
| Research paper | 60% |
Retaking a passing grade
Please consult the Course and Examination Regulations 2024 – 2025.
Exam review and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organised.
Reading list
To be announced.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Student Affairs Office for BA International Studies
Remarks
All other information.