Admission Requirements
This course is open to students registered in the CADS bachelor’s specialisation People Planet Power (PPP).
Please note: Students that are registered in the CADS bachelor's specialisation Media Making Movements (MMM) may only take this course (as an elective or extracurricular course) once they have successfully completed the two Key Issues courses specific to their own specialisation.
N.B. Completing this course may be required to register for the third-year course Bachelor Thesis Project.
Only the following categories of non-CADS students may also register for this course:
Premaster’s CADS admitted to this specific course during the application procedure
Exchange students admitted for this specific course during the application procedure
Language of Instruction
Lectures are given in English.
Exams are in English.
Course Description
Economy and Ecology introduces students to anthropological perspectives on relationships between political economies and the environment. Since Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, attention to modern economies’ ecological impacts has grown significantly. Social scientists and environmental scholars, meanwhile, have increasingly argued against seeing environment and society as discrete spheres. This course explores dynamic interactions between political-economic systems and ecologies. Our goal is to both question dualistic thinking about nature and society and examine what “natures” capitalist economies, and other forms of socio-economic organisation, may produce as well as threaten. Our topics include ‘unnatural’ disasters; the uneven distribution of environmental benefits and burdens along lines of race and class; how political economies shape our relations with more-than-human life; and anthropological ways of understanding climate change. In thinking about these topics, we will explore how efforts to distinguish the natural and the cultural often work to legitimate social, environmental, and other inequalities, particularly within contemporary political economies.
Course Objectives
Successful completion of this course will mean that students will be able to:
explain key theoretical insights in political ecology, environmental anthropology, and cognate disciplines about the relation between economic organisation and ecological change;
appraise modes of economic organisation (capitalism, degrowth) and their socio-environmental effects through historical and ethnographic case studies;
analyse contemporary economic and ecological issues yourself by comparing key theoretical insights in political ecology and environmental anthropology.
Mode of Instruction
This is a 10 ECTS course, which means 280 hours of study (1 ECTS is equivalent to 28 study hours or sbu's). These 280 study hours are composed of the following components:
Lectures: 12 x 2 = 24 hours * 1,5 = 36 sbu
Written assignments (total of 1600 - 2000 words): = 27 sbu
Literature ca. 1000 pages = 217 sbu
Assessment Method
Two take-home written assignments (each 25% of final grade)
Final on-campus examination (50% of final grade)
The result of the final exam must be graded as at least 5.5 or higher to complete the course. You can redo the final exam if you receive an insufficient grade. The result of written assignments must together be graded at least 5.5 or higher. You have a maximum of 1 optional redo in the event of your assignment being insufficient.
The lectures form an integral part of the course, which means there will be exam questions on the lectures.
Registration in My Studymap
Registration for the lectures and the exam in My Studymap is mandatory for all students. Registration closes 5 days before the start of the course. Carefully read all information about the procedures and deadlines for registering for courses and exams.
Registration for exams
It is mandatory for all students to register for each exam (this inclused re-sits) in My Studymap. This is possible up to and including 10 calendar days prior to the examination. You cannot take an exam without a valid pre-registration and confirmation in My Studymap. Carefully read all information about the procedures and deadlines for registering for courses and exams.
Brightspace
Brightspace is the digital learning environment of Leiden University. Brightspace gives access to course announcements and electronic study material. Assignments will also be submitted in Brightspace. Announcements about and changes to courses are given via Brightspace. Students are advised to check Brightspace daily to keep informed about rooms, schedules, deadlines, and all details of assignments. Lecturers assume that all students read information posted on Brightspace.
- How to login
The homepage for Brightspace is: Brightspace
Please log in with your ULCN-account and personal password. On the left you will see an overview of My Courses.
For access to courses in Brightspace students must be registered for those courses in My Studymap.
Course Literature
Chapters from monographs and handbooks, and articles from academic journals are available through Leiden University’s digital library (to be announced).